How'MASH'actorMikeFarrellbecamealeading

voiceagainstthedeathpenaltyinCalifornia
By JazmineUlloa
OCTOBER11,2016,12:05AM

REPORTINGFROMSACRAMENTO

he day in 1979 that TennesseeRev. Joe Inglelanded in Los Angeles and made
his wayto the set of thepopulartelevision series MASH,he wasnt
starstruck. He was angry.

As he drove his rental carthrough the Santa Monica Mountains tothe sprawling 20th
Century Fox Ranch near Malibu Canyon, Ingle thought of John Spenkelink,adeath row
inmate.After years of talks with politicians, countless legal filings and many sleepless
nights, the state of Florida put his closefriend to death in the electric chair, Ingle said.
We had 220 people on death row in Florida at the time, andmany of them had no
lawyers, the United Church of Christ minister said. We were up against a state
machinery of killing that was engaging in full gear, and we could see what was coming.
Ingle said he thought MASHactorMike Farrell,who had risento fame as the warm
and charismatic Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt, couldhelp the anti-death penalty cause givenhis
stated opposition to executions in a magazine interview. Farrell ended up doing more
than that.
Over the past four decades,Farrell, whohas wieldedhis celebrity to bring attention
tosocial and political issuesin Central America, the Middle East and Africa, has become
a leading voice against the death penalty. Thisyear, he is theauthor of a ballot measure
that seeks to end capital punishment in California. For Farrell, the cause has taken
precedence over others becauseat its root, he says, is the idea that some people are
dispensable.
We have determined that some human beings are not human, are not worthwhile or
capable, andthat we can just do away with them, he said. If you set up that belief
system in a society, you can justify torture, assassinations by drone, just about
anything.

The death penalty has been in place continuously in California for almost 40years,
though executions were suspended in 2006after the currentmethod for lethal
injectionwas challenged in court.
A federal judge in July 2014ruled the system unconstitutional, finding it arbitrary and
riddenwith delay.But the U.S. 9thCircuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision in
November.
Now more than 740 inmates are awaiting execution, almost double the amount in
Florida, the state with the second highest death row population in the country. More
than 400 do not have lawyers, while the average death penalty appeal takes 25 years or
more to go through the process.
But onthe Nov. 8 ballot, voters will weigh two competing measures that aim to address
what somepeople on both sides of the issue agree isa broken system. Althoughboth
initiatives would require death row inmates to work and pay restitution to
victims,Proposition 62, which Farrell sponsored, would abolish the death penaltyand
replace it with a life sentence without parole.
It has fierce opponents.
Marc Klaas, whose daughter Pollywas kidnappedand killed by a person now on death
row and who hasdebated Farrell on a town hall stage and on the radio,argues the public
does not want to do away with apunishment reserved for the most vicious members of
society.
There is this moral, elitist certainty that Mike and others of his ilk wrap themselves in,
that they are doing thisto save a humans life, Klaas said. It gets to a point that they
can work to save the lives of death row inmates, giving no consideration to the victims of
these people.

AlanAlda,left,andMikeFarrellintheTVprogram"MASH."(CBS)

Now ivory-haired and 77, Farrell gained a following from his time on
MASH,givinghim aplatform to support the issues he cares about, he said.
Thelongest running sitcom in TV history and one of the highest rated, MASH beamed
into millions of American living rooms for 11 seasons. The show captured the trials of
Army doctors working in a mobile hospital under the strenuous conditions of war.
As Hunnicutt, Farrell wasthe best friend andstraight man to funny man Alan Alda, the
martini-drinking, laid-back Capt. "Hawkeye"Pierce.Fans all knew B.J. Hunnicutt and
that he lived in Mill Valley, Calif.
Farrell was born in Minnesota and grew upinthe small, then-unincorporated West
Hollywood.He was one of four siblings in anIrish Catholic family, who once delivered
groceries to movie stars andhad dreams of fame.
As his own star rose, Farrell raised money for union workers and stoodup against a
1978 ballot measurethat would have banned gay teachers from working in California
schools. But his involvement withthe death penalty, one ofhis longest and most
passionate causes, dates to the final days of MASH, when Ingle paid him a visit.
For years, he had been meeting with death row inmates in southern states and
recruiting lawyers to take on their cases. He spoke out against capital punishment, and
what he called itsarbitrary and racist application onthe poor and the poorly
defended.With high crime rates andtough-on-crime rhetoric in full steam, his views
were unpopular, even dangerous. He received death threats at his home and office, he
said.
Ingle took Farrell to see a death row at the Tennessee State Prison. Farrell said he did
not know what to expect.
Wed been fed this stuff about people on death row, he said. They are deadbeats, they
are animals they are child-eating, fang-toothed monsters.
What he saw were mostly black and Latino men with little to no education, he said.
Some of them very, very sorry for what they had done, Farrell said. Some of
themcrazy. Some of them so angry they could hardly speak. And some who said they
were innocent.

ArevealinglookatCalifornia'sdeathrow

Deathrowexonereesfromacrossthenationholdsignsshowingthenumberofyearstheywerewronglyimprisonedastheylisten
toMikeFarrellataProp.62campaignevent.(AlSeib/LosAngelesTimes)

Across the country, following mounting legal challenges, legislation and a number of
botched executions that have sparked national outcry, at least 20 states no longerhave
the death penalty.
With 28executions last year in the United States the lowest since the four-year, de
factomoratorium on thedeath penaltyendedin 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court
reaffirmed its constitutionalitylawyers and activists say California has become a
litmus test for the nationon whether people, not courts or governments,want to
continue the practice.
Over three decades, support for the death penalty has dwindled in California, its
supporters and opponentssaid, but notenoughto end it.The last time voters weigheda
ballot measure similar to Farrells current proposition was in 2012, when itwas rejected
by 52% of voters.

This year,Proposition66, which was written by death penalty prosecutors, intends to

speed up the system. Instead of the California Supreme Court, it would allow the lower
court in a case tohear habeas corpus petitionschallenging a conviction, and would limit
the appeals process to within five years of a death sentence.
Aunified campaign to defeatFarrellsProposition 62 and bolster the opposing
measurehaspulled in $4.2million in donations andgarnered wide supportfrompolice,
sheriffs and prosecutorsstatewide.
But competing efforts have garnerednearly $6.5 millionin donations, andProposition
62has attracted some prominent supporters, includingbillionaire Tom Steyer, hip-hop
artist will.i.amand Lt.Gov.Gavin Newsom.
Polls have shown mixed results as to which is in the lead.
Farrell said he has witnessed a shift in policy and public opinion against the death
penalty little by little, as more than 155 men and women nationwide have been
exoneratedsince 1973 some havingcome within hours of execution before their
convictions were overturned.
As the formerpresident of the nonprofit Death Penalty Focus, founded in1988, he
hasraised defensefunds for those inmates hebelieves are innocent, no matter how grim
their cases.
Criticisms that the groupchampions murderers over victims upsetshim, Farrellsaid, as
he and fellow activistshave lost loved ones to crime.I dont think a victim is benefited
by someone else beingmade a victim, he says.
But their opponentsargue that most of theircases, including all of those reversed in
California,have been dropped or dismissed on technicalities, such as ineffective counsel
or an improper jury instruction.
San Bernardino District Attorney Michael Ramos said heonly wishes Farrell could stand
in his shoes,when comforting a grieving mother whose daughter has been savagely
raped and killed.
I believe in the death penalty for a very small percentage of individuals, Ramos
said.He is not in the justice system. Hedoesnt see what we do every day.

TamiAlexander,wife of former NFL player Kermit Alexander, says she respects Farrell.
But she wants to seeTiequon Cox executed. More than 30 years after the gunman went
to the wrong address andkilled her husbands mother, sister and two nephews, he
remains on death row.
I applaud Mike, I really do, she said.I feel he has dedicated his life to a very toxic
issue, but he doesnt have a dog in the fight.

ActorMikeFarrellgreetsparishionersafterspeakinginsupportofProp62attheHolmanUnitedMethodistChurch.(GinaFerazzi/
LosAngelesTimes)

On a recent Sunday in West Los Angeles, Farrell sat in the front pew of the Holman
United Methodist Church, with more than a dozen peoplefrom across the country who
have formed the Witness to Innocence project.
Alongside Farrell was Nathson Fields, who wasacquitted in 2009 in the deaths of two
rival Chicago gang members after spending 20 years in prison. And Lawyer Johnson,
whose charges were dropped after he spent 10 years in prison for a 1971 slaying in
Massachusetts.

And Harold Wilson, whose conviction was overturned in 2005based on DNA

evidenceafter he served more than 16 years for the slayings of three people in South
Philadelphia.
In thechurch foyerlater that morning,Wilsons voice shook with rage at the thought of
prosecutors who still denied his innocence. When he was locked up, he said, his
daughter was 3 years old. I am still suffering, he said.
Outside, Farrell shook hands with patrons, some of whom remembered him from his
MASH days and had watched the show with their parents or grandparents. People
often questionwhyHollywood actors meddle in politics and social causes.But Farrell
says he seeshimself as a concerned citizen, not an activist.
In debates and panels, he says,hiscritics have oftentold him death row inmatesdont
deserveto live.
Butthe really important question people dont ask is, Do we deserve to kill?
jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com
Follow@jazmineulloaonTwitter

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