Opinion; San Francisco Chronicle, January 15, 2005

The gov­er­nor, under California law, has the pow­er to per­form an act of mer­cy by com­mut­ing a sen­tence of death to life in prison with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. We urge him to exer­cise this pow­er by grant­i­ng clemen­cy to Donald Beardslee, who is sched­uled to be killed by the state of California at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 19.

We base our appeal not only on spe­cif­ic points of law, but on our broad­er belief in the dig­ni­ty of all human life. The vio­lent crimes for which Beardslee has been con­vict­ed are atro­cious. They are undoubt­ed­ly the source of excru­ci­at­ing pain for the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly and friends. But the answer to this pain is not more vio­lence.

In the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ 1994 state­ment, ​“Confronting a Culture of Violence,” the sign­ers observed that, ​“Increasingly, our soci­ety looks to vio­lent mea­sures to deal with some our most dif­fi­cult social prob­lems, [includ­ing] crime. But vio­lence is not the solu­tion; it is the most clear sign of our fail­ures.“

Similarly, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church said in 1959, ​“the use of the death penal­ty tends to bru­tal­ize the soci­ety that con­dones it. ” Likewise, the United Methodist Church places val­ue on restora­tive jus­tice rather than that of ret­ri­bu­tion; the Episcopal Church has stat­ed its oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty since 1957.

We can­not teach that killing is wrong by killing; nor can we stop it. There are many stud­ies show­ing that crime is not deterred by cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, thus exe­cu­tions are more about revenge than res­o­lu­tion. We object not only to what the death penal­ty does to the offend­er, but what it does to us: It under­mines our respect for life.

The gov­er­nor has before him the peti­tion for clemen­cy sub­mit­ted on behalf of Beardslee. We urge him to read it care­ful­ly. It con­tains not only the trag­ic cir­cum­stances of two peo­ple who lost their lives, but also the trag­ic sto­ry of how Beardslee’s fate became inter­twined with theirs.

The gov­er­nor will learn that the jury in Beardslee’s case was unaware of the extent to which his actions were con­trolled by life­long brain dam­age, a con­di­tion com­pound­ed by two addi­tion­al head injuries — one in a car crash in 1961, and a sec­ond caused when a falling tree struck him in the head in 1968. The jury that sen­tenced him to death nev­er saw the reports, nor heard con­clu­sions drawn by the var­i­ous physi­cians who exam­ined Beardslee, that speak to his men­tal ill­ness and brain dys­func­tion. The gov­er­nor will learn that although the jury request­ed infor­ma­tion from the tri­al court about the pun­ish­ments imposed on Beardslee’s co-defen­dants, the court refused to pro­vide infor­ma­tion show­ing that the 3 co-defen­dants who ini­ti­at­ed and direct­ed the crimes were either not charged, suc­cess­ful­ly plea bar­gained for a less­er sen­tence, or received a life sen­tence.

Beardslee’s role in the crimes, com­pared to those of the co-par­tic­i­pants and con­sid­er­ing his lim­it­ed men­tal func­tion, does not war­rant the ulti­mate pun­ish­ment. But bar­ring the gov­er­nor’s clemen­cy, the injus­tice of these dis­par­i­ties will result in the state tak­ing Beardslee’s life.

The gov­er­nor will learn that Beardslee, far from seek­ing to avoid detec­tion, con­fessed his involve­ment com­plete­ly and walked the inves­ti­gat­ing offi­cers through every step of the crime. After turn­ing in the oth­er par­tic­i­pants, Beardslee also tes­ti­fied against them — obvi­ous­ly with no ben­e­fit to him­self.

Finally, the gov­er­nor will learn that the jury’s deci­sion to sen­tence Beardslee to death was based upon the mis­tak­en belief that he would pose a dan­ger to oth­er inmates and guards if sen­tenced to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Since his incar­cer­a­tion, Beardslee has been a mod­el inmate. Comments by California Department of Corrections staff describe his coop­er­a­tive, help­ful nature, extreme­ly pos­i­tive atti­tude, hard work and ded­i­ca­tion toward self-improve­ment. In his time at San Quentin Prison, Beardslee has main­tained an exem­plary record with­out a sin­gle rules vio­la­tion in more than 20 years of incar­cer­a­tion.

Throughout his­to­ry, great lead­ers have been remem­bered as much for their com­pas­sion as their con­quests. Abraham Lincoln is hon­ored for his sor­row­ful wis­dom and deep sen­si­tiv­i­ty as much as his for­ti­tude in the time of our nation’s great­est per­il. John F. Kennedy fought the Cold War not only with mil­i­tary might, but also with the Peace Corps. Ronald Reagan, con­sid­ered by many to have put the final nail in the cof­fin of Soviet Communism, is also remem­bered as the last California gov­er­nor to grant clemen­cy in a death penal­ty case — in 1967 to Calvin Thomas, who suf­fered from brain dam­age sim­i­lar to Beardslee’s.

We rec­og­nize that one of the gov­er­nor’s pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ties is to pro­tect the cit­i­zens of California from vio­lent crime. Commuting Beardslee’s sen­tence to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole is not a sign of weak­ness, but a strong and unmis­tak­able state­ment that our soci­ety choos­es to pro­tect itself with­out stoop­ing to the crime for which Beardslee was con­vict­ed — pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der. We urge him to exer­cise his right of grant­i­ng clemen­cy to save Beardslee’s life. The right to take his life remains with God.

Bishop Richard J. Garcia, Bishop Jerry A. Lamb, Bishop Beverly J. Shamana, Bishop David G. Mullen, Rev. David Thompson

(The Rev. Richard J. Garcia is the Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Sacramento; Bishop Jerry A. Lamb is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California; Bishop Beverly J. Shamana is the Bishop of the San Francisco Area of the United Methodist Church; Bishop David G. Mullen is the Bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and The Rev. David Thompson is the pas­tor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento)