A consortium of local political groups, churches and citizens is planning to call for a moratorium on the death penalty in Oberlin. If passed by city council the law would go into effect by 2005, and from there proponents will continue to push the resolution in Lorain County and the state.

The resolution, which was drafted last year by the Oberlin College American Civil Liberties Union, opens with a demand for the indefinite suspension of the death penalty “until a fair and impartial review of the application of the death penalty is conducted.” The problems that currently exist in the institution of capital punishment, the resolution argues, indicate racial and economic discrimination. Minorities constitute an overwhelming majority of death row inmates and 90 percent of felons facing capital charges cannot afford their own attorney.

The resolution also calls into question whether the methods for administering death sentences are actually foolproof, emphasizing that executions are often given to people who are later discovered to be either innocent or mentally disabled.

“There really are a lot of problems associated with the death penalty such as the economic issues, discrimination and the question of innocence that need to be studied before this form of punishment can be continued,” College sophomore Barrie Newberger, a member of the Oberlin ACLU, said.

College senior Tobias Smith, an organizer of the Oberlin death penalty moratorium campaign, stressed that while “many of us [working on the campaign] are death penalty abolitionists, it’s important to remember that what we’re trying to do is pass a moratorium, because even individuals who support the death penalty on principle should object to the death penalty as it is currently implemented.”

Regardless, many backers of the resolution expressed their personal objections to the death penalty under all circumstances as driving factors in their mobilization to support this issue.

One such person is Jeff Campbell, the parish outreach coordinator for the Catholic Action Commission of Lorain County. This organization’s focus is on achieving social justice through applying the teachings and values of Catholicism. It has also been instrumental in seeing that the moratorium gets approved by Oberlin’s city council. The Catholic Action Commission’s message regarding the death penalty, Campbell said, is simply that all people have “a fundamental human right to live.”

“Good can come from even the worst and most tragic of situations and mistakes,” he said. “If someone is put to death, are we not denying him or her the possibility that he or she might not necessarily fully atone, but may provide at least some kind of restitution? Couldn’t we come up with more creative alternatives to the death penalty?”

One suggestion that Campbell mentioned would be the use of community outreach and educational programs to provide young people with alternative solutions to violence.

College sophomore Matthew Adler echoed Campbell’s unease over the death penalty while expressing optimism that the moratorium will ultimately pass:

“The moratorium is so that the death penalty can be reevaluated, but I think that the death penalty will never be able to fulfill what the state says its purpose is,” he said. “I feel confident that many members of the Oberlin community feel similar to how I do and for that reason alone I am confident that the resolution will pass.”