Over the past several weeks, I have received dozens of letters from inmates serving a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole (LWOP) in various states.
 
The letter-writing campaign is part of a national initiative directed at ending what the organizers call “the other death penalty,” i.e. LWOP. The letters make some strong points and, in a few cases, disturbing claims. For instance, a couple of the letter writers claimed they were innocent and serving LWOP. One said he’d received LWOP for a crime less severe than murder. To the best of my understanding, it would not be possible to receive LWOP for a crime less than aggravated murder in the state of New York. On the other hand, wrongful convictions are a serious problem in NY with more than 20 people convicted of murder having been exonerated within the past 10 years. NYADP believes that while the criminal justice system cannot be rendered foolproof, the root causes of wrongful conviction have been identified and should be addressed through legislation that is currently stalled in our state legislature.
 
Perhaps the most challenging argument articulated by the anti-LWOP advocates is the assertion that “people can change.” There is a 14-year old boy currently serving LWOP in the state of Florida. The trend to sentence younger and younger defendants to LWOP ought to give us pause even as we celebrate the slow demise of the death penalty nationally.
 
Here is a paragraph from the group’s website, www.theotherdeathpenalty.org:
 
“A sentence of life without the possibility of parole is a death sentence.  Worse, it is a long, slow, dissipating death sentence without any of the legal or administrative safeguards rightly awarded to those condemned to the traditional forms of execution.  It exposes our society’s concealed beliefs that redemption and personal transformation are not possible for all human beings, and that it is reasonable and just to forever define an individual by his worst act.  Life without the possibility of parole is wrong and should be abolished.”
 
Here is my letter in response to the many I have received from inmates serving LWOP:
 
“Thank you for your letter concerning life imprisonment without parole (LWOP) as an alternative to the death penalty. You should know that your letter, together with many others we have received on this topic, has stimulated much discussion within NYADP.
 
“I want to clarify that NYADP has never held an organizational position on LWOP. We neither support nor oppose it. While all of our 10,000 members oppose the death penalty, we are far from being able to reach a consensus on LWOP. For this reason, it is unlikely that NYADP will adopt a formal position on LWOP in the near future.
 
“NYADP has argued in public debates that LWOP is preferable to executions for a number of reasons, including the impossibility of undoing a mistake once an execution has been carried out, and because executions violate the sanctity of life.