Representative Keenan Delivers Floor Speech in Opposition
BOSTON – Representative John Keenan (D-Salem) today made a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives urging his colleagues to support the Judiciary Committee’s recommendation that the death penalty not be reinstated in Massachusetts. Following the speech by Representative Keenan, a former prosecutor and a member of the Judiciary Committee, and a five hour debate by the members, the House voted 53-100 not to re-establish the death penalty in Massachusetts. Rep. John Keenan – Floor Remarks on the Death Penalty “Thank you, Mister Speaker, and through you to the members. Like many of my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, I am an attorney. Like many of my colleagues on the committee, I am also a former prosecutor. Unlike my colleagues, however, I am a descendant of one who was wrongly prosecuted and wrongly executed. And it is through that connection, that I want to remind this body that no legal process that involves humans can ever be infallible “One of the things I think is remarkable about this chamber is that we all come from very different communities and have very different backgrounds. Indeed, yesterday, I believe, was one of those days when we could all walk out of this chamber with our heads held high. Yesterday, we heard very compelling debate and discussion regarding the needle legislation. We heard from our colleagues from a diverse array of communities - Dorchester, Chelsea, Lynn, Beverly, South Boston, Springfield, Newton, and Grafton – just to name a few. We heard colleagues talk about their own personal evolutions on that issue, as they learned more about it. We took our collective knowledge and backgrounds and addressed what, as the gentleman from Lynn called it, can be an ‘uncomfortable issue.’ Today, we must do the same. “Mister Speaker, I represent the people of Salem, a city whose name means ‘Peace.’ A city that has played a very significant role in Massachusetts’ road to freedom – as depicted in the murals above us here in the chamber. A city that still, to this very day, wrestles with the injustices of 300 years ago. The injustices of the twenty wrongfully prosecuted and executed. They are never far from our minds in Salem, nor should they be. They are in the minds of those who, like me, are the descendents of those wrongfully hanged on Gallows Hill in 1692. “This past July marked the 313th anniversary of my ancestor’s hanging in Salem for a crime that she did not commit. That history ought to be in all of our minds today, for over our very heads in this chamber is the painting of witchcraft court judge Samuel Sewall repenting for his role in that hysteria. As you know, that painting is part of a series entitled ‘Milestones on the Road to Freedom.’ Mister Speaker, it is indeed a milestone when we recognize that killing, for any cause and by any hand, has no place in our Commonwealth. “Many who argue for the death penalty offer extremely moving, emotional testimony about loved ones who were murdered by brutal animals. Those who are convicted of these heinous crimes are indeed animals, who ought never again see the light of day. I share the sorrows and the anger of their victims’ families and friends. If someone I loved was murdered, I would want to kill the murderer myself. But that would be in a fit of rage, and that is not how our courts operate. “We must remember a fundamental principle of our system of justice: we would prefer a guilty man walk free than an innocent man punished. This death penalty – any death penalty – ignores the basic fact that to err is human. Those who collect the evidence are human. Those who analyze the evidence are human. Those who testify and those who prosecute are human. Let’s be realistic. Whether it is the spectral evidence of 1692 or the DNA testing of today, errors have been and will continue to be made. “I urge my colleagues to reject this and any proposal that would re-establish state-sponsored executions in Massachusetts. We must do so, because we can still recall a time when we did not. We can still recall a time when appeals to fear, not reason, carried the day, and innocent men and women died because of it. We must keep revenge from dictating the principles of our criminal justice system. Murder is a crime, not a punishment. Mister Speaker, this august body must be the maker of laws – and not the taker of lives.”
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