Dear Governor Rendell,
The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service, calls on you to grant a stay of execution for death row inmate George Banks, who is scheduled to be executed on December 2nd.
Our deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of Regina Clemens, Susan Yuhas, Dorothy Lyons, Nancy Lyons, Mauritania Banks, Bowendy Banks, Montanzima Banks, Forarounde Banks, Ray Hall, Jr., Sharon Mazzillo, Kissamayu Banks, Alice Mazzillo and Scott Mazzillo, whom Banks was convicted of killing in 1982.
The AFSC is fundamentally opposed to violence in all forms, state-sanctioned or otherwise, but we are even more adamantly opposed to the execution of people with mental illness. Banks was not competent to stand trial. His horrendous crime came in the wake of a mental break down and with a weapon he obtained for what he perceived to be an inevitable race war.
Banks was sentenced to death according to jury instructions which have since been declared unconstitutional, raising questions of fundamental fairness. These instructions may have prevented the jury from fully considering mitigating evidence for Banks, including evidence of his severe mental illness. Additionally, the five-person Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, which could grant clemency to Banks, is required to include a psychologist or a psychiatrist. However, that seat is currently vacant raising concerns about the current clemency process.
Banks was the son of a bi-racial couple and grew up in an all-white neighborhood where he was subjected to racial prejudice from both his white and black peers. Plagued by insecurity, persecution and anger, Banks felt rejected by all people and viewed himself as "a man without a race." His mental health and persecution complex worsened until he became obsessed with paranoid delusions. A psychiatrist who examined him called Banks terminally paranoid, saying he had "lost touch with reality on a great many things."
In the name of fairness, compassion and justice, we ask that you stay the execution of George Banks.
Sincereley,
Mary Ellen McNish
General Secretary
American Friends Service Committee
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