By
Eric Swedlund
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Group seeks to join late October march in Texas to protest capital punishment
Calling the death penalty cruel and inhumane, a group of University of Arizona students have banded together in hopes of forming a new campus club, Students Against the Death Penalty.
Made up of about 15 students, many of them international students, the group is serious in its opinion that capital punishment should be illegal in the United States, said Ahmad Saad Nasim, one of the group's members.
Nasim, a general business senior, said that from the club's perspective, the logic behind the death penalty is flawed.
"Do two negatives make a positive?" he asked.
Thomas Tscha, a business management sophomore and member of the club, said he is joining with other students to oppose the death penalty out of a need to voice his opinion.
"People being electrocuted in chairs is wrong," he said.
Tscha added that he believes that if people don't speak up against the death penalty, more people will be sentenced to death.
Nasim, who served as an ASUA senator last year, has been assisting the club's president, German studies and linguistics senior Jane Williams, in getting the club recognized.
The group will make a presentation to the ASUA Senate at its meeting next Wednesday.
If recognized as a political club, Students Against the Death Penalty could receive funding only for educational projects, not for protests.
The group plans to join students at the University of Texas in Austin for a march to the governor's mansion on the third weekend in October, Nasim said. For those who cannot go to Austin, Nasim said the club will have a candlelight vigil on the UA Mall to support those marching against the death penalty in Texas.
Nasim said his own interest in the club stems mostly from a religious viewpoint. He said he believes in an Islamic proverb that states, "He who saves life saves all mankind, but he who takes one life kills all mankind."
UA law professor Andrew Silverman, an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, said he is aware that students are organizing an anti-death penalty club.
"I think it's great that there is such an organization being formed," he said. "Any student initiative on social and political issues is terrific."
Silverman said the death penalty is an important issue, particularly with a presidential election approaching.
"Students have an important perspective and bring a lot of enthusiasm and energy to issues they get involved in," Silverman said.
He added that he would be happy to get involved with the student group, and invites them to join the Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty, of which he is a member.
