The threat of death lifted, nun's godson gets another chance

By CAMILLE D’ARIENZO - February 24, 2006

If the United States government had had its way with David Paul Hammer, it would have killed him. Three times.

David’s first execution date was set for January 1999, his second for November 2000 and his third for June 2004. The last was the really big one. Approved witnesses to the execution were in Terre Haute , Ind. ; the media were getting ready to camp out; vigils for as peaceful a passing as possible were in progress. David had said his goodbyes in anticipation of the lethal injection. A last minute stay of execution brought relief and a sense that God had other plans for this man who has spent 28 years in prison, many of them finding ways to help others. At the end of that day in June, David characteristically looked for an appropriate way to show appreciation: He persuaded a friend to rescue a dog, whose upkeep he would help support. This accomplished, the dog, Gunner, received training to be a therapeutic visitor to a nursing home.

On this past Dec. 27, Judge Malcolm Muir of the Federal District Court in Williamsport, Pa., presented David and his supporters with an unsurpassable Christmas gift: After spending much of the summer conducting hearings into David’s conviction for the 1996 murder of a cellmate in Allenwood Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, this same judge who presided over that trial threw out the death penalty a jury handed down almost a decade ago. Muir ruled that prosecutors had withheld four interviews that altered the motivation of the killing from premeditated murder to an accidental strangulation in the course of a sexual encounter.

Eight years ago this past December I was stalwartly resisting a Christmas present God was offering me. It was at that time I first heard of David Paul Hammer. An Associated Press article detailing my opposition to the death penalty was brought to David’s attention. He contacted me, asking for prayers for himself and his victim, Andrew Marti. Anticipating a Jan. 14, 1999, execution date, David was looking for someone to serve as a spiritual guide for the remaining weeks of his life. Unable to find anyone willing to take him on during the holidays, a friend and I drove to Allenwood on Dec. 30, 1998. When we arrived, we learned he had received his first stay of execution. Six months later he was transferred to the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute . In the years since that first meeting, David has become my godson and friend.

David’s phone call to report Muir’s Dec. 27 decision contrasted with a call he had made a week earlier. On Dec. 19, he registered distress that the Federal Bureau of Prisons had that day published the names of three men on Terre Haute’s death row it plans to kill in May: May 8, Richard Tipton; May 10, Cory Johnson; and May 12, James Roane Jr.

The timing could not have been more insensitive. Holidays are particularly hard for people in prison. David had revealed his own feelings in a letter written the Monday after Thanksgiving: I’m so glad one of the holidays is past for this year. Being alone, even surrounded by others who are alone too, is almost heartbreaking sometimes. I long for a large gathering of family and friends, home-cooked food, conversation, laughter, someone with one glass of wine too many; an outing for a movie in the evening. I will never again experience any of this, personally, ever again. I miss real life more than words can express. This void cannot be filed with a make-do meaning. Twenty-eight long years already. I miss life.

The 40 men on death row surely share those sentiments. All cope with personal frustrations and loneliness. The last thing they needed the week before Christmas was an announcement that three of them would be terminated in May. That the designated men were immediately placed in suicide watch cells testifies to the institution’s awareness of the impact of such news. Surely it overshadowed the efforts of family and friends on the outside to alleviate their loved ones misery.

Upon hearing of the announcement, a friend of David complained to Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a former warden in Terre Haute : Loneliness and alienation permeate death row. Whoever, a week before Christmas, leaked the decision to kill three men in May must be utterly devoid of sensitivity. This is both incomprehensible and reprehensible.

With the threat of execution, the sword of Damocles, removed, David will have to find his way through his own conflicting emotions. One of his first reactions to his good news was that the reprieve only means it will take me longer to die in prison.

His words recalled one of our visits, during which I showed ignorance of his reality. He simply stood, turned his back to me, and lifted his shirt. I found myself looking at a map of stab wounds. Death Row, despite its numerous strictures, provides a modicum of safety from other prisoners. Who knows what terrors await him and in what institution?

It is my belief, nevertheless, that this turn of events means God isn’t yet finished with this penitent. David has done more good from inside prison than many free people accomplish on the outside.

He has served as legal assistant and advocate for uneducated, indigent men who lack adequate attorneys. For the past six years, he has provided artwork for Christmas cards sold to benefit poor, neglected and troubled children in protective agencies. Among those benefiting from his dedication are the boys in Alpha Academy/Job Training Facility, run by the Sisters of Mercy in Kingston , Jamaica , a city with the highest per capita murder rate in the world. Many of the boys correspond with him and he serves as a mentor, advising them to value the sisters and staff who provide them with a safe harbor from surrounding dangers and offer them academic education and job training. Alpha will receive half this year’s proceeds from the Christmas cards: a gift of $4,000.

A blessing for the New Year is the failure of the U.S. government to have its way with David until the wisdom of one of its own judges could remove from him the threat of death.

Mercy Sr. Camille D’Arienzo is founder of the Cherish Life Circle , which advocates for the abolition of the death penalty, and is a member of the steering committee of New York Religious Leaders Against the Death Penalty.

Source: National Catholic Reporter

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