Death penalty goes on verbal trial tonight

By: Michael Pasaoa

Posted: 5/6/08

Veronica Luna said she will speak about her uncle on death row, the flaws in the system and the injustices of the death penalty at a national anti-death penalty speaking tour tonight from 7 to 9 p.m.

The senior SJSU social work and sociology double major, who has been a part of The Campaign to End the Death Penalty since 2006, will speak in the Student Union's Ohlone Room along with other guests affected by the death penalty.

"My big thing is I really want to educate," Luna said. "I was like anyone else, not really thinking about the death penalty until my uncle was facing death."

Luna said her uncle, James Trujeque, has been on death row since 1997 and his 1993 gang-related case was the biggest in California's history.

"I tell them it's not C.S.I. - there was no DNA or corroborating evidence or fingerprints or blood samples," Luna said, "only informants, other gang members, who got lesser sentences."

Bill Babbitt, boardmember of Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, is also scheduled to speak.

"I voted for the death penalty in 1978," Babbitt said. "I didn't know much about it at the time."

Babbitt said he turned in his brother Tim to authorities, who was later executed after being told that he would not receive the death penalty.

"Now it's my family, and I'm taking a closer look at it. Death came knocking on my door, and guess what?" Babbitt asked. "I got an education overnight."

SJSU's Cesar Chavez Community Action Center has joined with Families to Amend California's Three Strikes and The Campaign to End the Death Penalty for the event.

"Those who are passionate about a certain issue having to do with social justice," Maribel Martinez, program coordinator for the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center said, "we will help work with them to produce an event to raise awareness for more students in the community."

Martinez said it took two weeks from the day she first talked to Veronica to set the date for the event.

When Luna visited her uncle at San Quentin state prison, she said she would see other men a day before they were executed, which made her think about joining a campaign.

"Stan 'Tookie' Williams was there the same time as my uncle," Luna said. "I saw him walk past me the day before his execution. Honestly that was a big turn for me."

Luna said after seeing Williams, she got involved with The Campaign to End the Death Penalty, a nationwide grassroots organization, with Bay Area chapters in Oakland and San Francisco, to support what they were doing and they pushed her to the forefront.

"I was there to support them, but they needed me to speak," Luna said.

At first, she said she didn't know if she could be there emotionally while her uncle was on death row.

"It was overwhelming," Luna said, "but at the same time there was so much support, and I felt like I wasn't alone."

Luna has spoken at events in Chicago, San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland.

Tuesday's event will include other guest speakers who have been affected by the death penalty.