from the desk of:

Rolf Auer – writer

43 Lavergne Street
Ottawa Ontario K1L 5E9 Canada

June 9, 2012

Governor of Ohio, John Kasich

Riffe Center, 30th Floor, 77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6117, USA

Dear Governor,

I write this letter to you to ask that you please grant clemency to Mr. Abdul Awkal. I understand that you originally were
going to deny clemency to him and allow him to be executed; however, as of June 5 you decided to issue a two-week
reprieve so that the matter of whether he is “competent” for execution first can be resolved before he is put to death.

In this, my second letter to you, I will set out three viewpoints arguing against this latter action.

Pertinent to these viewpoints is this preamble: “Punishment” is an action taken to allow the recipient to reflect on their
offence and therefore be able to rehabilitate himself or herself so that they never commit such offences again. Inflicting
death on someone is not punishment. Death is death. Inflicting it is killing. Premeditated killing by the state is murder.

Viewpoint #1
Governor Kasich, if you believe in God, I ask that you please consider:

Scripture from the 400th anniversary edition of The Holy Bible, original King James 1611 version.
I John 3:15
“Whosoever hateth his brother, is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal eternal life abiding in him.”

Please, if you do not grant clemency to Mr. Abdul Awkal, you are sanctioning killing by the state, in effect making the
state a murderer. As you are the head of state, the responsibility for that falls on you, thus making you a murderer.
Therefore, by I John 3:15, you do not receive eternal life.

Viewpoint #2
Perhaps you do not believe in God. Then try looking at this case a different way. Please put yourself in Mr. Abdul
Awkal’s place. Which would you prefer be done to you: (a) be put to death as “punishment, or (b) receive a life sentence,
which could give you time to recover and rehabilitate yourself? Or, at least, have time to come to terms with—and
understand—what you did wrong. Isn’t option (b) much more humane than option (a)?

Viewpoint #3
Some other reasons to avoid capital punishment:
• the U.S. ratified the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (in fact, it helped draft it) plus
other similar, subsequent United Nations Treaties disallowing capital punishment
• it has been demonstrated to have no effect as a deterrent
• such a sentence, if carried out, is irreversible in cases of mistrials (for which Mr. Awkal qualifies)
• it is administered unfairly: records show that it is usually the poor, the mentally ill, people from minorities (read
“racism”), and so on who thus suffer
In conclusion, capital punishment is an outmoded, barbaric practice carried over from a bygone age. It no longer applies
in our modern age of moral enlightenment.

Again, I ask that no matter what decision is reached in his “competency” hearing, please grant Mr. Awkal clemency and
commute his sentence to life imprisonment.

Also, please, as soon as possible, show that you are a leader among leaders, and please take the necessary steps so that
the death penalty in Ohio is rescinded once and for all.

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my request.

Yours sincerely,
Rolf Auer
613-617-9293

incl: copy of 1st letter sent on May 29, 2012

cc: His Excellency David Jacobson, Ambassador for the USA

PO Box 866, Station B, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5T1 Canada

I Peter 5:14
“Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity: Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

John 15:12 Jesus:

“This is my Commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
 from the desk of:
Rolf Auer – writer

43 Lavergne Street
Ottawa Ontario K1L 5E9 Canada

May 29, 2012

Governor of Ohio, John Kasich

Riffe Center, 30th Floor, 77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6117, USA

Dear Governor,

I write to you to ask that you grant clemency in the June 6 planned execution of Abdul Awkal. I have opposed capital
punishment for a long time for many reasons; primarily that it has been shown not to be a deterrent to these types of
offences, but appears to in fact be merely retribution or punishment carried out by the state, and nothing more. That
means that the government (or rather, we the people) is no better than the killers themselves, in terms of ethical conduct.

Please don’t misunderstand me: I am not seeking to excuse Awkal’s murders or to downplay the suffering these have
caused. It’s just that I don’t believe justice is served in such cases by likewise playing “tit for tat,” so to speak. In January
2011, Senior Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, who co-authored Ohio’s capital statute in 1981 wrote: “... I have
come to the conclusion that we are not well served by our ongoing attachment to capital punishment... I ask: do we want
our state government – and thus, by extension, all of us – to be in the business of taking lives in what amounts to a death
lottery?... And, thus, I believe the time has come to abolish the death penalty in Ohio.” (italics mine)

Awkal has a proven history of mental illness. I ask: If people are executed who have committed crimes due to their
having a mental illness (while the death penalty there is still in effect, that is), where does it stop? Does the state start
going after the poor? Does the state start executing people who appear to be deficient in intelligence, too, who have
committed such crimes?

I’d also like to point out that Awkal apparently had poor legal representation at his trial, and that this somehow might
have had an effect on the final decision.

Therefore, for all the above reasons, I urgently request that you please reconsider your decision to not grant clemency to
this unfortunate person, and to at least commute his sentence to one such that he has a chance to recover and to
rehabilitate himself. Also, I urge that Ohio please rescind the death penalty as soon as possible: Isn’t Ohio after all the
state where the Rock Of Ages is held? Don’t these two ideas together seem ill suited, to say the least?

Yours sincerely,
Rolf Auer
613-617-9293

cc: His Excellency David Jacobson, Ambassador for the USA

PO Box 866, Station B, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5T1 Canada

I Peter 5:14
“Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity: Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

John 15:12 Jesus:

“This is my Commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.”