Protest escalates into media event as execution nears
By Suzanne Risley
Tribune-Star
A monthly protest at Seventh and Cherry streets escalated into a media event Thursday as journalists rushed to cover the first of many anti-death penalty events before Timothy McVeigh's execution.
"Our focus [this month] was going to be on Juan Garza because his [execution] was the one all the experts said was most imminent," said Suzanne Carter, coordinator of the Terre Haute Abolition Network, while helping to pass out signs to protesters.
"Of course that all changed," she said. "We've got two people we're thinking about now."
Garza is scheduled to die on June 19 for drug-related crimes, including murder, in Texas. But McVeigh's execution, scheduled for Monday, became more likely after his appeals ended and he announced Thursday through his attorneys that he will not seek clemency.
More than 20 protesters lined up on the southwest corner of the intersection, next to the federal building. They were joined by about a dozen print and broadcast journalists from local and national media, such ABC, NBC and the Associated Press.
Boom microphones and cameras pointed at spokeswomen such as Carter and Sister Mary Beth Klingel of St. Margaret Mary Parish, 2405 S. Seventh St. The journalists threw out questions about protest plans and thoughts on the death penalty.
Meanwhile, other protesters stood holding their signs out to the passing traffic, speaking softly or laughing with one another. Some passing cars and trucks honked their horns in apparent support. Someone from a pickup truck yelled an obscenity.
"It just shows their ignorance, that's all," said Sister Dorothy Rasche of Sisters of Providence. "Everyone is entitled to their opinion. This is my opinion."
The events in the McVeigh case Thursday had other protesters scurrying to implement plans originally scheduled for the May 16 execution date.
"We're going to do basically what we planned before," Sister Klingel said. Around 3 p.m. Sunday, parishioners will march with other activists to the U.S. Penitentiary from the church, she said. A prayer vigil will be conducted at 7 p.m. in the church, she said.
"We don't know who's coming, who's going to come back," Carter said. "I expect that we'll have Wabash Valley activists, as well as Bloomington, Indy and Chicago people. People in the Midwest and locally. And, the Michigan Peace Team is coming."
Fairbanks Park opens at 6 p.m. Sunday, and the abolition network will try to have people there to give out information, she said, adding she is not sure how many protesters will ride the midnight bus to the prison.
"If there's a lot of people, we don't really want to go out there until it's time to do the silent witness. We'd rather stay in Fairbanks Park where we can have a [public address system]," she said. The abolition network and Sisters of Providence will conduct a Circle of Silent Witness at 4:12 a.m. Monday on prison grounds. It will be 168 minutes of silence to commemorate the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing.
"I don't think people are planning to spend from midnight on at the prison. I think we'll be more at the park. And there will be people at the church who don't feel they can handle the park and penitentiary," Sister Klingel said.
Abe Bonowitz, director of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, will be in Terre Haute on Sunday, Carter said. He made last-minute reservations to fly from Boston, where he and other activists are attending the Murder Victims for Reconciliation conference this weekend, she said.
Bonowitz sent signs printed in Spanish, which were displayed Thursday afternoon at the protest. Since Garza is Hispanic, it seemed appropriate, said one protester.
The signs included: "No Aceptamos La Pena De Muerte," loosely translated as "We do not accept the death penalty;" and "La Ejucucion No Es La Solucian," which means "Execution is not the solution." The other sign carried at the protest read "Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?"
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