Sept. 23
USA:
SMU Human Rights Activist Rick Halperin: 'No Such Thing As a Better Victim'
The execution of Troy Davis was a tragedy and a failure in every sense of the
word. How we can kill someone when there is reasonable doubt of innocence is
mind-boggling. But it’s not surprising.
The Davis case wasn't just about killing Troy Davis. It’s about us. It's about
who we are — as a people and as individuals — and what sense of morals and
principles we believe in and are committed to defending and advocating.
On the same night as Troy Davis’ execution, Lawrence Brewer was executed in
Texas for arguably one of the worst crimes in recent memory — of killing James
Byrd, dragging him behind a truck to a horrific death. And here were two very
different types of cases: One regarding a black man with strong claims of
innocence being executed for killing a white policeman. Another for a white
supremacist who admitted to his guilt for killing a black man.
Though the Davis case was certainly compelling because of his potential
innocence, and the Byrd murder is nothing less than despicable, we should feel
the same outrage over all death penalty cases. There's no such thing as a
better victim.
Rather than using the law to put to death the innocent and guilty alike, we
should be using the law to lead this country to a more enlightened set of
behaviors, ones that will make us better as a people and make us better than we
think we can be.
(source: SMU News)
*****************
With the death penalty, ‘probably’ isn’t good enough
The death penalty is a barbaric anachronism, a crude instrument not of justice
but of revenge. Most countries banished it long ago. This country should banish
it now.
The state of Georgia was wrong to execute convicted murderer Troy Anthony Davis
as protesters and journalists kept a ghoulish vigil Wednesday night — just as
the state of Texas was wrong, hours earlier, to execute racist killer Lawrence
Russell Brewer.
That’s hard for me to write, because if anyone deserved a syringe full of
lethal poison it was Brewer. He was an avowed white supremacist who had been
convicted, along with two accomplices, of the 1998 hate-crime murder of a black
man, James Byrd Jr. They offered Byrd a ride, beat him up and then killed him
by chaining his ankles to the back of their pickup and dragging him for more
than two miles. When police found Byrd’s body, it was dismembered and
decapitated.
“I have no regrets,” Brewer said in an interview with Beaumont, Tex.,
television station KFDM this year. “I’d do it all over again, to tell you the
truth.”
Sweet guy, huh? Still, I can’t applaud his death at the hands of the
well-practiced Texas executioners. It’s not that I believe his life had any
redeeming value, just that the state was wrong to snuff it out.
The Davis case drew worldwide attention because of questions about the evidence
of his guilt. Davis was found guilty of killing a Savannah, Ga., police
officer, Mark MacPhail, in 1989. The conviction was based almost entirely on
eyewitness testimony, and in the 2 decades since that trial, 7 of 9 witnesses
have at least partially recanted.
The case became a cause celebre. Luminaries who could never be accused of being
soft on crime — such as former FBI Director William Sessions and former GOP
Rep. Bob Barr — argued that Davis should not be executed because of doubt about
his guilt.
Wednesday night, in his last words, Davis told MacPhail’s family that “I did
not personally kill your son, father and brother. I am innocent.” Then a deadly
cocktail of drugs was pumped into his veins.
The Davis case makes a compelling case against the death penalty — but not
because it is exceptional. On the contrary, it’s fairly ordinary.
Despite what you see on “CSI,” there isn’t always DNA or other physical
evidence to prove guilt with 99.9 % certainty. Jurors often have to rely on
witnesses whose field of vision may have been limited — and whose recall,
imperfect to begin with, degrades over time. Even when there’s no “reasonable
doubt” about the defendant’s guilt — the standard for conviction — there’s
often some measure of doubt.
And there are questions of process. Were witnesses coerced into testifying
against Davis? A few say now that they were. Did prosecutors prove their case?
The jurors certainly believed they did. Could racial bias have been a factor?
Unlikely, given that the jury included seven blacks and five whites. Should
Davis’s attorney have done a better job of presenting a defense? Almost surely.
It’s a mixed bag. I can’t ignore the fact that over the years, not one of the
many judges who examined the case concluded there had been a true miscarriage
of justice. This suggests to me that Davis was probably guilty.
But “probably” isn’t good enough in a capital case — and this is why the death
penalty is flawed as a practical matter. Someone who is wrongly imprisoned can
always be released, but death — to state the obvious — is irrevocable.
In scores of cases across the country, newly examined DNA evidence has proved
that inmates jailed for rape or other sexual crimes were in fact not guilty. It
is not just likely but certain that some defendants now on death row are
innocent. Even if only one is eventually executed, that will be a tragic and
unacceptable abuse of state power.
There was a chilling moment in a recent GOP candidates’ debate when Texas Gov.
Rick Perry was asked about having authorized 234 executions, more than any
other governor in modern U.S. history. The crowd, drawn largely from Tea Party
ranks, cheered this record as if it were a great accomplishment. “I’ve never
struggled with that at all,” Perry said, referring to execution as “the
ultimate justice.”
But he should struggle with it. We all should.
(source: Opinion, Richard Cohen; Washington Post)
******************
Is Troy Davis case reason to end death penalty?
Georgia’s execution of Troy Davis this week made headlines around the world,
because Davis had supporters from around the world. The man convicted of
killing a Savannah police officer maintained his innocence, and to many people
there did seem more than reasonable doubt about his guilty. No DNA evidence
linked him to the crime, and most of those who provided eyewitness testimony –
the least reliable evidence, as Florida is now acknowledging – recanted.
Still, courts at every level reviewed the case and let the conviction and the
sentence stand. Even Davis, just before his was executed, maintained his
innocence in a cryptic way, saying to officer Mark MacPhail’s family that he
didn’t have a gun. What did that mean? Was he there but didn’t pull the
trigger? Since Davis was black and officer MacPhail was white, and this case
happened in a Deep South state, there were racial overtones. The NAACP joined
others in asking to commute the sentence. But two members of the five-member
Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which had the final say, are
African-American.
Which brings us back to the death penalty itself. Former President Jimmy
Carter, a deeply religious man, called this week for an end to capital
punishment. Pope Benedict was among those asking the state not to kill Davis.
They argue against capital punishment on moral grounds. We would argue against
it because in Florida especially we have seen that the system can make
mistakes. Roughly 2 dozen men have been released from Florida’s death row.
Another died there before evidence emerged to clear him. Obviously, there are
some cases – Danny Rolling, Paul Merhige – where guilty is not in doubt, and
there were several killings. Others, though, raise doubt. Then there’s the
issue of trying to write a death penalty law that covers every case. Yet the
public still supports the death penalty, though by declining margins. Still, in
Florida the number of death sentences recommended by juries has gone down
steadily since 1994, when Florida allowed the sentence of life without
possibility of parole. Jurors do want to sleep at night.
Does the Troy Davis case offer reason to end the death penalty? Take our
poll----see: http://polldaddy.com/poll/5527911/
(source: Opinion Staff, Palm Beach Post)
******************
Doctors and Death Penalty Cases
In Georgia this week, standing in between Troy Davis and death by lethal
injection, was a physician following an execution protocol. Rainbow Medical
Associates is the organization contracted by the Georgia Department of
Corrections which provided the staffing. Without a doctor, without Rainbow, the
execution by lethal injection of this possibly innocent man could not have
occurred.
I have long questioned the role of physicians in executions, and I am not
alone. I define my role as prolonging life or decreasing suffering, certainly
not ending life prematurely on behalf of the state. I believe that such an
action compromises a doctor’s identity and ethics.
Last year the American Board of Anesthesiologists issued a mandate that any
member who participated in executing a prisoner by lethal injection would have
their certification revoked. That seems like strong stuff until you consider
the statement of their board secretary “we are healers, not executioners.”
The AMA has also long been against doctors being involved in state executions.
Most executions use lethal injection. This technique is available in 36 of 38
states that have the death penalty. A doctor’s participation is required in 17
of these states and is necessary for prisoners with poor intravenous access.
Despite the fact that many professional organizations like the American Board
of Anesthesiologists forbid participation, many doctors are willing to be
involved.
In fact, physicians helped design the lethal injection protocol. We provide the
intravenous access, monitor the patients, administer the injections, and
declare death. -- That's not at all what I thought I was signing up for when I
enrolled in medical school.
Currently, one of the biggest problems with lethal injection is the fact that
they are administered remotely and doctors do not assess depth of anesthesia
prior to the sequence that automatically administers the life-ending drugs.
This means that those killed may even have some level of awareness before they
die.
Inhumanity aside, I just don’t see a role for physicians here. Our role is to
preserve and extend life, not to end it.
It may sometimes be acceptable for a doctor to hasten a patient’s death in the
name of relieving their suffering, but it is never acceptable in my opinion for
us to kill on behalf of a state or federal mandate. This is yet another
disturbing example of government redefining and distorting a doctor’s essential
role.
The fact that Davis may have been innocent only makes the problem with the
method of his execution even more disturbing.
(source: Opinion; Marc Siegel, M.D. is an associate professor of medicine and
medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Medical Center. He is a Fox
News Medical Contributor and author of several books. His latest book is "The
Inner Pulse; Unlocking the Secret Code of Sickness and Health."----Fox News)
**************
Death and Taxes: The Real Cost of the Death Penalty
On September 21, 2011, at exactly 11:08 p.m. EST, Troy Davis was put to death
by the state of Georgia after the U.S. Supreme Court failed to grant him a
stay. His execution by legal injection became the 1,268th recorded execution in
the United States since 1976. Later that same day, Lawrence Brewer of Texas
would become 1,269.
[my note---this is factually incorrect...Brewer was put to death in Texas hours
before Davis, whose execution was delayed several hours by the US Supreme
Court]
Davis’ death has become a polarizing story in the death penalty debate in the
U.S. Capital punishment is allowed in most states since it was reinstated by
the Supreme Court in 1976; it was suspended from 1972 to 1976 following the
Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). As of 2011,
only 15 states have abolished the death penalty. They are Alaska, Hawaii,
Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New
Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and
Wisconsin. But there’s a chance that those numbers might increase. And maybe
not for the reasons that you might think.
Opponents of the death penalty have cited a number of factors that argue in
favor of abolishing the death penalty. It is, they say, not an effective
deterrent against crime. Statistics appear to back this up: states which impose
the death penalty continue to report the highest murder rates in the country
with only 3 states without the death penalty ranked in the top twenty five
(Michigan, New York and Alaska).
Other arguments include evidence that the death penalty may be racially biased
and that it disproportionately punishes the poor. And of course, there is the
fundamental assertion that the death penalty is cruel and inhumane.
For years, these reasonings have failed to sway a majority of Americans. But
now, something else may be turning the tide of public opinion – and it has
little to do with ethical, moral or legal arguments. It’s all about cold, hard
cash.
As states face increased pressure to cut costs in their budgets, every line
item is getting a second look. One startling finding? Death penalty cases are,
from start to finish, more expensive than other criminal cases including those
that result in life without parole.
How expensive is the death penalty? Just over a year ago, Fox News issued this
alarming statement:
“Every time a killer is sentenced to die, a school closes.
Dramatic, sure. But some claim that the data backs up these assertions.
While the actual execution costs taxpayers fairly little (the drugs used in
Texas run a mere $83), the costs associated with death penalty trials and the
resulting incarceration are disproportionately higher.
Citing Richard C. Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, Fox reported
that studies have “uniformly and conservatively shown that a death-penalty
trial costs $1 million more than one in which prosecutors seek life without
parole.”
A Urban Institute study (downloads as a pdf) found that “[i]n Maryland death
penalty cases cost 3 times more than non-death penalty cases, or $3 million for
a single case” while a 2004 Report from Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury
Office of Research that claimed “[i]n Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an
average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek
life imprisonment.”
And in cash strapped California, the California Commission on the Fair
Administration of Justice issued a report (downloads as a pdf) that concluded,
among other things, that “[i]t can certainly be said that death penalty trials
take longer and cost considerably more than non-death murder trials.”
I assumed that this was because of all of the post-trial finagling that goes
on. I was wrong. After reviewing data from state reports, Amnesty International
concluded that “the greatest costs associated with the death penalty occur
prior to and during trial, not in post-conviction proceedings. Even if all
post-conviction proceedings (appeals) were abolished, the death penalty would
still be more expensive than alternative sentences.”
The numbers associated with jail time are just as large. In terms of dollars
spent behind bars, the California Commission found that “the additional cost of
confining an inmate to death row, as compared to the maximum security prisons
where those sentenced to life without possibility of parole ordinarily serve
their sentences, is $90,000 per year per inmate. With California’s current
death row population of 670, that accounts for $63.3 million annually.” Since
that statement, California’s death row has grown to 721, the largest in the
country.
The story is the same in North Carolina. A 2010 Duke University study found
that taxpayers in the Tarheel State could save $11 million a year by
substituting life in prison for the death penalty.
The numbers are even more dramatic in Garden State. Prior to the abolishing the
death penalty in the state, a report by New Jersey Policy Perspectives found
that “New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter
billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one.”
But the end result is worth it, right?
Maybe not. At least 10 states, including Florida, Texas and California, have
been forced to release prisoners early because of overcrowding – all of those
states have expensive death penalty programs. Budgetary restraints have
resulted in shortened sentences (some as low as 20%) and lay-offs of
corrections officers inside prisons, as well as reduced numbers of police
officers on the streets. More telling, in one Oregon county, Prosecutor Dan
Satterberg was forced to eliminate the jobs of 36 prosecutors since 2008 – all
while the cost of defending two active capital cases escalated.
Who pays those costs? You and I. State and local governments typically bear the
burden of paying to pursue death penalty cases – and that means tax dollars.
Even prosecutors agree that those costs aren’t always worth it.
Raising taxes to pay for death penalty prosecutions isn’t going to win over
many taxpayers even though such increases have happened in some counties (as it
did notoriously in Lincoln County, Georgia). However, the alternatives –
cutting police or releasing prisoners early – are hardly appealing.
So in a depressed economy, do you cut your losses? Is now the time to say
goodbye to the death penalty? Some states, like Kansas, have been making some
noise about it. Will others follow suit? I don’t know.
I do know that it feels weird to be talking about a person’s life in terms of
dollars and taxes. But then, to pretend that it isn’t a real consideration
would clearly be disingenuous.
(source: Forbes)
******************
September 23, 2011 3:38 AM PrintText Death penalty opponents regroup after
Davis' death
Capital punishment critics are regrouping after the execution of Georgia inmate
Troy Davis, trying to figure out the best way to harness the anti-death penalty
sentiment the case created. Among the goals: get new like-minded people
registered to vote.
"Tell them to get engaged in the political process because that's where change
is going to come," said Helen Butler, executive director of the Atlanta-based
Coalition For The Peoples' Agenda.
Butler was among a group of about two dozen death penalty opponents who met
Thursday night in Atlanta to discuss how they could abolish capital punishment
in Georgia. They are a small piece of the hundreds of thousands of people the
Davis case attracted, from well-known supporters like the pope and former
president Jimmy Carter to those much-less politically active.
Laura Moye of Amnesty International said she expects the Davis execution to be
used to rally repeal movements across the country. She plans to meet with
activists in Georgia over the next few days to plot out an attempt to banish
capital punishment there.
"I'm meeting people who didn't really ever speak about the death penalty and
now they are. They're hungry about the information and now they know," she
said.
With Davis gone, however, the loose coalition of groups who pushed for his
freedom may simply crumble.
Davis was executed late Wednesday for the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah
police officer Mark MacPhail. Defense attorneys said several key witnesses
disputed their testimony and other people claimed that another man confessed to
the crime, but state and federal courts repeatedly upheld the conviction.
Davis maintained his innocence even as he was strapped to a gurney in the death
chamber, where he told the MacPhail family to "look deeper into this case so
that you really can finally see the truth."
Prosecutors and MacPhail's relatives say they have no doubt that justice was
done, but among Davis' supporters, frustration runs deep.
"We did not want to lose Troy Davis as a casualty of this war, but I do think
that his execution in a real sense will only add momentum to the movement of
those of us who understand that the state really cannot be trusted with the
ultimate punishment," said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who spoke on Davis' behalf
at a pardons board hearing this week.
Already, there are calls for lasting changes to the capital punishment system
from Davis' advocates. Former President Carter said he hopes "this tragedy will
spur us as a nation toward the total rejection of capital punishment."
Filmmaker Michael Moore posted a statement on his website calling for a boycott
of Georgia.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who visited Davis on death row, said he will push for a
national ban on capital punishment in cases that rely on eyewitness testimony.
Maryland passed such a law in 2009.
"We must not only mourn what happened to Troy Davis but take strong measures so
that it does not happen again," Sharpton said.
The Davis execution comes at a time when death penalty decisions are under
increased scrutiny. The number of executions has dropped by half over the last
decade, from 98 in 1999 to 46 in 2010. Illinois abolished capital punishment in
March and several other states, including California and Connecticut, are
expected to consider similar proposals next year.
More than 3,200 U.S. inmates were on death row at the beginning of 2011,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Public support for capital punishment remains strong, according to several
polls. This month, a CBS/NY Times poll found that 60 percent of those surveyed
supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, with 27 percent
opposed and 13 percent unsure. Gallup polls over the past 2 decades have shown
slightly higher support, though Gallup found Americans to be closely divided
when asked to choose between the death penalty and life imprisonment with no
chance of parole.
It's far from clear, however, whether the thousands who rallied and the
hundreds of thousands who signed petitions on Davis' behalf will become any
kind of political force. Organizers have announced few concrete steps, and
legislative proposals have yet to take shape.
"The emotion of the moment passes and unfortunately so does the urgency to
address these issues," said Bruce Barket, a New York criminal defense attorney
who specializes in investigating wrongful convictions.
(source: CBS News)
***************
Former Irish death row worker calls for death penalty to be abolished----Having
worked for a summer along death row inmates he sees no benefit to the death
penalty
A young Irishman who spent the summer working alongside death row inmates in
Austin, Texas tells IrishCentral.com why he thinks the death penalty should be
abolished.
When most Irish students contemplate a summer internship in the US, they don’t
expect to find themselves face to face with convicted serial killers and
rapists. But that is exactly where Dannie Hanna, a young man from Ennis Co.
Clare ended up this past August while doing pro bono work for death row inmates
in Austin, Texas.
Born in Abu Dhabi to an Irish mother and Lebanese father, Dannie spent the
first three years of his life in the United Arab Emirates before moving home to
Ennis in Co. Clare. The eldest of three boys he graduated in 2008 with a law
degree from the National University of Ireland in Galway before moving to the
UK to pursue postgraduate study.
With an inherent interest in philanthropy, the 23-year-old established
Rotaract, the largest youth voluntary group of it's kind in the world while he
was studying in Galway. With over 800 members, Rotaract raised €40,000
($55,000) for charitable organisations throughout Ireland during his tenure.
With a background in law and special interest in human rights, the Clare man
was studying for his Masters at the University of Cambridge when he first got
involved with the NGO Texas Defender Service (TDS). As a result of his efforts
he was selected to travel to Texas for a five-week internship with the
organization.
Speaking to IrishCentral.com, Dannie explained that prior to his trip to Texas,
he already had clear views about capital punishment.
“My initial opinion, arising more from "gut instinct", had always been that the
use of the death penalty is an abhorrence to mankind.
“However, it was not until I began work with Texas Defender Service (TDS) and
saw first hand the horrors that it manifests, that I was able to truly capture
why it was such an abhorrence,” he said.
In preparation for his internship in Austin, Texas Dannie took part in training
with two London based NGO's who specialize in death penalty work. He also met
with Peter Pringle, an Irish man who was wrongly convicted of murder sentenced
to death and later exonerated.
When his plane touched down in Austin amid scorching August temperatures, the
Clare man soon established that he was a long way from home, not just in terms
of distance.
“Coming from the West of Ireland, and having spent a number of months
previously in Chicago, Texas is certainly very different. It very much sees
itself as Texas, first and foremost, and America thereafter.
“I found that a small bit hard to come to terms with, as public opinion can be
extremely conservative at times,” he added.
Despite his earlier work with TDS and extensive training, Dannie admitted that
he learnt more in his first two days in the office than in any training
exercise he underwent. For the majority of his internship Dannie was based in
the Austin office of the TDS where he worked on reviewing the individual cases
of death row inmates.
With a total of 785 employees the Polunsky Unit stands five miles south of
Livington in Texas. It is here that male death row inmates await their
execution. With almost 3,000 inmates, 463 of which are awaiting execution, the
correctional facility is the biggest employer in the area. Dannie described the
prison as “emotionally draining” and “upsetting” as he detailed a typical day
for a death row inmate.
“They (prisoners) are kept in their cell 23 hours a day, every day, until the
day of their execution. Their cells are 10ft in length, and 6ft across. They
are allowed one hour of recreation time each day, in which they are led to a
cage, with a concrete slab, a basketball hoop and one basketball. They are kept
in complete isolation from everyone, even during this recreation time.
“The only time someone will ever physically touch them is when the guard takes
off their handcuffs. That, and the day they are executed. They are served
breakfast in their cell at 3.30am. If they do not eat breakfast at this time,
they are not fed for the day. They are strip searched every time they leave
their cell (for recreation time, for showering, for visitors),” he noted.
Death row inmates are kept in complete isolation and experience little human
contact while they await their execution. When he visited the prison Dannie
admits that suddenly “everything became real”.The countless cases he had been
tirelessly working on suddenly came to life before his eyes as he met and spoke
some some death row prisoners.
One such prisoner was Patrick Murphy, whom Dannie spent over 4 hours speaking
with.
“Patrick was convicted for rape in the early 1980's and had been sentenced to
50 years for such an offence. In 2000, with 6 other inmates, broke out from the
Connally Unit, culminating in a state wide search that lasted 6 weeks.
“During the 6 week period, the 7 escapees were involved in the killing of a
police officer. While Patrick himself did not commit the crime, the law in
Texas states that if the group of individuals are seen to commit capital murder
as a "joint effort", then they can all be charged with capital murder. Patrick
was such convicted and sentenced to die,” said Dannie.
“The atmosphere was a strange one. When I met the prisoners, they were just so
happy to have someone to talk to. Yet the backdrop of the whole prison was
emotionally draining,” he added.
For a $3 charge prison officials would take your photo with the offending
inmate.
After witnessing prisoners living conditions, speaking with death row inmates
and working extensively on their cases, Dannie was utterly convinced execution
was not the solution.
“From a deterrent perspective - it simply does not work. Statistics show that
murders actually increase on the day of an execution.
“From a human rights perspective, the conditions in which the inmates are
subjected to are disgusting.
“Finally, from a justice perspective, the system in which the death verdict is
given is nothing short of disgraceful - from the provision of ineffective legal
counsel on behalf of state appointed lawyers, to the pedantic nature of some
members of the Texas judiciary,” Dannie said.
The alternative for Dannie, similar to any lawyer working a death row appeal is
life without parole.
“We never deny that some of our clients have done terrible things, and to this
end, must pay through confinement. However executing them does not serve any
type of purpose, bar making a bad situation worse,” the law graduate added.
Currently the death penalty is enforced in 35 states within the US. The primary
method of execution is lethal injection. Since 1976, 463 prisoners have died by
execution in Texas alone. In Texas a death penalty case costs an average of
$2.3 million, that is almost three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a
single cell at a high security facility for 40 years.
Despite international opposition a recent annual crime survey commissioned by
Gallup found that 65% of Americans continue to support the use of the death
penalty for persons convicted of murder, while 31% oppose it.
Speaking about the murder case of the Petit family in Connecticut where Steven
Hayes was recently convicted of a litany of offences including the murder of a
mother and her 2 young daughters, Dannie told IrishCentral.com why he believes
that Hayes should not be executed.
“Having been following this case for some time, I can simply say that the facts
around the incident are nothing short of horrific. Having dealt with case
similar to this, there is always something that resonates when a capital murder
involves anything to do with women, and especially so, with children.
“Mr. Hayes is not like normal people, no normal person would do such a thing.
But this does not give us the right, as normal persons, to play God and execute
him.
“All we are doing is creating another victim from this atrocity. I thus would
believe that life without parole is an appropriate sentence,” the Clare man
said.
For now Dannie is settling back into daily life in Dublin where he works as a
legal researcher with the Law Reform Commission. He continues to stay in touch
with the Texas Defender Service and closely monitors the progress of particular
death row cases.
It is only now in the days and weeks that have followed his homecoming that the
enormity of the experience has resonated. Having no regrets about his
experience with TDS, Dannie admits he feels “fortunate not to live in a
society” where the death penalty prevails.
(source: Irish Central)
*************************
Why does the South execute more people?
In the wake of the high-profile but ultimately unsuccessful effort to save
Georgia's Troy Davis from execution, media outlets are buzzing that the Davis
case has sparked a new debate about capital punishment.
As many of these stories point out, a sizable majority in the U.S. still
support the death penalty -- 62 %, according to one poll. The question is
whether Davis' case will provoke a backlash.
But such polls overlook the two big divides that already shape the death
penalty debate: region and race.
The regional disparity is striking. Since the Supreme Court lifted a ban on
death sentences in 1976, 1,264 people have been executed in the U.S. And 921 of
those executions -- or 73 % of the total -- took place in 13 Southern states.
It's true that Texas -- and what some call its death machine -- skew the
numbers: Its 474 executions account for nearly 38 percent of the U.S. total.
But the fact remains: Of the many things you can call the death penalty, one
fitting adjective is that it's largely Southern.
What has made the South the home base of capital punishment? As you might
suspect, executions have their roots in the history of slavery. As noted in A
Short History of the American Death Penalty:
In contrast to capital punishment in the northern states, capital punishment in
th South was not limited primarily to common law felonies. Rather, the death
penalty was a powerful tool for keeping the slave population in submission.
Crimes that interfered with the ownership of slaves were punished by death. In
1837, North Carolina, which lacked a penitentiary, had about 26 capital crimes
including slave-stealing, concealing a slave with intent to free him, 2nd
conviction of inciting slaves to insurrection, and 2nd conviction of
circulating seditious literature among slaves.
This law-and-order mentality spilled over into crimes: In North Carolina,
stealing bank notes, "crimes against nature" ("buggery, sodomy, bestiality")
and a 2nd offense of forgery and statutory rape came to be considered capital
offenses.
Racial disparity was literally written into law. After the Civil War, Black
Codes created more crimes punishable by death for African-Americans than
whites. In the 1830s, Virginia had 5 capital crimes for whites but an estimated
70 such crimes for black slaves.
Today, the well-documented racial disparity in death sentences has become one
of the central arguments among opponents for ending capital punishment.
But less discussed is the racial divide in how people view the death penalty.
For example, underneath the polls showing widespread support is one of the most
well-documented facts in death penalty research: that it enjoys much higher
support among whites than other racial groups, especially African-Americans.
For example, a 2005 Gallup poll was typical in finding that, while there was
little difference in death penalty support among different age groups, and only
a moderate 12-point gap between men and women, there was a 27-point difference
between white (71%) and black (44%) support.
Indeed, recent research by Andrew Gelman and Kenny Shirley at Columbia
University found that race was by far the biggest factor in explaining
differences we see in death penalty support -- more than twice as influential
as the next 2 factors, the state where you live and the year the poll was
taken. Gender, education level and age ranked even lower.
The legacy of race and racism seems clear enough in explaining much of the
white South's ongoing embrace of the death penalty. But what does that mean for
our new public debate about the death penalty, especially in the place where
most of the executions are happening, the South?
The answer may be disheartening for death penalty opponents. In a 2007 study,
political scientists Mark Peffley and Jon Hurwitz confirmed, like many had
before, that whites and blacks have vastly different attitudes about the death
penalty.
But it found something else: that whites and blacks also differ in their
willingness to even consider arguments about the death penalty's validity. For
example, African Americans who originally supported the death penalty responded
both to racial arguments (for example, "the death penalty is unfair because
most of the people who are executed are black") and non-racial arguments ("too
many innocent people are being executed") in opposition.
But whites presented with the same arguments were "highly resistant to
persuasion" -- in fact, were actually more likely to support the death penalty
after learning it discriminated against African Americans.
Some researchers think these differences are a direct result of open racial
bias. Peffley and Hurwitz more charitably argue it has to do with whites seeing
inequities in the criminal justice system having to do more with personal
failures rather than systemic problems -- more of a racial blindspot than
active bigotry (which in the end may make little difference).
Either way, it's clear that views about the death penalty have become deeply
ingrained in the white South -- and it will likely take more than the Troy
Davis case to dislodge them.
(source: democracyinaction.org)
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