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Amnesty International brings campaign here

Thursday, January 23, 2003

By Sally Kalson, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

In Pennsylvania, 16-year-olds cannot vote, serve on juries or join the armed forces. They cannot purchase tobacco or alcohol, and they can't be witnesses at a state execution.

Dr. Melvin Melnick, of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, speaks against the execution of prisoners who committed their crimes as juveniles. Melnick appeared yesterday at the Andy Warhol Museum. At left is Warhol's "Electric Chair" part of a new installation at the museum featuring commentary regarding the emotional, moral, political, and social dimensions of crime and punishment. (Keith Srakocic, Associated Press)

They can, however, be executed themselves.

"It's barbaric," said William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, who was in his hometown of Pittsburgh yesterday to launch a broad-based campaign against the state's juvenile death penalty.

"In most areas, the law recognizes that juveniles are not fully matured individuals with sound judgment. But when it comes to the death penalty, suddenly they're treated like adults.

"It's a violation of logic, morality and international law, and public opinion is turning against it," said Schulz, an ordained minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church who grew up in Point Breeze and graduated from Shady Side Academy.

Only the United States and Iran currently execute child offenders, Schulz noted. That, he said, makes the United States part of a "duo of evil" when it ought to be a champion of human rights for children.

The campaign, involving an array of human rights, health, child advocacy and religious groups, will gain even greater prominence April 4-6, when Amnesty International holds its annual meeting in Pittsburgh for the first time. Some 800 delegates from around the country are expected to converge on the Omni William Penn.

Yesterday's news conference was held at the Andy Warhol Museum, where speakers shared the stage with artwork from Warhol's "Electric Chair" series. Museum director Thomas Sokolowski said the Warhol will collaborate with the campaign by unveiling a new installation of the series with commentary from community members.

Twelve states currently do not execute any convicts; 16 don't execute juvenile offenders; 22 others do. Of those, Texas has the most juvenile offenders on death row.

The focus on Pennsylvania is partly to bolster Senate Bill 15, which would halt the execution of those who committed capital crimes before the age of 18.

The bill, co-sponsored by state Sens. Edward Helfrick, R-Northumberland, and Allen G. Kukovich, D-Manor, is before the Senate Judiciary Committee but does not yet have a counterpart in the House of Representatives.

Even so, Schulz sees the bill as a sign of the "evolving community standards" that led the U.S. Supreme Court last year to stop the execution of convicts who are mentally retarded.

The campaign is also designed to put pressure on newly elected Gov. Ed Rendell, a former Philadelphia district attorney, who has said he sees no undue problems with the state's death penalty and doesn't support changing it.

Pennsylvania has not executed any juvenile offenders since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated. However, three juvenile offenders are currently on death row in the commonwealth. They range in age from 21 to 40, but were 16 or 17 at the time of the murders for which they were convicted. The victims include a 9-year-old girl who was also raped.

All of the offenders are black and from Philadelphia, which the campaign says demonstrates that the death penalty is applied with racial and geographic bias. All of the victims were black as well.

"We mean to show the governor that the system is, indeed, broken," said Ellen Dorsey, an Amnesty activist and director of the Rachel Carson Center at Chatham College.

She said the coalition would push hard in Pennsylvania for an impartial investigation into four areas of concern: innocent people wrongly convicted, racial and economic discrimination, prosecutorial misconduct and inadequate legal representation.

Dr. Melvin Melnick, representing the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, said mountains of brain research show that adolescents are cognitively, psychologically and emotionally different from adults.

"Their neurological function makes them less able to exercise judgment and consider the consequences of their actions."

Also, he said, juvenile offenders are often victims of abuse or have witnessed horrific acts of violence.

"The idea that abolishing the death penalty would give them a license to behave irresponsibly is simply not the case. These offenders have a high incidence of mental disorders, brain injury, substance abuse and learning disabilities, and usually they are poor, without access to medical care or decent legal representation.

"To execute them goes against our fundamental values and our scientific knowledge."

Schulz said opposition to the death penalty for child offenders does not conflict with the work Amnesty International has always done on behalf of victims of violence.

"In no way do we diminish their pain and suffering, or their families'," he said. "But we know that the death penalty is not a deterrent and does not lead to a safer society for any of us."

Sally Kalson can be reached at skalson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1610.