CAMPAIGN FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME
The Campaign for Victims of Crime (CVC), which took on Benetton for paying death row inmates to appear in its advertisements, is back. Founded in 1998 but fairly quiet since 2000, the group now aims to help turn back what is viewed as a growing wave of going soft on crime.
"I got involved early on with it," said new CVC President Brian O’Neill, a former Philadelphia prosecutor who is now deputy district attorney in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Co. (Allentown). "It’s an issue near and dear to me as a prosecutor."
"Benetton’s ‘Spring-Summer 2000 worldwide communication campaign’ is memorializing the careers of 26 convicted murderers who have killed at least 45 innocent people," said CVC at the time. "Benetton, an international corporation engaged in the marketing of clothing to young people, is highlighting these 26 killers on billboards and publications throughout Europe, Asia, the United States, and Canada. Benetton USA Executive Vice President Carlo Tunioli explained the corporation’s motives this way: ‘There’s no correlation between these guys and our sweaters. In terms of an advertising strategy, what we are really doing is building brand awareness.’"
Benetton presented the campaign as a way to oppose the death penalty and sell clothes at the same time. The company paid Jeremy Sheets to appear in its ads. Sheets participated in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl. Other murderers featured in the ad campaign were Beoria Simmons, who killed three women, and Jesse Compton, who sexually assaulted and murdered three-year-old Tesslyn O’Cull.
Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham joined with CVC to organize opposition to Benetton’s ad campaign. Boycott threats led Benetton to call off the effort.
CVC’s first crusade was focused on the criminal justice system. "Originally," said CVC board member Bill Winkler, "it was set up to help pass the commonwealth right to a jury trial measure."
"Defendants could always insist on a jury trial or have a trial before a judge. Prosecutors couldn’t insist on a jury trial," said O’Neill. "In Philadelphia, you have very lenient judges. . . . Juries are tougher than judges in a lot of instances. Judges reduce the severity of crimes all the time. For example, a lot of judges will knock a ‘possession with intent to distribute’ down to misdemeanors."
Asked if the horror stories about criminals getting off scot-free due to technicalities are rare or common, O’Neill replied, "It’s somewhere in between. Sometimes, people are convicted and the sentence is lenient." Punishments can vary greatly even within a state, he said. For example, in Allentown, someone with a couple of prior misdemeanor convictions who is then found guilty of robbery at gunpoint would typically serve at least four years in prison, he said. "In Philadelphia, it could be nine months," said O’Neill.
Pennsylvania has some peculiar rules that CVC wants to change. "In Massachusetts, if police stop a vehicle, and there is probable cause to search for drugs, they can search," O’Neill said. "In Pennsylvania, thanks to the [state] supreme court, we have to get a search warrant. We have more lenient laws on drug dealers than Massachusetts."
"There was a time when you could vote for a Republican and think you were getting a good law-and-order person," said Winkler. "That’s no longer the case." He complained about some of the judges appointed by former Gov. Tom Ridge (R.), now President Bush’s Homeland Security chief until the new Cabinet agency gets a secretary. One judge even weighed policemen’s testimony on a par with that of criminals, he said. "We had to remove her," he said.
O’Neill said that he would like to see "minimum mandatory sentences, actually enforced," put into law. "I would like to see legislation, actually a [state] constitutional amendment, that would allow child victims to testify by videotape," he said. After consulting with the prosecutor in charge of Lehigh’s special victims unit, O’Neill said that mothers, "if you broaden the category to include stepmothers, de facto mothers, aunts who assume the role of mother, and grandmothers and whatnot," a majority of child assaults are committed by the child’s mother.
In the wake of declining violent crime figures in the past few years generated by get-tough policies-personified by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R.)-implemented a decade or so ago, states are now talking about going soft. "Governors are talking about releasing people early," said Winkler. "Death penalty moratoria are being considered." Republicans, such as outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan, are often leading the way, he added.
Asked if criminals can be rehabilitated, O’Neill said, "That’s been debated for centuries. . . . Rehabilitation generally hasn’t worked. Younger people can be rehabilitated sometimes."
CVC may be reached at 1118 S. 25th St., Easton, Pa. 18042 (215-627-8629).
