NEW: Groups Rally Behind Chafee's Stance On Death Penalty

NEW: Groups Rally Behind Chafee's Stance On Death Penalty

Eight organizations are praising Governor Chafee for seeking to prevent the institution of federal death penalty charges against Jason Wayne Pleau, the man accused in the shooting death of 49-year-old gas station manager David Main last September.

The American Friends Service Committee - Southeast New England, Olneyville Neighborhood Association, Progreso Latino, Providence Youth Student Movement, Rhode Island Affiliate, American Civil Liberties Union, R.I. Commission for Human RightsRev., Rhode Island State Council of Churches and the Urban League of Rhode Island issued a joint statementing commending Chafee’s decision.

“The Governor’s courageous action reflects and renews this proud heritage,” the statement says. “In saying this, we do not in any way seek to minimize the tragedy that David Main’s family has suffered. But we cannot condone the federal government’s blatant effort to impose on our state a policy that Rhode Island has rejected for more than a century-and-a-half.”

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The groups maintain that government should not pursue an eye-for-an-eye agenda.

“We know that the death penalty is not a deterrent, that it is imposed in a discriminatory, arbitrary and irrational manner, and that it remains capable of convicting innocent people,” the statement said. “Even more fundamentally, as part of a civilized society, we firmly believe that the government should not respond to a heinous crime with another act of barbarism and violence.”