No DP in Wisconsin — The Voices of Murder Victim Family Members

Marge Mattice (Kewaunee, WI)
"I feel like I come from a pretty sound base when I address my pro-life concerns for the death penalty. I don't think it's an answer. It's not a solution in terms of my own brother. Nothing is going to bring him back. I would get absolutely no satisfaction from seeing another person murdered. That's not a tribute to my brother or any other victim of homicide."

More Voices of Family Members

Voices from people of Faith

A Letter to Catholics in Wisconsin on the Death Penalty [PDF]

Brochure: Choose Life - Wisconsin Catholic Conference [PDF]

Click here to read statements from people of faith.

What People Have to Say About the Death Penalty

Judges
“After 20 years on (the) high court, I have to acknowledge that serious questions are being raised about whether the death penalty is being fairly administered in this country.” - Sandra Day O'Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
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Prosecutors
“I have inquired for most of my adult life about studies that might show that the death penalty is a deterrent. And I have not seen any research that would substantiate that point.” - Janet Reno, former U.S. Attorney General
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Law Enforcement
“I have seen the ugliness of murder up close and personal. But I have never heard a murderer say they thought about the death penalty as a consequence of their actions prior to committing their crimes.” - Gregory Ruff, Police Lieutenant, Kansas
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"For more than 150 years, our Wisconsin justice system has effectively dealt with violent offenders by severely punishing those convicted of violent crimes without ever executing an innocent man or woman. We must preserve this honorable Wisconsin tradition." -Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Representative 2nd Congressional District - WI
Read More from Wisconsin Leaders

At least 123 people have been released from death rows across this country because they were innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted and sentenced to death. The death penalty is far more expensive than life imprisonment, and it is imposed on the basis of class, racial, and geographic bias. The death penalty is reserved for those with the worst lawyers rather than on those who committed the worst crimes, and we have learned, in case after case after case, that too many prosecutors will do anything, legal and illegal, to obtain convictions and death sentences. In addition, capital punishment harms, not helps, the survivors of homicide victims, and does nothing to protect people from crime. For 153 years, Wisconsin has had one of the nation’s lowest murder rates without having the death penalty on its books. I strongly urge the people of Wisconsin to reject the death penalty as an unnecessary, ineffective costly and unfair. - SUSAN SARANDON

Read More of What People are Saying