MEDIA ADVISORY FROM

FLORIDIANS FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY (FADP.org)

OPPOSITION TO DEATH PENALTY ON THE RISE

Today, FADP announces that activists in seven Florida cities will stage simultaneous, peaceful protests in opposition to the scheduled execution of Bennie Demps.  Demps is scheduled to be killed at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 7, 2000, in revenge for the killing of Alfred Sturges.  (Please see attached background information.)

"We are sending a clear message in this election year that Floridians have had enough violent death!  We want real solutions to violent crime.  Execution is NOT the solution. We must stop teaching our children that killing is a way resolving problems," said Abe Bonowitz, director of FADP. 

Glaring inequities exist in the application of the death penalty, and Florida leads the nation in wrongful convictions.  For example, the Demps case raises serious fair trial and innocence issues.  FADP was established to provide a forum for Floridians to educate themselves and others, and to let policy makers know that "tough-on-crime" rhetoric is not acceptable. 

"We are asking legislators to offer preventative solutions to violent crimes, instead of simplistic, vengeful responses," said FADP board member Carolyn Gray.

***FLORIDIANS FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY (FADP) is a NEW state-wide organization, which was formed to raise awareness about how the death penalty is actually practiced, and to organize activism for alternatives to the death penalty.*** 



SCHEDULED EVENTS

The Tallahassee Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will hold a press conference on Wednesday at 10am.  Tallahassee abolitionists will hold a vigil at the Capital Rotunda at noon on Thursday, should Demps be killed as scheduled.  Contact:  Walter Moore: 850-877-1698

SIMULTANEOUS VIGILS ARE PLANNED for 5pm to 6:30pm on Wednesday, 7 June 2000 at the following locations:

Florida State Prison at Starke Gainesville Citizens for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Contact: Rev. Glenn Dickson: 352-378-4032

Jacksonville (Location to be announced.)
Contact:  Karen Jefferson: 800-237-2774 x-8284

The County Courthouse in Miami South Florida Committee Against the Death Penalty
Contact: Len Kaminsky: 305-754-9884

The County Courthouse in Orlando
Contact:  Ben Markeson: 407-263-7768

The County Courthouse in Tampa
Contact: Elke Leinwand: <Ladybug779@aol.com>

The County Courthouse in West Palm Beach
Contact:  Abe Bonowitz: 561-743-8878



BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Mr. Demps' current stay of execution runs out at 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 7th, and he can be executed immediately after the stay is lifted.  The state of Florida plans to kill Mr. Demps at 6 p.m. on June 7th. 

BENNIE DEMPS' CASE

Mr. Demps has always maintained his innocence of this offense.  No physical evidence connects Mr. Demps to the murder of Alfred Sturges. 

Suppression of Exculpatory Evidence:

The homicide for which Mr. Demps was condemned occurred on September 6, 1976.  The following day, Cecil L. Sewell, Chief Prison Inspector and Investigator, wrote an official report to the Secretary of the Department of Corrections, summarizing what the victim had said about his assailant before he died.  Sewell wrote:  "[The victim] named James Jackson, B/M, #029667, as his assailant." 

Obviously, this report is highly exculpatory of Bennie Demps, and would have been extremely important evidence for his trial counsel to put before the jury. However, at trial, correctional officer A. V. Rhoden testified that the victim had made a dying declaration to him, naming James Jackson, Harry Mungin, and Bennie Demps as his assailants.  Rhoden's report is missing, and has been missing since before trial.  Appellate courts reviewing Mr. Demps' case have consistently said that no evidence contradicts Officer Rhoden's testimony.  This indicates the critical importance of the Sewell memo, which flatly contradicts Officer Rhoden's testimony.

Although the state is obligated by law to turn over all exculpatory evidence, the Sewell report was said to be "lost" by the state when it was specifically requested by Mr. Demps' attorney.  It was finally turned over to Demps' attorney after 22 years had passed, buried among hundreds of pages of documents.  The supression of the Sewell report, and the request that the contents of that report be considered, are the basis for Mr. Demps' current appeal.

The suppression of crucial exculpatory evidence renders Mr. Demps' conviction highly unreliable and is a fundamental violation of his rights. 


Questionable Eyewitness Testimony:

A prisoner, Larry Hathaway, testified that he witnessed  Jackson, Mungin, and Demps commit the murder.  Hathaway also testified that he had received no consideration for his testimony.  However, it is clear from letters written by Hathaway and the authorities that he received a promise of assistance in his request for parole in exchange for his testimony against Mr. Demps.  Mr. Hathaway has a long history of mental problems, and he is currently confined in the prison psychiatric hospital at Union Correctional Institution.  He recently wrote to the Governor about Mr. Demps' case, alleging that organized crime has a $5 million contract on his life, and that Senators Edward Kennedy, John Kerry, and Gary Hart are involved in his case.


A PATTERN OF MISCONDUCT: 

Under the modern death penalty statute, at least six men, including Bennie Demps, have received death sentences for the homicides of prisoners committed in Florida State Prison and Union Correctional Institution, prisons located in the Eighth Judicial Circuit in rural north Florida.  None of the other cases has withstood appellate scrutiny.  The use of perjured testimony in two cases (Willie Brown, Larry Troy), suppression of exculpatory evidence in two (James Agan, Bobby Lusk), and grossly ineffective representation by defense counsel in one (Richard Williams) resulted in the reversal of all these sentences.  Willie Brown and Larry Troy are among the 21 condemned people in Florida exonerated as wrongfully convicted.  These facts strongly indicate a pattern of misconduct in the investigation and prosecution of prison homicide cases in the Eighth Judicial Circuit.  Not surprisingly, there is evidence of the same type of misconduct in Mr. Demps' case, as described
above.


A PATTERN OF ABUSE: 

The authorities whose testimony supported the convictions of Mr. Demps and the other prison homicide defendants are from the same institution where officers recently testified that death row inmate Frank Valdez beat himself to death, breaking every one of his own ribs by jumping off his bed.  The reaction of the authorities at Florida State Prison to the death of Frank Valdez indicates
their lack of credibility.

SENT BY:

Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP)
800-973-6548
fadp@fadp.org
www.fadp.org
PMB 335, 2603 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy,
Gainesville, FL 32609

# supporting and coordinating the work of organizations and individuals
# educating and energizing the general public and state legislators
# supporting the many persons affected by capital crime and punishment
# advocating specific legislative improvements

• Press Releases
• To Top