LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM MRS. HERBERT B. EHRMANN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R003500070018-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 25, 2002
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: February 26, 1961
• Content Type: LETTER

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AMERICAN LEAGUE TO ABOLISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
MASS. COUNCIL FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY
14 Pearl Street, Brookline 46, Mass.
Longwood 6-3153
FOR RELEASE SUNDAY FEB. 26, 1961
From Mrs. Herbert B. Ehrmann, Pres. MCADP
Vice Pres., Exec. Director ALACP
To the Editor
Dear Sir,
THE IMAGE OF AMERICA - AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Many State Legislatures will consider proposals to change the
laws relating to capital punishment. In Massachusetts a public
hearing will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 11:00 A.M., Room 222,
State House, Boston before the Joint Judiciary Committee. At this
hearing citizens may let the legislature know their views.
Year after year Judiciary Committees, - who have studied the
merits of abolition proposals - have recommended their adoption.
Furthermore, the distinguished Massachusetts Legislative Commission
appointed in 1957 to investigate this question, after 18 months of
intensive study, recommended complete and immediate abolition of
capital punish-nent. Their printed report is used extensively
throughout the country as an authoritative document; sections have
been reprinted in the Congressional Record and by the Judiciary
Committee of Congress.
However, since 1951, the recommendations of these official
bodies have failed to persuade the Legislators: the reports nave been
z eiec ted, O ru~i d ~k~l s~ ' 0 l1 ~1 C R r .S0 7O318-0
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The Chessman case attracted world attention to Capital Punish-
ment, and anti-capital punishment feeling became intense. During the
closing months of the case our State Department requested the
Governor of California to delay the execution of Chessman until
President Eisenhower had returned from a good-will tour in Latin
America. This dramatized the fact that capital punishment in our
country has.strong adverse international implications and very
decidedly affects the "Image of America" in foreign lands.
The Morning Union Leader of Manchester, New Hampshire, March 25,
1960 in praising the California Senate Judiciary Committee for
defeating a proposal to abolish capital punishment - by.a vote of
8 to 7 - nevertheless recognized the far-reaching damaging effects
of our use of the death penalty on world opinion. The editorial
refers to the proposal as:
....Coming as it did at a time when a handful of
wild-eyed Bolivian Communists can upset the State
Department, cause California's Governor to behave
in a strange manner, and halt overnight the orderly
functioning of American internal law....
Another significant editorial is from the Courier of Evansville,
Indiana, July 21, 1959:
.... The U.S. once the living personification of
liberty and equality, has been pointed out to the
peoples of the world as a place where the color of
a man's skin determines the quality of justice he
receives.... Certain recent events seem to confirm
this to watchers with skin color different from ours
and with eyes of a different shape than those of
most Americans...
Even our indignation over the execution of Lumumba was
denounced by the Interior Minister of Katanga on the basis of our
own use of the death penalty. The following is from the Traveler,
Boston, Mass., February 13, 1961:
NATIVES KILL LUMUMBA.... Munongo, the Interior
Minister insisted the handling of the case was a
local matter for provincial authorities
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Cites U.S. Handling of Executions - He said in
this connection teat eh.e Uii ed States h;:.d handled
by itself the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti,
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and Caryl Chessman,...
"I only remind you that in these well--known cases,
the opinion of the world and high religious authori-
ties asked for grace for the condemned, but in vain.
The United States ignored them and considered the
matter entirely their own affair.....
American tourists in South America and in many other countries
where there is no death penalty report disagreeable experiences and
wide-spread resentment against the U.S. because they consider capital
punishment barbaric.
The new National Administration in Washington is keenly aware of
the urgency of restoring confidence and good-will. Puerto Rico has
been selected to act as liaison between the United States and our
Latin American neighbors to bring about closer and friendlier
relations. Puerto Rico, like most of the other South American
countries, has completely abolished capital punishment and has
written into her constitution the provision that the death penalty
may never again be restored! Our efforts to improve the Latin
American image of the United States may be severely handicapped by
our retention and use of capital punishment.
During the coming months the Federal Government and many
American States will act upon proposals to end the death penalty.
Is it not high time for them to take into consideration the crucial
importance of the picture of America which our executions are
creating in the minds of those people where good-will has become so
important in the present world crisis?
-~ can,,. ~~ ti.n;.'t.,?
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February 23, 1961
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
The Congress and the States are considering
legislation concerning the Death Penalty.
The enclosed press release which indicates the
significance of this national debate in terms of
world reaction, is sent with best wishes.
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