Activists focus on death penalty trial
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By WILSON RING Associated Press Writer - Published: May 11, 2005
MONTPELIER — Social activists are planning to hold a vigil next week in front of the federal courthouse in Burlington to protest the death penalty trial of Donald Fell, which is getting under way there.
The noontime vigil on May 18 will be the first of the actions the groups will undertake to voice their opposition to the death penalty, said Josh Rubenstein, the Northeast Regional director of Amnesty International USA.
Rubenstein met Monday in Montpelier and Burlington with representatives of other organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee, the Peace and Justice Center and Pax Christi to outline their strategy for opposing the death penalty component of the Fell trial, which is now in jury selection.
"The central message is, we think the death penalty is barbaric and inappropriate," said Allen Gilbert, the executive director of the Vermont Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We think Vermont has been targeted by the federal Department of Justice because we are an abolitionist state and we don't have the death penalty."
Fell is facing the federal death penalty if convicted on charges that he kidnapped 53-year-old Tressa King from the parking lot of a Rutland supermarket in November 2000 and killed her in New York state.
It is the first death penalty trial in Vermont in almost half a century. For practical purposes, the state eliminated the death penalty in 1965, although it technically remained on the books until 1987.
The trial will begin after the jury is chosen.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys are now trying to qualify about 70 people, from whom the jury of 12 and a number of alternates will be chosen. After three days of jury selection last week, 18 potential jurors were qualified.
Gilbert said some activists were considering forming a group to oppose the death penalty, an organization that hadn't been needed before now.
Rubenstein has protested against death penalty cases in other states. He said the Vermont effort was just getting organized.
"We'll be approaching members of the Legislature. We will talk to leading religious figures and just be in the public square making clear we are opposed to the death penalty in this case and in every case," Rubenstein said.
"Something terrible happened that night and Mr. Fell is on trial. We are opposed to the death penalty," Rubenstein said.
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