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The Pennsylvania Prison Society (PPS), founded in 1787, works to promote a just, humane and restorative correctional system, under the principle that people who commit a crime should be held accountable for their actions. Incarceration is part of their punishment. No matter what their crimes, however, prisoners retain the fundamental human right to personal dignity and safety. As part of a civilized society, we have a responsibility to ensure against physical or mental injury or cruel and unusual treatment.
Since its inception, PPS has strived to abolish the death penalty because it violates basic ethical and humanitarian standards. It perpetuates a culture of violence, and has not been proven a deterrent. Recent studies and prisoner testimonies have shown that the implementation of the death penalty in Pennsylvania and in the United States is unfair. The poor and those of color are repeatedly over-represented on death row.
Ray Krone the 100th person to be exonerated after having been sentenced to death in the US came by the CIRCLE office this morning and I got to hug him! I still have goosebumps from realizing that I was speaking to a man who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death and he's from our very own York County, PA!
Ray is soft spoken, very gracious and articulate. I told him that I had spoken with his parents on a few occasions about the death penalty and their unflinching belief in his innocence. I also told him it was an honor to meet him and congratulated him on his release and that it was an inspiration to meet him.
He said something that impressed me:
"When you're in that situation, you don't have a choice. You have to hang on to hope and survive, but you folks on the outside, you have choices. You get to decide how to spend your time and energy and you chose to spend it fighting for me and against the death penalty and I'll be eternally grateful to you for that. You don't know how much it means to us knowing that you all are out here."
It gave me chills. I figure that's enough to keep me working against the death penalty for the next twenty years or so. How about the rest of you?
Kathleen Lucas
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