Crime & Law Enforcement Issues & Death Penalty/Questions

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Question
I was wondering if i could do an interview with you. Here are my questions:

1. What is your position concerning the death penalty?

2. Do you think that the death penalty is administered fairly?

3. What alternatives (to the death penalty) would you suggest?

4. What types of things have you done to promote your cause?

5. Have you ever witnessed an execution? If so, did it have an affect on you?

6. Who or what influence your views?

7. What would say to someone who was pro-death penalty/anti-death penalty to get them to change their views?

8. Have you ever worked in the department of corrections?

9. What's your educational background?

10. What types of organizations are you apart of? How do they help promote your view?

I have AIM. My s/n is Chickybaby2kj. So if you wanted to do this on IM.

Answer
I am for the death penalty.

I believe the death penalty is administered fairly to the capital murderers that receive it.

There is no real alternative to the death penalty, in that it is a totally unique punishment. But the jury and or judge has the option between a life sentence and the death penalty in capital cases.

I debate and speak on the death penalty and have been involved in media interviews throughout the world.

I have never witnessed an execution.

My views have been influenced by a number of people throughout my life. It is, primarily, the nature of the crimes which influenced my changed position.

I do not try to get people to change their position. I simply present a pro death penalty position, with all of the attendant fact issues.

I have never worked in corrections.

I have a BA in Philosophy and have studied criminal justice/death penalty issues extensively.  

Crime & Law Enforcement Issues & Death Penalty

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Dudley Sharp

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Any question specific to the death penalty.

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Partial CV of Dudley Sharp
Re: For the death penalty

not updated for a while

This CV goes through a list of the three websites of Justice For All. If it doesn't all come through, please let me know.

Mr. Sharp, a former opponent of capital punishment, has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.

Partial List:

--- "Rethinking the Death Penalty", Nightline, ABCNews, 6/22/00. with former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Kogan. Go to:
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/transcripts/nl000522_trans.html

---- "The Death Penalty", This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts,
ABC News, 6/4/00 Appearance with Illinois Governor George Ryan, discussing
moratoriums and innocence issues.

--- "Death Penalty Update", The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, 7/30/00 PBS. A
review of death penalty issues.

--- "The Death Penalty", Speaker, Annual meeting of the American
Corrections Association, San Antonio, Texas, 1997. Debate between myself and Richard Burr, a well known death penalty defense attorney and an anti death penalty activist.

--- "Death Penalty Debate", between Eric Zorn, an anti-death penalty
columnist with the Chicago Tribune, and Dudley Sharp. April-June, 2000.
Visits many of today's major death penalty issues in an in-depth format.
http://www.ericzorn.com/rhubarb/death/

--- "Capital punishment is an effective way to protect innocent people", May 27, 2000 - St. Louis Post Dispatch. Many more innocents will be put at risk by not executing. Scroll down about halfway to reach the letter at www.prodeathpenalty.com/news.htm

--- "Death on Hold?", Fort Worth Star Telegram, 2/5/00. Why a moratorium on executions is unwarranted.
www.startelegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:VIEWPOINT2/1:VIEWPOINT20205100.html

--- "Innocence and the Death Penalty", 4/16/00, Pro Death Penalty.com. An in
depth look at the concern for the innocence issue.
www.prodeathpenalty.com/Innocence.htm

--- "Bias on the death penalty", Richmond Times Dispatch, 4/23/01, deals with the racial issues. At www.timesdispatch.com/MGB5AB8IVLC.html

--- "Washington Journal", C-SPAN, 4/19/01. Death penalty moratorium issues, with Jane Henderson of the Quixote Center in Maryland, coordinator of the Equal Justice Project.

--- ABCNews.com, Taking Sides, essay "Exoneration Hype Exaggerated", 5/10/00. A brief essay regarding the absence of journalistic standards when dealing with issues of innocence and the death penalty. It is the second article down.
www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/TakingSides/takingsides7.html

--- "The Wrong Man, Letters to the Editor", 12/4/99. A response to aarticle on innocence and the death penalty (The Wrong Man", 11/99). Go to: www.prodeathpenalty.com/Wrong_Man.htm

--- "ABA's Proposed Moratorium Relies on Flimsy Facts", The Texas Lawyer,
March 16, 1997. An article addressing the inaccuracies of the American Bar Association in their call for a moratorium on executions.

--- Guest Lecturer, Senior Seminar, National Foreign Affairs Training Center,
US Department of State, March 30, 1999

---- "Innocence Defined", THE RECORD (Bergan County, New Jersey), 11/19/99. An op/ed addressing the lack of defined standards in the "innocence" discussion regarding the death penalty.

--- Testimony before the Pennsylvania State Senate Judiciary Committee,
February 2000. Death Penalty Moratorium legislation.

--- Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee, Death Penalty Testimony, July 1997.
Testimony regarding referendum on the death penalty and other death penalty
issues

--- Texas Legislature, testimony in both House and Senate regarding death
penalty issues and bills.

--- "Guilty as Charged", Wall Street Journal, A22, 6/28/00. Co-authored
with Dianne Clements, an article about the highly publicized case of executed
Texas murderer Gary Graham.

--- Reply to "Executioner's Swan Song" by Michael Kroll. Salon.com, 2/11/00.
Michael Kroll is a journalist and founder of The Death Penalty Information
Center, the leading information source of those opposed to capital
punishment. This is a published Letter reply to Kroll's 2/8/00 article.
www.salon.com/letters/2000/02/11/sat/index2.html

---"Proffitt argument is 'folly' ", North Carolina State University's The
Technician, 11/29/00. A letter reply. http://technicianonline.com/read/tol/opinion/001967.html

--- "Sen. Pat Leahy Dead Wrong On Death Penalty", aka "A different look at
the death penalty", 11/11/00, Saint Michael's College (Vermont)The MAGAZINE
A reply to Sen. Leahy. ("Dying an innocent death?", 11/9/00)
www.smcvt.edu/magazine/Campus/feedback.htm

--- :"DEATH PENALTY AND SENTENCING INFORMATION In the United States",
10/1/97. Pro Death Com Penalty .at http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html
This is a long report on many aspects of the death penalty. Although a bit out of date, it explores most of the false allegations against the death penalty. Much of the material has been significantly updated. Please inquire.

---   "Death Penalty in Black and White", IntellectualCapital.com, 6/24/99.
Visits various racial issues from the death penalty debate. at
http://speakout.com/activism/opinions/4010-1.html

---"Society Should See Difference Between Criminal, Punitive Acts", The
Daily Oklahoman, 06/28/1997. The title is self explanatory.

Chapters in Books

"Innocent People Have Not Been Executed", from Problems of Death, Opposing Viewpoints Series, Greenhaven Press, 2000

"The Death Penalty Should Be Retained", from Capital Punishment, Current Controversies, Greenhaven Press, 2000

Death Penalty Debates

-- American University, U. sponsored, Washington, DC, 10/30/00
---Louisiana Minority Correctional Workers Assn., Baton Rouge, La., 10/16/00
---South Texas College of Law, Black Law Students Assn., Houston, Texas, 10/25/00
---University of Texas Law School, sponsored jointly by The Federalist Society and The National Lawyers Guild, Austin, Texas, 4/9/01
and many others

For more, enter "dudley sharp" "death penalty" at www.google.com/search

Position: Mr. Sharp was Vice President, Political Director and member of the Board of Directors of JFA from July 1993, when JFA was founded, through January 2000. He opposed capital punishment until December 1995. He is now Resource Director for JFA.

JUSTICE FOR ALL is a criminal justice reform organization. Our focus is solely on violent crime issues and what we can do, within the criminal justice and legislative systems, to lessen injury to the innocent and to prosecute the guilty. To accomplish that goal, we are actively involved in community education, elections, legislation, victim's rights issues, including our involvement in many individual cases.

Mr. Sharp's e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com    phone 713-623-6070

JFA websites
http://www.jfa.net/
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/
http://www.murdervictims.com/


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