(From the Missouri Catholic Conference)
JEFFERSON CITY, MO—Civic and religious leaders called on Governor Nixon today to convene a Board of Inquiry to look at the racial disparity and arbitrariness in the case of Earl Ringo, Jr. who is set to be executed on September 10, 2014.
Mr. Ringo is an African-American man who was sentenced to death for his role in a robbery-gone-wrong of a Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Columbia, Missouri, in which two people, Dennis Poyser and Joanna Baysinger, were killed. Quentin Jones, Mr. Ringo’s co-defendant, was charged with the robbery and murders as well.
Citing that concerns have long been raised about the role of race in death penalty decisions, the signers of the clemency letter note that these concerns are readily apparent in Mr. Ringo’s case. Mr. Ringo was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of the two white victims by an all-white jury brought to Columbia from Cape Girardeau County. Only four members of the 163 people selected for the jury were African-American. Only one prospective African-American juror was questioned to be on the jury and, in the end, was stricken from the panel. The trial was presided over by a white judge with a white prosecutor and a white defense attorney. With the ex-ception of Mr. Ringo himself, not one African-American citizen was involved in his trial or decided his sentence. In their letter, the signers cite a 2012 study by the American Bar Association that found that racial considerations play an improper role in Missouri’s capital punishment system.
The clemency letter highlights a similar study currently being conducted under the auspices of the St. Louis Uni-versity School of Law that is evaluating whether race and other impermissible factors influence Missouri’s death penalty scheme. The signers urge the Governor to halt this execution until that institution promptly completes its work.
Recognizing that the deaths of Mr. Poyser and Ms. Baysinger were a tragic act of senseless violence, the signers offer prayers for their families at this difficult time and for an end to such violence in our society generally. The signers believe that the use of the death penalty does not protect or heal our communities, and note that heal-ing is something the state very much needs right now. They believe the death penalty only promotes vengeance and continues the cycle of violence. The signers expressed deep concern about the accelerated rate of executions in Missouri in the last year and the secrecy shrouding this process.
The letter concludes by urging Governor Nixon to take a stand for “life, healing, mercy and justice and convene an independent Board of Inquiry to examine the appropriateness of Mr. Ringo’s death sentence, or as an alternative, commute his death sentence to life without parole.”
To view the entire clemency application, visit this link: http://www.mocatholic.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Clemency-Ringo.pdf
The signers of the clemency letter are:
Tyler McClay, General Counsel Missouri Catholic Conference
Archbishop Robert Carlson Archdiocese of St. Louis
Bishop Robert Finn
Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph
Bishop John Gaydos
Diocese of Jefferson City
Bishop James Johnston
Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau
Paulette Zimmerman, SSND
School Sisters of Notre Dame, Central Pacific Province
Rose Mary Dowling
Franciscan Sisters of Mary
Sister Ellen Orf, CPPS
Sisters of the Most Precious Blood
Right Rev. Martin Field
Episcopal Diocese of West MO
Bishop Wayne Smith
Episcopal Diocese of Missouri
Bishop Robert Schnase
Missouri Conference, The United Methodist Church
Jeffrey Mittman
American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri
Joshua Saleem
American Friends Service Committee
Rita Linhardt, Chair
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
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