On Saturday, Ocean Beach resident Jeff Ghelardi hits the road on an 800-mile journey to put an end to the capital punishment in California. His method? Improvisation.
Mode of transportation? His feet.
As a member of Death Penalty Focus and a participant of the 2007 Walk to Stop Executions, Ghelardi begins his voyage from San Diego and will hoof it to Sacramento, all the while stopping for advocacy at courthouses along the way.
Around the nation, death penalty opponents from Death Penalty Focus, California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty, and Amnesty International will join Ghelardi in hopes that their actions will draw attention to the issue of the death penalty and unite local activists. Their goal will be to encourage the district attorney in every county along the walk route not to seek the death penalty in any case.
“Since 1959 I’ve been active in putting a stop to capital punishment,” said Ghelardi. “My wife and I believe that by uniting and continuing to educate about the immorality and impracticality of it, this counterproductive act will cease.”
This is Ghelardi’s second walk of this nature. In 2000, he traveled the first leg of a walk to San Francisco and will now travel the entire way to Sacramento with fellow activist and fellow military veteran Richard Carlburg from People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty in Orange County. The two will walk a total of 20 miles each day in increments of four miles each. While one walks, the other will drive.
“Churches and organizations may put us up in motels along the way, but we’ll travel with portable mattresses and aren’t all that worried about finding a place to sleep,” said Ghelardi.
He explains that Death Penalty Focus believes there are many reasons why the death penalty should be abolished and says it’s difficult to point to any single reason as the most important.
“The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified,” said Ghelardi. “Scientific studies have failed to demonstrate that states with the death penalty have lower murder rates than those without and reports show that it costs far more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for life.”
In 2005 a Los Angeles Times study report showed that California spends $250 million per execution and pays about $90,000 more each year to house each inmate on Death Row compared to those in the general prison population. The report also stated that the Attorney General’s Office devotes 15 percent of its budget ” or $11 million annually ” to death penalty cases. The California Supreme Court spends $11.8 million on appointed counsel for Death Row inmates and the Office of the State Public Defender and the Habeas Corpus Resource Center spend a total of $22.3 million on defense for indigent defendants facing death.
Founded in 1988, Death Penalty Focus is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the nation dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment. Ghelardi invites residents to the 2007 Walk to Stop Executions kickoff rally this Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Hall of Justice, 330 W. Broadway in downtown San Diego. He said he welcomes anyone who is interested in joining in solidarity with him.
To find out more about the 2007 Walk to Stop Executions, to get a schedule of events or to sponsor the walkers, please visit www.walktostopexecutions.blogspot.com.