Jackson Free Press

Slowly, a crowd begins to fill what once was the music store of MusiQuarium in Banner Hall. There are still remnants of the funky shop in nooks and crannies; a MQ neon light here, leopard-covered cushion there. A Blue Moon Café sign, left over from a recent Lemuria reading, hangs over a small stage where Eric Stracener strums softly on an acoustic guitar. It is a diverse crowd of about 30 people ranging in age from 8 to 80 gathered together on Aug. 14 for a common cause: to stop the death penalty.

Faculty members from Millsaps started Mississippi's Educating for Smart Justice (the acronym MESJ is pronounced "message") just over a year ago, when Mississippi started executing death-row prisoners again after a 13-year hiatus. MESJ threw this event (which raised over $600) to garner funds for an office and a part-time director. Dr. James Bowely, a religious studies professor from Millsaps and one of the founding members of MESJ, says they grew tired of just mourning the loss of human beings—the victims and the condemned—and wanted to become more proactive by trying to not only ban the death penalty but also to help the families of murder victims.

The organization plans a three-pronged attack beginning with education. "We understand that to change things we have to start on a grass-roots level," Bowely said. Second, the group will show compassion for victims' families and hopes to eventually pass legislation that will outlaw the death penalty. "We want to fill a need," he says.

There are no executions currently scheduled. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove granted Ron Chris Foster a temporary reprieve in January 2003 because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against executing the mentally retarded. Before that the state executed Tracy Alan Hansen in July 2002.

As one of a small succession of speakers, former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Fred Banks, now of Phelps Dunbar, said the death penalty is a "flawed public policy" and is used too often in court to appeal to emotion.

Jackson Attorney James Craig said, "There is no justice in our system of justice." He quoted a study done by the Stanford Law Review in 1991 that said a black defendant charged with murder of a white defendant in Mississippi is five times more likely to get the death penalty. He also talked about the new panel of doctors who examined the inmates at Parchman and found that of the 46 inmates on death row, 27 are psychiatric patients. Craig said the majority of Mississippi's death row are black, poor, retarded, mentally ill, or a combination of those designations. "These are the true determining factors," he said.

To get involved with MESJ, call 355-5323 or 974-1328.