You probably know by now that the state of Arizona has scheduled its first execution in seven years. They are planning to kill Robert Comer on Tuesday, May 22, 2007. Because it has been such a long interval since the last execution, some of the protocols are being reconsidered, including those involving our vigil at Florence. We are in communication with DOC, and should have answers to our questions in a week or so, and will send a notice to you at that time.
We have also decided to have our postponed annual meeting in Florence, after the vigil, in the meeting room of a local restaurant, so that we will be able to debrief, and share our reactions, rather than getting into our cars to drive home alone. We will send you more details on that, when we are able to give you vigil information.
This will also be the time of our CAADP Steering Committee elections, and you should receive a ballot in the mail about a week beforehand. We would like you to put the vigil, and the meeting, on your calendar, but if you are unable to do so, we still want your participation by mail. If you are not sure that we have your land address, please e-mail it to us now.
There will also be local vigils, the day before, and we will get that information to you as it develops.
Finally, there is the matter of the clemency hearing. All previous death row clemency hearings have been in Florence, at the prison, a day or so prior to the execution. However, Mr. Comer is considered a "volunteer" for his own execution, since he has abandoned appeals. He has, additionally, indicated that he will refuse to attend the hearing. Therefore, the board is conducting its hearing at its own hearing/board room in Phoenix, on Tuesday May 8, at 8:30am. The DOC will not be involved in this hearing since no inmate will be in attendance.
Clemency hearings are open to the public, but they are seldom attended by many, because of the travel distance and the security hassles, and because most folks don't care. However, for this one there will be no long drive, no DOC dress code, no ID required, no metal detectors, so it is hard to know how many people will come. The room holds 40, and, given the "novelty" and the drama of the event, there will be media folks, TV cameras, hot lights, and perhaps crowds. A clemency hearing for a death row inmate is, typically, a re-argument of the sentencing hearing, with attorneys for the prosecution giving morbid detail and lurid speculation, with blown-up glossy photos, and attorneys for the defense pleading mitigation.
At the end of the lawyers' contest, which can go on for hours, the chair of the Clemency Board will ask if anyone else wishes to speak, for five minutes each. Sometimes there are members of the victim's family who speak. Sometimes—less often—the inmate's family will speak. Then, in the past, there would be a handful of abolitionists, representing various organizations, who would speak. That was then, this is now. If folks in Phoenix come in off the street, and this thing becomes a circus, anyone who wanted, presumably, could stand up and speak on May 8.
If you represent an organization that has spoken at previous clemency hearings, or that should speak now, it is important that you attend and plan to speak. We have been told, in the past, by retired Clemency Board members, that our testimony against the death penalty has changed hearts, if not outcomes. Please contact Claudia at 520-622-3339 or Dennis at president@azabolitionist.org or 602-400-4025 to coordinate.
The Clemency Board location is at 1645 W Jefferson, Room 100, and parking is available on the North side of the building (across the street at the Senate parking lot).
—Dennis Seavers, CAADP President
—Claudia Ellquist, CAADP Executive Director
© 2008, The Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty, Inc.
For general inquiries or comments, please contact webmaster@azabolitionist.org.
