Kevin Cooper on the "SAFE California Act" : "No Thank You"

April 4, 2012 Free Kevin Cooper

By Kevin Cooper

I have been asked what I think about "The SAFE California Act," which is being pushed as a real alternative to this state’s death penalty. I have been asked by activists, death row inmates, and certain family members of death row inmates. I have also asked myself this same question. After all, it is our future which is being voted on by the people of California in November 2012.

I must add this. At no time was I, or to my knowledge, any man or woman who resides on death row within this state asked our opinion about the SAFE California Act by the sponsors of this initiative, the people who bank rolled it, or the people who collected signatures in support of it. I wonder why that is?

I am personally against this initiative, and I do not support it for a couple different reasons. First and foremost, this ‘Act’ is just another version of the death penalty. We who will be affected by it will still be living in inhumane conditions.

We who are on death row will also lose our legal habeas and habeas appeal process that we have and are currently entitled to under the law. So we are in fact taking a step backwards in our ability to challenge our convictions. We are also having to take our fight for our collective human rights to another level. What I mean by this is, Level IV prisons within the State of California are some of the worst prisons in the world! They are worse than death row in the violence that takes place, in the lack of programs, including educational programs, they stay on lockdown, and many families cannot get to these isolated prisons to visit their loved ones.

I also look at this through the historical eyes of how people of African descent have been continually locked up within this country. For example, those of us who know the truth about this country’s history, and acknowledge this truth have to admit the following . . .

When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law freeing the Slaves, he did not free any person who was duly convicted of a crime. He left them in Slave status. There has never been an amendment to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in order to change this Constitution. Therefore, here in the 21st Century, every Man, Woman, and Child who has been duly convicted of a crime is still a Slave, and is living in the same status as a Slave.

What does this have to do with the SAFE California Act? This 21st Century Act requires, just as Slavery did in the 18th and 19th centuries did, that we who are imprisoned under this Act will have to work for basically nothing. Any money that we make, the majority of it will be taken from us against our will and given to the state. Any money that our family, friends, or attorney(s) may give us, money that is not even ours, will not all be given to us, because the majority of it will be given to the state without our permission as well! This is not fair to our families, who are poor people, as we are! "Isn’t taking our families’ and friends’ money and giving it to the state without their permission called theft?"

We are expected to live the rest of our natural lives under these conditions. My ancestors had to do (LWOP), life without parole, on the thousands of plantations in this country back in the day. They didn’t like it then, and I ain’t going to like it now!! These modern day prisons are just as nasty and inhumane as the plantations of yesteryear, and just as deadly. The system and the people who run and control them are just as cold hearted, and unforgiving as any plantation owner or overseer. Yet, we are told that times have changed! This lock them up and throw away the key mentality is as old and as cold as this country. If this becomes the law of this state, we cannot expect for it to change, we will be out of sight and out of mind.

Whenever that happens, human beings in our situation always have their human rights violated by the powers that be! "Please" don’t get me wrong, as I have my say concerning this SAFE California Act. I am not ‘for’ Capital Punishment either! But, I do know that there has be be a better way to end Capital Punishment within this state than the SAFE California Act.

As a person who reads and studies African American history, I can honestly say to you that this is deja vu, history is repeating itself with this Act. The vast majority of Slaves felt that life on those plantations was a fate worse than death. I wholeheartedly agree, because life within this modern day plantation is too! But, not only are we to spend the rest of our lives living and working in this place called hell, we are going to have to pay for it with our own monies as well!

To this, and all else within that SAFE California Act, I say "No Thank You!"

Kevin Cooper was sentenced to death in 1985 and maintains his innocence. In 2008, five federal judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals signed an 82-page dissenting opinion that begins: "The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." 565 F.3d 581 He has exhausted all his legal remedies and should the lethal injection litigation settle in California, Kevin is one of the 14 currently in line for imminent execution barring the governor and California Supreme Court granting him a pardon or clemency.

Don’t miss the recently released true crime story: "Scapegoat: The Chino Hills Murders and the Framing of Kevin Cooper" by J. Patrick O’Connor, editor and publisher of Crime Magazine. Available online through major booksellers.

Black-Afrikan People Must Fight Against the Death Penalty !

The Conscious Community Jan. 11, 2012

by Sis. Marpessa Kupendua - 1/2012

"Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty. In Virginia, before the end of slavery, there was only one crime for which a white person could be executed. But there were 66 crimes for which a slave could be executed." – Sis. Angela Davis, 2003

Most of us in the Black/Afrikan community very understandably worry more about our children being killed on the streets than by lethal injection. Some of our neighborhoods are devastated by drugs, poverty and violence and so discussions around the uneven application of the death penalty are a glaring non-issue when so many of us live on the frontlines of these war zones. Each day we hear and read of horror stories that fill us with disbelief, anguish and rage and many want an eye for an eye! We so readily identify with being victimized that we even support the executions of juveniles and the mentally disabled in particularly gruesome incidences. It also seems a preposterous topic to raise because most people can't possibly foresee that any member of their immediate families could ever face a death sentence.

But when this system offers to murder on our alleged behalf, it carries a double-edged sword. Many may believe in the execution of the perpetrator of today's heinous leading news story, but be outraged at the blatantly unjust execution of another. Unfortunately, we are not given the luxury to pick and choose once we support state-sanctioned murder -- we are either for it, regardless of how corrupt many of these sham trials are, or against it! In 2008 the Death Penalty Information Center stated that 127 death row inmates had been exonerated, and that's just those who were fortunate enough to get evidence admitted that cleared them. The courageous work of anti-lynching heroine Ida B. Wells was not meant to culminate in high-tech state lynchings where even the cause of death is certified as 'homicide'.

Statistical data is abundant that the criminal justice system, from profiling, arrest, and sentencing, impacts Black/Afrikan and Latino defendants the harshest, and the death penalty is, of course, no exception.(1) Although some political activists will concede the racist, classist and political aspects of the death penalty in specific cases, they continue to remain uninvolved in the larger struggle to abolish it completely.

Black activists must dialogue and challenge that mindset within our ranks, or we continue to risk that far too many of our brothers and sisters – such as Bro. Gregory (Ajamu) Resnover, Bro. Ziyon Yisrayah, Bro. Shaka Sankofa, Bro. Troy Davis and many more – will be wiped off of the planet. If we stand against racist oppression, we must fully understand that we are all under potential threat of life – slow-speed death sentences -- or straight up legalized lynching.

Since Georgia succeeded in murdering Troy Davis, an innocent man with worldwide support during which Black people held the highest positions in this country and did not intervene, what is to stop the executions of dozens more wrongfully convicted and oversentenced captives with limited or no support, particular those the state paints as 'terrorists' during the age of NDAA? We must include the abolition of the death penalty as a major plank of all of our platforms. No more treating capital punishment as a back burner issue and dismissing it as a largely white movement!

Existing mostly-white anti-DP organizations should be confronted as to their lack of employment of Blacks and other people of color, especially those who have intimate knowledge of the death penalty through personal experience. Bro. Lawrence Hayes wrote an open letter to anti-DP organizations in December, 2011, that explains his personal frustration as someone who was entombed for 2 1/2 yrs in the death house and 20 yrs in prison before being exonerated: "After my release, I help found the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and have worked in Education, as a Paralegal, for an anti death penalty United Nation's NGO and in Human Service. I am well educated, can write and publicly articulate my positions, I am conscious and bring first hand experience to an organization that no other employee has. However, for the past five years I've made several attempts to work in a capacity directly involving anti death penalty work, mainly with groups like the Washington, DC based National Death Penalty Center, ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Amnesty International, etc. and haven't been able to land a job. This disturbs me to no end and I would like the anti death penalty activist community, these organizations volunteer members, staff and donors to ask this question of why, with the release so many former death house prisoners, they don't have a single one working for them."

"I must admit that at times I wonder and question the intentions and knowledge of the death penalty activists (abolishers) who are horrified and oppose the killing of human beings, but who are not horrified at the very system in its totality, which renders such biased and unjust sentences upon its citizens and which contributes to the dehumanizing of its citizens. I say in turn that it's not just the death penalty which must be overturned, but the whole institution of criminal justice as we know it must be overturned." – From "What Is a Death Sentence?" by Bro. Adullah Hameen, who was legally lynched by the State of Delaware on May 25, 2001

The oppression of the Black community via the criminal justice system and its agents intensifies by the day. Vicious police attacks are openly viewed in all their sick glory via the internet, putting their hate speech, beatings, shootings and murders on full blast before the world. We are also all too familiar with the massive oversentencing of Blacks vs. their white counterparts, manufactured evidence, tortured confessions, deliberate confusion, lies and even more. Our children are seen as sub-human, easily manipulated, animalistic and unemployable, sent down a conveyor belt straight to these dungeons and thus insuring the financing of their own encagement.

Even though many folks will concede that some captives may be innocent, at least of lesser counts than those with which they've been charged, and that some belong in drug or psychiatric treatment and not prison, and that of course some are becoming more hardened and callous than when they went in, and that yes some will be raped, beaten, tortured, enslaved for corporate profit while in prison and even killed – the bottom line for many remains that our community cannot be seen as making excuses for crime, a la Bill Cosby. As a result, many of our brothers and sisters will advocate even harsher punishments than the system already has in place and mimic those who would call for the jailing of our children for "crimes" such as wearing sagging pants or violation of noise ordinances!

We still yet believe that this system's laws are designed to protect us, when nothing could be further from the truth! When presented with evidence that the death penalty is race- and class-based and not evenly applied, many will respond that yes, it needs to made fair, but it doesn't need to be gotten rid of, not in all cases. These laws are abitrary, political, and remade at the whim of whoever is holding our lives in their hands. This system's very foundation of racism and corruption can never be reformed or "made fair," so it definitely cannot be trusted to determine who lives and who dies.

Capital punishment is itself premeditated murder! It's about keeping alive this country's bloodthirsty passion for lynching, a passion which they will fight to feed even in the face of overwhelming innocence, recantations of perjured testimony, even to the point where an unhealthy inmate will be cured just so that they can be healthy enough to be murdered on death day!

But how many police officers and/or other officials were given the death penalty for the terrorist murders of 11 members of the MOVE family – men, women and children – when police dropped a BOMB on their home in Philadelphia in May, 1985?! How many police officers were given the death penalty in the bloody murder of 7 year old Ayanna Jones in Detroit as she slept on the sofa in her family's apartment in May, 2010? How many police and/or other officials are given the death penalty for the murders of people in our communities, period? Their badges, guns, tasers and titles do not give them the right to judge who gets to live or die – on the streets or in their prison death chambers!

"As I sit here on my bed, exhausted yet full of joy and uncertainty, feeling the affects of seven and a half years of constant chemotherapy, I am reflecting on the day of Sept. 23, 2008, as we entered the grounds of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, where I wanted to cry but I could not; I wanted to yell but I could not; I wanted to leave but I could not. Then I watched the expression on my son's face, that for the first time in his 14 years of visiting death row, he witnessed more than 100 SWAT, Tactical Squad officers, corrections officers with dozens of dogs, shotguns in hand, all because the state of Georgia wants to kill his Uncle Troy. I have only seen such force on television from the civil rights era." – from "Silencing our Joy" by Sis. Martina Correia, sister of innocent death row prisoner, Troy Davis, Sept. 25, 2008(3)

When addressing the needs of families of victims of crime, we must include the families of death row inmates. They are among the most underserved and unspoken of as they, too, cope with the tremendous depression suffered by all grief-stricken victims. These families, adults and children, are barely able to function while on the dizzying legal rollercoaster leading up to their family member's date with death. Some are treated as pariahs within their own community while struggling to carry on with work and school – simultaneously acting as their loved one's source of emotional and financial support, traveling sometimes incredibly long distances to visit through glass or even by video, gouged by outrageously over-priced phone calls and advocating for these inmates with inadequate legal representatives(2), politricians and god-complexed prison officials. These families are not offered comfort or treated with even the most basic human dignity.

The good news is that more and more community activists, and most significantly our creative and genius-filled young brothers and sisters, are not only adopting a community-wide view that eclipses the media and societal pressure to be consumed with self and self alone, but even understanding the broader significance of our people's global struggle for liberation and self-determination! There exists an incredible potential to seize the time and build a strong anti-death penalty contingent within our organizations and/or to make certain that a representative of our groups becomes involved with existing anti-DP organizing in our area, lest we continue to scramble and scurry when emergencies arise. There is an immediate need for education and discussion around the issue of capital punishment and there is an abundance of anti-DP information on and off-line to be disseminated within any gathering of our people.

Furthermore, these politricians have to be made to feel that their continued allegiance to capital punishment will negatively impact their careers, and so will anyone else who purports to act as a religious or other type of representative spokesperson for our communities. Anyone who speaks about being 'pro-life' should be confronted if they are not just as passionate regarding abolition of the death penalty!

Addressing police and prison issues is critical to building grassroots activism in any real and meaningful way, it is a fact of life for the Black/brown segment of the 99%, and the issue of state sponsored murder is a crucial part of that. This is the system that far too many of our families are touched by and, as Bro. Hameen wrote, not just the death penalty but "the whole institution of criminal justice as we know it must be overturned." We must make it "un-hip" to be down with the death penalty, particularly amongst our own ranks!

"I think we need to increase our tactical strategies to include boycotts and national/international protest. I think we need to push for psychological and emotional therapeutic counseling (stress, anxiety, anger management and bereavement) for the families of men and women facing capital punishment, especially after an execution. I, also, believe that because of the economic situations in most African-American and Taino communities, we need to develop creative ways to organize the African-American and Taino anti death penalty voice." Bro. Lawrence Hayes, exonerated death row inmate.

ABOLISH THE RACIST, CLASSIST DEATH PENALTY! FORWARD EVER!

References

(1) From www.deathpenaltyinfo.org:

• Even though blacks and whites are murder victims in nearly equal numbers of crimes, 80 percent of people executed since the death penalty was reinstated have been executed for murders involving white victims.

• More than 20 percent of Black defendants who have been executed were convicted by all-white juries.

(2) More at www.innocenceproject.org/understand/Bad-Lawyering.php. Please also check www.troyanthonydavis.org, www.onamove.com and www.freemumia.com.

(3) Sis. Martina Correira died of cancer on December 1, 2011, 2 1/2 months after the state's premeditated murder of her innocent brother, Troy Davis.

(Portions were taken from http://dreadtimes.com/blogs/entry/The-Black-Afrikan-Community-and-the-Death-Penalty)

A Witness for Troy Davis: a Legalized Lynching

Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011
From: blackaugustrebellion@gmail.com

Thomas Ruffin, Jr., Esquire © October-November 2011

“Stand Up! Testify! We Won’t Let Troy Davis Die!”
The militant chant of hundreds of mainly black, but also many white, protesters
marching on the state capitol building to a somber NAACP-Amnesty-International
prayer vigil in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, the night before the Troy Davis execution
on September 21, 2011.

On September 21, 2011, I witnessed the legalized lynching of my client,
Troy Anthony Davis, who died by “lethal injection” shortly before his
forty-third birthday. A funny man, and, indeed, a religious and
politically sensitive black man, Troy Davis assumed a very public role that
he never wanted: that of facing execution for a crime someone else
committed. Before then, he braved through the ordeal of being falsely
accused and tried in Savannah, Georgia, for the senseless murder of a white
police officer. After being convicted and sentenced to death in August
1991, Troy realized that, notwithstanding this nation’s simplistic claims
of equality and fairness, American courts do not provide an invisible
barrier called “justice” as protection for the wrongly accused, especially
those who are black and poor. After all, in the United States, poor
people, especially blacks and Latinos, face imprisonment and suffering,
including execution, at a rate vastly disproportionate to our numbers in
American society.

For example, in Georgia, where black males make up no more than about 15%
of the state’s population, black men comprise about 48.4% of Georgia’s
death row. In fact, in Georgia, where black people in general constitute
about 30% of the state’s population, we make up about 61.5% of Georgia’s
prison population. That is to say, about 33,669 of Georgia’s prison
population are black. After a close reading of history, we should not be
surprised. After all, from 1882 through 1923, white mobs in Georgia
publicly lynched 458 people, 95% or 435 of whom were black people of
African descent. Afterwards, from 1924 through the present, Georgia
“legally” executed 471 people, 74.9% or 353 of whom were black. Most, if
not all, of the executed, like the lynched victims before, never received
the protections in the law that well-to-do whites receive in Georgia.
However, in a system based in its origins on a form of white capital
supremacy, elected policy makers and other such elites seldom worry about
adequate legal protections for blacks and the poor.

In fact, in the United States, black people of African descent, or rather
those born in this country and whose first language is English, comprise an
estimated 12.2% to 13% of the American populace. However, black males make
up about fifty percent of the American prison population and, as of January
1, 2011, about 41.8% of America’s total death row population. To be sure,
for every 100,000 black males living in the United States on June 30, 2009,
about 4,749 were imprisoned. Hence, a total of perhaps 1,021,000 black men
(not including Hispanic black men) were imprisoned in June 2009. As of
August 27, 2011, federal prisons incarcerated about 217,582 people, about
37.9% of whom were black. As a matter of fact, by January 1, 2011, the
federal government imprisoned sixty-seven people on its death row, about
50.7% or thirty-four of whom were black men.

For similar examples, we should look at Maryland and Virginia, two
mid-Atlantic states. In Maryland, where black males make up about 14% of
the state population, and where the total black population constitutes no
more than about 28% of the state populace, the total prison and jail
population equals about 23,285 people, with about 77% of that number being
black. In the meantime, Maryland’s death row imprisons five men, 80% or
four of whom are black. Similarly, in Virginia, where black people
constitute about 20% of the state’s population, we make up about 68% of the
state’s prison and jail population of about 35,564. Furthermore, black
men, who constitute about 10% of Virginia’s population, make up at least
45.4% of the condemned on Virginia’s death row. In sum, for every 100,000
black people in Maryland, 1,579 live in Maryland prisons or jails. As for
Virginia, for every 100,000 black people, 2,331 are imprisoned by the
Virginia commonwealth. In contrast, for every 100,000 white people in
Maryland, merely 288 are incarcerated by the state. Similarly, for every
100,000 white people in Virginia, merely 396 are imprisoned by the
commonwealth.

This pattern of racial bias persists throughout much of the United States,
at least where black people make up a sizable percentage of the state
population. In North Carolina, where black people make up about 21.5% of
the population, we make up about 51.5% of its death row population and
about 64% of its prison population. In South Carolina, where black people
constitute 29.5% of the populace, we comprise about 52.4% of the state’s
death row population and about 69% of its prison population. While these
and other examples from the south may be instructive, little difference
will come from a review of the north. In Ohio, for example, where black
people constitute about 11.8% of the population, we make up about 51.5% of
Ohio’s death row. Similarly, we make up about 52% of the state’s prison
population. Likewise, in Pennsylvania, where black people make up about
10.8% of the population, we provide a little more than 60.7% of the state’s
death row population and about 56% of its prison population.

Despite these numbers, black people do not commit most of the crimes in the
United States. As a matter of fact, black people never committed most of
the felony or misdemeanor offenses in the United States. Rather, we simply
faced in a racially disparate fashion deliberate targeting by American
police. In fact, according to a U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report
titled Race of Prisoners Admitted to State and Federal Institutions,
1926-86, black people, in 1926, during some of the harshest conditions of
so-called “Jim Crow” or apartheid segregation, constituted no more than
about 21.4% of the American prison population. By 1950, the percentage
increased to 29.7%. Apparently, the trend towards focusing the
government’s police powers on black communities for prosecution and
imprisonment gradually increased over the last century, probably as
lynch-law and racial segregation waned while more discreet forms of
oppression became preferable. Over the years, this racially bigoted
pattern of policing resulted in a number of injustices.

At the end of the day, these injustices included the wrongful prosecution,
the twenty-two-year imprisonment, and, ultimately, the legalized lynching
of Troy Anthony Davis. As a result, many of us proclaim as an act of
solidarity that “I am Troy Davis”. Meanwhile, the insidious nature of the
machine that poisoned Troy to death can best be identified by the
politicians, the judges, the lawyers, the police, the prison employees, the
lobbyists, and the contractors who benefit from the system and who make
sure that it functions. These people long for a morally acceptable forum
for their constituencies’ blood lust. While never admitting to racial
bias, they can never escape the statistics that outline their collective
ambition for racially disproportionate executions. Nor can they credibly
dispute the sworn recantations by seven of the nine surviving witnesses
who, at first, testified against Troy Davis in August 1991 on the murder
charge, but who later confessed that they lied at trial against Troy and
often did so because of illegal pressures or suasion from local police. In
addition, the Georgia politicians and judges who maintain the death penalty
ignored the sworn proof offered by additional eyewitnesses who saw Officer
MacPhail’s murder, or who heard a confession to the crime, and who
ultimately disclosed under oath that Sylvester “Red” Coles, a police
informant, actually committed the murder or confessed to the crime, not
Troy Davis.

For those offended by Troy’s murder, we should honor the words “I am Troy
Davis” by working to abolish the American death penalty, and we should
insist upon achieving that goal within three to five years of Troy’s
execution. While pursuing this goal, we should also eliminate racially
disparate imprisonment in American society. As a partial remedy to the
fiscal troubles of the United States, we should demand that racially
disparate imprisonment and policing come to an end within three to five
years, if not immediately. As a matter of conscience and sound public
policy, the two causes must be linked. After all, the scourge of America’s
death penalty must end, and the pervasive system of police state apartheid
must be crushed into nonexistence, if the United States would atone for its
biased prosecutions against those who, because of incarceration, embody the
words “I am Troy Davis”.

At the end of the day, racial minorities should not be targeted for prison.
Innocents and the poor should not be legally lynched on America’s death
row. The American police state, with its history of racial slavery and
other forms of oppression, should not be trusted with seemingly unlimited
power to torment the poor and peoples of color. In other words, the
enforcement of the law should not be based upon its violation by the state.
Hence, if constitutional precepts such as “due process” and “equal
protection of the law” mean anything, then racially disparate prosecutions
and callous indifference to innocence should not be the norm. We should
oppose these evils until they no longer exist. In his last words, Troy
Davis issued more or less this same mandate late at night on September 21,
2011, while strapped down to a gurney in a rural Georgia prison. Many of
us heard Troy’s mandate. The question before us today is whether we will
fulfill it.

Troy Davis executed, supporters cry injustice

(CBS/AP) Sept. 22, 2011

JACKSON, Ga. - Strapped to a gurney in Georgia's death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail. Just a few feet away behind a glass window, MacPhail's son and brother watched in silence.

Outside the prison, a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators cried, hugged, prayed and held candles. They represented hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide who took up the anti-death penalty cause as Davis' final days ticked away.

"I am innocent," Davis said moments before he was executed Wednesday night. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."

Prosecutors and MacPhail's family said justice had finally been served.

Troy Davis executed in Georgia
High Court rejects Troy Davis' last minute appeal
Troy Davis' last words: I'm innocent

"I'm kind of numb. I can't believe that it's really happened," MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. "All the feelings of relief and peace I've been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace."

She dismissed Davis' claims of innocence.

"He's been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything."

Davis was scheduled to die at 7 p.m., but the hour came and went as the U.S. Supreme Court apparently weighed the case. More than three hours later, the high court said it wouldn't intervene. The justices did not comment on their order rejecting Davis' request for a stay.

CBS News justice correspondent Jan Crawford reports that even the four liberal justices on the nation's highest court agreed - Davis had multiple chances to prove his innocence, and each time he failed.

Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis' behalf and he had prominent supporters. His attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, but state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against him — three times on Wednesday alone.

U.S. executions, by the numbers
White supremacist executed in Texas
The slow death of the death penalty?

Officer MacPhail's widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, said it was "a time for healing for all families."

"I will grieve for the Davis family because now they're going to understand our pain and our hurt," she said in a telephone interview from Jackson. "My prayers go out to them. I have been praying for them all these years. And I pray there will be some peace along the way for them."

Davis' supporters staged vigils in the U.S. and Europe, declaring "I am Troy Davis" on signs, T-shirts and the Internet. Some tried increasingly frenzied measures, urging prison workers to stay home and even posting a judge's phone number online, hoping people would press him to put a stop to the lethal injection. President Barack Obama deflected calls for him to get involved.

"They say death row; we say hell no!" protesters shouted outside the Jackson prison before Davis was executed. In Washington, a crowd outside the Supreme Court yelled the same chant.

As many as 700 demonstrators gathered outside the prison as a few dozen riot police stood watch, but the crowd thinned as the night wore on and the outcome became clear.

Minister Lynn Hopkins, left, comforts her partner Carolyn Bond after hearing that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last minute plea of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis In Jackson, Ga., Sept. 21, 2011.

(Credit: AP)

Davis' execution had been halted three times since 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court even gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year. While the nation's top court didn't hear the case, they did set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence — a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing, a lower court judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, and the justices didn't take up the case.

His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously. But they, too, said they wouldn't reconsider their decision. Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency.

As his last hours ticked away, an upbeat and prayerful Davis turned down an offer for a special last meal as he met with friends, family and supporters.

"Troy Davis has impacted the world," his sister Martina Correia said before the execution. "They say, `I am Troy Davis,' in languages he can't speak."

Members of Davis' family who witnessed the execution left without talking to reporters.

Davis' supporters included former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the NAACP, several conservative figures and many celebrities, including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

"I'm trying to bring the word to the young people: There is too much doubt," rapper Big Boi, of the Atlanta-based group Outkast, said at a church near the prison.

At a Paris rally, many of the roughly 150 demonstrators carried signs emblazoned with Davis' face. "Everyone who looks a little bit at the case knows that there is too much doubt to execute him," Nicolas Krameyer of Amnesty International said at the protest.

Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at the time. MacPhail rushed to the aid of a homeless man who prosecutors said Davis was bashing with a handgun after asking him for a beer. Prosecutors said Davis had a smirk on his face as he shot the officer to death in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah.

No gun was ever found, but prosecutors say shell casings were linked to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted.

Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter, but several of them have recanted their accounts and some jurors have said they've changed their minds about his guilt. Others have claimed a man who was with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer.

"Such incredibly flawed eyewitness testimony should never be the basis for an execution," Marsh said. "To execute someone under these circumstances would be unconscionable."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which helped lead the charge to stop the execution, said it considered asking Obama to intervene, even though he cannot grant Davis clemency for a state conviction.

Press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying that although Obama "has worked to ensure accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system," it was not appropriate for him "to weigh in on specific cases like this one, which is a state prosecution."

Dozens of protesters outside the White House called on the president to step in, and about 12 were arrested for disobeying police orders.

Davis was not the only U.S. inmate put to death Wednesday evening. In Texas, white supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was put to death for the 1998 dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Jr., one of the most notorious hate crime murders in recent U.S. history.

On Thursday, Alabama is scheduled to execute Derrick Mason, who was convicted in the 1994 shooting death of convenience store clerk Angela Cagle.

A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE: TROY HAS BEEN DENIED CLEMENCY

From Campaign to End the Death Penalty

Troy Anthony Davis has been denied clemency by the Georgia Board of Pardons and
Parole. This means that Troy could be executed tomorrow at 7 p.m. if the board does
not reverse its decision, and if no court intervenes.

Members of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty will not idly sit by while a murder
is carried out in the name of the state of Georgia. We will be holding speakouts and
rallies to demand that this execution be stopped and to urge the pardons board to
reverse its decision. We encourage everyone to come out if they can and continue to
phone, fax and e-mail messages to the board.

Over 1 million people have signed petitions in support of clemency for Troy. More
than 3,000 people marched and rallied for Troy just five days ago in Atlanta--the
largest demonstration of support for any death row prisoner since the protests to
stop the execution of Stan Tookie Williams in California in 2005. Global actions of
solidarity were held all over the world, including Germany, Hong Kong, Belgium and
Nigeria, and more than 300 actions that took place across the U.S.

Troy is supported by numerous civil rights leaders, including NAACP president Ben
Jealous, Jesse Jackson of Rainbow Push, and Al Sharpton of the National Action
Network. Other prominent supporters include President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, former FBI Director William Sessions, and former federal prosecutor
and death penalty supporter Bob Barr.

The question that has to be asked is: Why can't the members of the Georgia Board of
Pardons and Paroles see what over a million people have?

No physical evidence connects Troy to the murder for which he was condemned to
death, and seven of the nine witnesses against him at his original trial have
recanted their original testimony against Troy. Brenda Davis, one of the jurors in
that trial, told CNN in 2009, "If I knew then what I know now, Troy Davis would not
be on death row. The verdict would be 'not guilty.'"

Why isn't this good enough to win clemency for Troy? For that matter, why isn't it
good enough to win him a new trial where the evidence of his innocence could be
heard by a jury?

The answer is simple: It is good enough. People have won reversals in their cases
for far less than what Troy has put forward.

So why are so many politicians and state officials in Georgia determined to kill Troy?

This case is not merely a matter of guilt or innocence. Race and class have
everything to do with why Troy was arrested in the first place, and why he has had
such a hard time getting a hearing in the courts ever since. Troy was a Black man
accused of killing a white police officer in a city of the Deep South, and he was
too poor to afford good legal representation at his first trial.

Now that he does have lawyers who have been able to unravel the case against him,
Troy is required under the law to prove his innocence in a court system that wants
to accept the evidence as it was presented against him nearly 20 years ago. Without
incontrovertible proof of innocence--like DNA testing that excludes him--it is very
difficult to prove innocence in the eyes of the law.

It all comes down to this terrible truth, as Troy himself put it in an interview in
the New Abolitionist: "Georgia feels it's better to kill me than admit I'm
innocent."

If Georgia goes forward and executes Troy Davis, it will be very definition of a
modern-day lynching.

When Blacks were lynched in this country, it was often based on a lie--that they
were guilty of some crime and deserved their fate. And there was no recourse for
them in the court system or wider power structure. The perpetrators of lynchings
were almost never punished--only 1 percent of such cases ever went trial, and far
fewer were ever convicted.

Troy Davis has been convicted and sentenced to death based on a series of lies--and
he, too, has found no recourse. Because "Georgia feels it's better to kill me than
admit I'm innocent."

WE MUST STAND UP AGAINST THIS MODERN-DAY LYNCHING AND SAY NO TO THE EXECUTION OF
TROY DAVIS AND NO TO THE RACIST DEATH PENALTY.

For more information on Troy's case and to keep posted on what you can do today and
tomorrow, visit the CEDP website at http://nodeathpenalty.org. Send your messages
urging reversal to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole--Call 404-656-5651,
e-mail webmaster@pap.state.ga.us <mailto:webmaster@pap.state.ga.us> and fax
404-651-8502.

Save Troy Davis' life

URGENT ACTION NEEDED!

The state of Georgia has set Troy Davis's execution date for midnight
on September 21st, just two weeks from today.

<http://youtu.be/1DGqRFM443Y>Short video featuring Troy's sister
Martina Davis-Correia



Troy Davis is on death row for the 1989 murder of a police officer in
Savannah, GA. Troy has always maintained his innocence, and there was
never any physical evidence linking him to the crime.

Seven out of the nine non-police witnesses have since recanted or
changed their testimony, some citing police intimidation. A judge
labeled his own ruling as "not ironclad" and the original prosecutor
has voiced reservations about Davis's guilt. New witnesses have come
forth identifying another suspect.

Despite this, the state of Georgia has signed his 4th death warrant.

See below for actions you can take from the Troy Davis campaign,
National Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Amnesty International,
and NAACP.

Click here for info on Days of Solidarity
with Troy Davis Sept 16 - 19 called by Amnesty Intl

From Amnesty Intl: The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles
will hold a clemency hearing for Troy Davis on Monday, September 19,
two days before he is scheduled to be executed at 7 pm on September 21.
They have denied him this request in previous hearings. During the days
leading up to this hearing we should declare our Solidarity with Troy. Come to
Atlanta for the big September 16 march and rally at Ebeneezer Baptist
Church, or organize events in your own community for that day. Make the
weekend of the 17th-18th a time for reflection or prayer: for the Davis family,
for the MacPhail family, and for justice to prevail.

An Innocent Man Facing Execution in Georgia 4th
Death warrant signed for Troy Anthony Davis
Tuesday, September 6, 2011

TROY MOSAIC: LEND YOUR FACE FOR JUSTICE

MY NAME IS TROY ANTHONY DAVIS, 41 YEARS OLD.
I HAVE BEEN ON DEATH ROW IN GEORGIA FOR 19 -+YEARS.
TROY A. DAVIS 657378
GDCP PO BOX 3877 G-3-79
JACKSON, GEORGIA 30233

Please write to Troy Davis sending letters of encouragement and support.

----------
4th Execution Date, Call to Action

NCADP.Org Call to Action

Amnesty International Call to Action

NAACP Help Save Troy Davis Call to Action

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed on September 21st.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his final appeal earlier this
year. But the story remains the same - Troy Davis could very well be innocent.

However, in the state of Georgia, the Board of Pardons & Paroles
holds the keys to Troy's fate. In the days before Davis' execution,
this Board will hold a final clemency hearing - a final chance to
prevent Troy Davis from being executed.

Davis was convicted on the basis of witness testimony - seven of the
nine original witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony.

One witness said in a CNN news interview "If I knew then, what I know
now, Troy Davis would not be on death row."

I know it's difficult to believe that a system of justice could be so
terribly flawed, but keep in mind that Troy has survived three
previous execution dates, because people like you kept the justice
system in check!

We've been bracing for this moment and the time for action is now!
Here's what you can do to join the fight:
*
Sign our petition to the Board of Pardons & Paroles urging them to grant
clemency! We'll deliver your signatures next week.
*
Organize locally for Troy: Take to the streets with us. Soon we'll be
announcing the date for the official Troy Davis Day of Action. Sign
up now to rally in the coming days to stop the execution of Troy Davis.
* Tell everyone you know! Spread the word about this injustice on
Twitter by using the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt. Be sure to tell your
Facebook friends Troy's story too!

Thank you for fighting for Troy,

Laura Moye
Director, Death Penalty Abolition Campaign
Amnesty International USA
;Follow my Troy Davis updates on
Twitter: @lauramoye

Save Troy's Life/ Khabir bday/ Hungerstrike to resume 9/26

Call Georgia Governor Nathan Deal's office and ask him to grant Troy
Davis Clemency (404)656-1776

Call Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles ask them to grant Troy
Clemency (404) 656-5651

**** PLEASE RE-POST **** It is literally life and death...
http://www.ajc.com/news/troy-anthony-davis-execution-1160699.html?cxntlid=brkng_nws_bnr

---------------------------------

Maumin Khabir is recognized as a political prisoner by the Jericho
Movement and others. His birthday is coming up and I'm told that in
the past he hasn't been able to receive cards so they would be
appreciated this time . . .

Khabir, Maumin (aka Melvin Mayes) #09891-000
USP Terre Haute, P.O. Box 33, Terre Haute, IN 47808
Birthday: September 15
-------------------------------------

Pelican Bay SHU prisoners plan to resume hunger strike Sept. 26

September 1, 2011

http://sfbayview.com/2011/pelican-bay-shu-prisoners-plan-to-resume-hunger-strike-sept-26/

Illinois' death row officially shuts down

July 1, 2011 Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — After spending years at the center of heated national
debate over capital punishment, Illinois' death row officially died Friday
when a state law abolishing the death penalty quietly took effect.

The state garnered international attention when then-Republican Gov.
George Ryan declared a moratorium in 2000 after several inmates' death
sentences were overturned and he cleared death row three years later. One
man who came within 48 hours of being executed was among those later
declared innocent.

The fate of executions in the state was sealed in March when Democratic
Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation ending the death penalty, following
years of stories of men sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit
and families of murder victims angrily demanding their loved ones' killers
pay with their own lives.

Illinois has executed 12 men since 1977, when the death penalty was
reinstated, but none since 1999.

Quinn subsequently commuted the sentences of the 15 men on death row to
life in prison without the possibility of parole. Fourteen are now in
maximum security prisons, while one is in a medium-high security prison
with a mental health facility.

Ironically, the state's death row at the prison in Pontiac, about 100
miles southwest of Chicago, has been turned into a place where inmates go
when they're deemed worthy of leaving the state's super-maximum prison in
southern Illinois, the Tamms Correctional Center, and enter a
less-restrictive program.

"It is a step down from Tamms," said Stacey Solano, spokeswoman for the
Illinois Department of Corrections. "When they transition out, it is a
restrictive environment but not as restrictive as Tamms."

As for the death chamber itself, no decision has been made about what — if
anything — will be done with it, Solano said.

The legislation abolishing the death penalty was signed by Quinn amid much
fanfare, but Friday's finality was barely noted around the state. Solano
said the department received just two calls for information from the media
on Friday.

That lack of interest stands in contrast to the last dozen years or so
when Illinois was often at the forefront of debate over the death penalty.

Ryan, who imposed the execution moratorium after the death sentences of 13
men were overturned, called the state's capital punishment system "haunted
by the demon of error." He cleared death row shortly before leaving office
in 2003, by commuting the sentences of 167 condemned inmates to life in
prison.

Even as lawmakers debated the death penalty and the moratorium,
prosecutors continued to seek the death penalty. By the time Quinn signed
the bill in March, there were 15 men on death row.

Among them was Brian Dugan, who was convicted in 2009 in the 1983 slaying
of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico — years after two men were sentenced to
death for the same slaying before they were ultimately exonerated and
released from prison.

His attorney, Steven Greenberg, said Friday that shutting down death row
was proper given that people were convicted and sentenced to death for
that crime and others they did not commit.

"Anytime you've got a system where there is a danger of providing
retribution on the wrong person, that's no different than vigilante
justice, which is what we had," he said.

Greenberg said some juries, with their decisions not to recommend the
death penalty in other cases in recent years, were already sending a
message that they remained concerned about the possibility of executing an
innocent person.

Former Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine, a proponent of the death
penalty and a vocal critic of Ryan's decision to clear death row, pointed
out that among those who benefit from the ban is a man who raped a mother
and daughter in front of one another before stabbing them to death.

"I believe there are some people who do such terrible things that they
forfeit their right to be among us," he said.

Devine said he doesn't believe the death penalty is gone forever in
Illinois, and that the debate will begin anew when there is a particularly
horrific crime.

"I suspect when the next John Wayne Gacy, Timothy McVeigh ... happens
there will be some discussion of bringing it back," he said. "Nothing is
carved in stone."

Retired Supreme Court Justice: Capital Punishment ‘Shot Through with Racism'

Posted by: Jessie

http://www.racismreview.com/blog/

The New York Times is reporting that retired Supreme Court Justice Stevens has
written an essay that offers a devastating critique of the death penalty as “shot
through with racism.”  In a detailed, candid and critical essay to be published soon
in The New York Review of Books, Stevens wrote that personnel changes on the court,
coupled with “regrettable judicial activism,” had created a system of capital
punishment that is “shot through with racism, skewed toward conviction, infected
with politics and tinged with hysteria.”  While other justices (e.g. O’Connor and
Souter) have offered some commentary since retiring, their rather abstract
discussions of legal issues is, apparently, nothing like the blow-by-blow critique
in Justice Stevens’ death penalty essay, which will be published in The New York
Review’s Dec. 23 issue and will be available on its Web site on Sunday evening.


In 2008, two years before he announced his retirement, Justice Stevens reversed
course and in a concurrence said that he now believed the death penalty to be
unconstitutional.  But the reason for that change of heart, after more than three
decades on the court and some 1,100 executions, has in many ways remained a mystery,
and now Justice Stevens has provided an explanation.  He will also be on “60
Minutes” on Sunday night.
The essay is actually a review of the book Peculiar Institution: America’s Death
Penalty in an Age of Abolition, by David Garland, a professor of law and sociology
at New York University. The book compares American and European approaches to the
death penalty, and in the essay Stevens appears to accept its major conclusions.
Garland attributes American enthusiasm for capital punishment to politics and a
cultural fascination with violence and death.  According to the New York Times
article, Stevens notes that the problems with the administration of capital
punishment extend beyond the courthouse and into the voting booth.  Referring to the
“race-based prosecutorial decisions” allowed by the 1987 McCleskey v. Kemp, ruling
that even solid statistical evidence of racial disparities in the administration of
the death penalty did not violate the Constitution, Stevens wrote:

“That the murder of black victims is treated as less culpable than the murder of
white victims provides a haunting reminder of once-prevalent Southern lynchings.”
This bold move by a retired Supreme Court Justice is good news for those concerned
with the injustice of capital punishment.







Categories : criminal justice, death penalty, new jim crow
Comments (2)



Apr
18

Race and the Death Penalty, IV: ResourcesPosted by: admin | Comments (1)
In this last post of our four-part blog series on race and the death penalty, we*
would like to provide you with some additional links.  As our series this week
illustrated, the death penalty today looks very much the same as in the past. If you
would like to learn more about race and the death penalty, please visit:

The Innocence Project
Death Penalty Information Center
The Sentencing Project
American Civil Liberties Union: Race and the Death Penalty
Amnesty International Death Penalty and Race
While the death penalty has undergone what some would call a legitimacy crisis in
recent years with issues of innocence and cost becoming prominent, we argue that we
should still pay attention to issues of racial bias.
~ *We are a group of four sociology students studying the death penalty in Danielle
Dirks’ “Capital Punishment in America” undergraduate course at University of
Texas-Austin.  This is the first post of our four-part blog series on race and the
death penalty. Please read and feel free to comment or ask questions. Thank you for
your time!







Categories : criminal justice, death penalty, links, race, racism
Comments (1)



Apr
18

Race and the Death Penalty, III: Troy Anthony Davis and the Denial of JusticePosted
by: admin | Comments (9)
In many ways, the story of racial injustice and the death penalty in the U.S. can be
summarized in the story of Troy Anthony Davis.
On the night of August 19, 1989, an off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail, was shot
and killed. The events leading to his death are quite unclear.  Eyewitness accounts
and testimonies have been altered and recanted. However, the story was reported as
follows: Standing outside a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia, a black man, Sylvester
“Redd” Coles was seen harassing a homeless man for beer. Coles continued to harass
the homeless man and followed the man to a nearby parking lot. Several bystanders,
including Troy Anthony Davis, followed the scuffle. Coles was overheard threatening
to shoot the homeless man and seen hitting him over the head with a gun. Hearing the
homeless man’s cries for help, MacPhail responded to the scene. While responding to
the fight, a .38 caliber revolver set off ultimately killing officer MacPhail.
At first, witnesses had a hard time identifying the shooter as the scene was not
well lit, and two men present, Coles and Davis, appeared similar in appearance to
many.  Soon after the shooting, Coles confronted the police to tell his version of
events and implicate Davis. Unaware that he was accused of a crime, Davis went to
Atlanta in search of job opportunities. Davis’ trip appeared to police like an
attempt to flee the scene of the crime and an admission of his guilt.

(Protesters hold images of Davis, from here)
During the day on August 19, 1989, another shooting occurred at a party where both
Coles and Davis were present. At this scene, Coles was overheard arguing with the
victim. Shell casings from both scenes revealed that the same firearm had been used
in both shootings. Despite the mounting evidence against Coles, his belongings were
never searched, and he was never questioned as a suspect in either crime. Davis was
deemed guilty and put on trial. There was never an investigation into his part in
the crime, and he was never questioned as a suspect.
Here is where things get even messier…

Police never corroborated Coles’ story.
Without performing an investigation, Davis’ picture was broadcast on TV along with
proclamations that he was a cop killer.
Coles’ picture was not included in a photo lineup for witnesses.
Seven out of nine witnesses have recanted their testimonies citing coercion,
threats, and police pressure. Eyewitness recantations include the following: Dorothy
Ferrell told police that she saw nothing, yet testified falsely.  Ferrell later told
the public that she felt “compelled to identify Mr. Davis because she was on parole.
[A detective] showed Ms. Ferrell only one photograph and suggested she should
[identify Davis]” [link opens PDF]. Darrell Collins was 16 at the time of his
eyewitness testimony to the police.  The police threatened him with jail time if he
did not identify Davis as the shooter.  Collins, afraid of being sentenced to jail
time, then knowingly falsely identified Davis.
One of the individuals who has not recanted his testimony is the primary alternative
suspect.
At the time of Davis’ habeas corpus petition, Congress cut funding to
post-conviction defender organizations, such as the one representing Davis.
Therefore, Davis lost the majority of his defense and evidence of recantations and
other new evidence was never discovered or heard by a jury.
The case of Troy Anthony Davis offers insight into the kind of injustices that a
person of color faces in the criminal justice system. To learn more about upcoming
proceedings in the Davis case, and to take action on his behalf, please visit:

Amnesty International’s Justice for Troy Campaign
NAACP’s I am Troy Davis Campaign
Troy Anthony Davis’ Legal Case
With the mounting evidence of Davis’ innocence, why does he still sit on death row?
We ask several questions for readers here:

If Davis were a white man, would police have produced a thorough investigation?
If Davis were a white man, would his pleas of innocence be taken more seriously?
If Davis were a white man, would he be provided with fair and adequate treatment by
the police/justice system?
~ *We are a group of four sociology students studying the death penalty in Danielle
Dirks’ “Capital Punishment in America” undergraduate course at University of
Texas-Austin.  This is the first post of our four-part blog series on race and the
death penalty. Please read and feel free to comment or ask questions. Thank you for
your time!







Categories : criminal justice, death penalty, race, racism
Comments (9)



Apr
17

Race and the Death Penalty, II: Black Defendants, White VictimsPosted by: admin |
Comments (15)
This is the second part of a four-part series on the most common death penalty
cases: those involving black defendants and white victims. In this post, *we explore
some of the research about the racial dynamics in this type of death penalty case.
Most crime is intra-racial, that is it happens among the same racial group. The
majority of homicides of whites are perpetrated by other whites, the majority of
homicides involving black victims are perpetrated by other blacks.
Yet, despite this statistical fact, the black defendant/white victim has the highest
chance of being selected for a death sentence.   One study in the midwest found that
prosecutors are 2.5 times more likely to seek the death penalty when a black
defendant kills a white victim.
One factor that may be influencing the death penalty decision is the race of the
prosecutor.  According to a study conducted by Professor Jeffrey Pokorak of St.
Mary’s University School of Law, the racial breakdown of District Attorneys in death
penalty states is as follows: 97.5% whites, 1.2% black, and 1.2% Hispanic. There is
no absolute way to show that because the majority of District Attorneys in America
are white, they are racist against blacks. However, prosecutorial discretion studies
illustrate racial patterns in cases where death sentences are sought.
Another factor that researchers have examined is the race of the jury pool.  In
cases involving a black defendant and white victim, having five white males on the
jury doubles the chance that the death penalty will be imposed [opens PDF].  Having
just one black man on a capital jury cuts the chance of a death sentence in half
[opens PDF].  In addition to the composition of the jury pool, the prejudice of
jurors’ may also play a role in who gets the death penalty.
One study found that defendants who were perceived as looking more “stereotypically
black” (i.e., having darker features) more than doubles the chances of being
sentenced to death in capital cases involving white victims.
Our question for readers here: Do we – as a society – value the lives of black and
white victims differently?
~ *We are a group of four sociology students studying the death penalty in Danielle
Dirks’ “Capital Punishment in America” undergraduate course at University of
Texas-Austin.  This is the first post of our four-part blog series on race and the
death penalty. Please read and feel free to comment or ask questions. Thank you for
your time!







Categories : criminal justice, death penalty, race, racism
Comments (15)



Apr
17

Race and the Death Penalty, Part I: Who Gets the Death Penalty in America?Posted by:
admin | Comments (7)
The history of the death penalty in America is a history about race. While African
Americans comprise approximately 11 percent of the U.S. population, they have
constituted half (50%) of all the people executed in the U.S. since 1800. In this
post, we* begin this series by exploring racial disparities in death sentencing and
executions historically and today in the U.S.
Controlling for a variety of legal and extralegal factors, studies continue to show
that race of the victim is the single-most statistical factor in deciding who gets
sentenced to death and who gets executed.  The most active death penalty states
today are those where the most lynchings occurred historically (e.g., Virginia, the
Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas).   See
Jacobs, et al., “Vigilantism, Current Racial Threat, and Death Sentences,” American
Sociological Review (2005) 70: 656-677.
There is evidence that a defendant accused of killing a white person is more likely
to receive a death sentence than a defendant accused of killing a black person,
especially if the defendant is black, for example:

Prior to Furman v. Georgia (1972), black defendants were 12 times more likely to
receive a death sentence than white defendants. See Baldus, Pulaski and Woodworth,
Comparative Review of Death Sentences: An Empirical Study of the Georgia Experience,
74 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 661 (1983).
Black defendants are nearly four (3.9) times more likely to receive a death sentence
than white defendants.  See Richard C. Dieter, The Death Penalty in Black and White:
Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides, Report, Death Penalty Information Center, June,
1998.
Defendants accused of killing a white victim are 4.3 times more likely to receive a
death sentence than defendants accused of killing a black victim.  See See Baldus,
Pulaski and Woodworth, Comparative Review of Death Sentences: An Empirical Study of
the Georgia Experience, 74 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 661 (1983).
In an examination of death penalty rates among all death-eligible defendants in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between the years of 1983 and 1993 demonstrated that the
odds of receiving the death penalty in Philadelphia increased by 38% when the
accused was a black person.  D. Baldus, et al., Race Discrimination and the Death
Penalty in the Post Furman Era: An Empirical and Legal Overview, with Preliminary
Findings from Philadelphia, 83 Cornell L. Rev. 1638 (1998).
There is also evidence that racial disparities exist not only in who gets sentenced
to death, but who is executed, for example:

Between 1976 and 1990, only 15 white defendants were executed for killing a black
victim while 283 black defendants were executed for killing white victims.  See this
U.S. Government report [opens PDF].
It was not until 1999 that a white person was sentenced to death for killing a black
person in Texas in the case of James Byrd.
Defendants of color who have killed white victims have significantly higher chances
of being executed than other capital defendants.  See Jacobs et al., “Who Survives
on Death Row? An Individual and Contextual Analysis,” American Sociological Review
(2007) 72: 610-632
The questions we invite readers to ponder are these: Is capital punishment in the
United States a racially fair system?  Are you persuaded by the evidence we’ve
presented here?
~ *We are a group of four sociology students studying the death penalty in Danielle
Dirks’ “Capital Punishment in America” undergraduate course at University of
Texas-Austin.  This is the first post of our four-part blog series on race and the
death penalty. Please read and feel free to comment or ask questions. Thank you for
your time!







Categories : criminal justice, death penalty, racism
Comments (7)



Apr
17

Death Penalty: Four Part SeriesPosted by: Danielle Dirks | Comments (1)
I teach “Capital Punishment in America,” an undergraduate course offered through the
Department of Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin. This semester, I have
asked the students in the class to engage social media as a way to broaden our class
discussion about the death penalty.   I approached Joe and Jessie about hosting part
of this discussion here, and they kindly agreed to feature some of the students’
work on Racism Review.
Following this is a four-part blog series on race and the death penalty, each post
written by a group of four students interested in the idea of racial disparities and
the death penalty.  Part of the goal of this exercise is to generate discussion with
people outside the class, so please be sure to comment.
As many Racism Review readers are aware, the death penalty has long been fraught
with issues of racial bias and discrimination. While there have been attempts to
improve the fairness of the system, the students’ blog posts will illustrate that we
still have a long way to go when the state kills.
~ Danielle Dirks, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Texas-Austin







Categories : criminal justice, death penalty, law, race, racism
Comments (1)



Jan
06

Systemic Racism & the “Race to Execution”Posted by: Jessie | Comments (4)
The New York Times reported recently that a leading group, The American Law
Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the current system of
capital punishment almost 50 years ago, pronounced the project a failure and walked
away from it (h/t to Sister Scholar).  Even though there were other important
changes in news about the death penalty last year, including that the number of
death sentences continued to fall, Ohio switched to a single chemical for lethal
injections and New Mexico repealed its death penalty entirely,  but none of these
changes was as significant as the institute’s move, which represents “a tectonic
shift in legal theory.”  The WSJ has more analysis of this issue here, suggesting
we’re the throes of an upheaval in the administration of the death penalty.
We write here often about systemic racism and what that means.  For compelling
evidence about how race is built in to the very fabric of U.S. society, one needn’t
look much further than the evidence about the race and the death penalty.    Race is
the single greatest factor in who lives and who dies when it comes to death penalty
cases. A black defendant who kills a white victim is up to 30 times more likely to
be sentenced to death than a white defendant who kills a black victim.
The imposition of the death penalty is even more likely when there is a black
defendant and a predominantly white jury.  Most minority defendants, especially in
death penalty cases, are judged by predominantly white jurors.   White male jurors
can be especially persuasive in death penalty cases.  Researcher Bowers, Steiner and
Sandys (2001) analyzed cases in which a black defendant was accused of murdering a
white victim found that the racial composition of the jury matters in death penalty
cases.  Once the proportion of white male jurors reaches 70%, the death penalty is
far more likely.
The U.S. Supreme Court took this kind of data into consideration when it ruled in
1972 in the Furman v. George case and struck down the death penalty as “arbitrary
and capricious.”  Then, in 1987, the Supreme Court ruled again on the death penalty.
In the McCleskey v. Kemp case, the court refused to overturn an individual decision
to execute a particular man solely based on the bias in the system.   Basically,
what the Supreme Court basically decided that it didn’t want to look at the
“statistics about race” because it wouldn’t consider the social science evidence in
the case.  The evidence, had they considered it,  overwhelmingly showed a pattern of
racial bias in who lives and who dies in death penalty cases.
instead, what the Supreme Court was suggesting was that they wanted to look at
whether race played a role in each individual case, not at systemic racism.   In
some ways, what the Supreme Court was doing with this case was rejecting social
science in the law and declaring that racial inequality is ineradicable and
inevitable.
This is where the The American Law Institute comes in. They were attempting to “fix”
what had been broken with the 1987 McCleskey v. Kemp decision, and see if there was
some way to administer the death penalty in way that didn’t just reinforce racial
discrimination already in place.  Now, the organization has decided to abandon the
project and admitted it was a failure.  Another way of looking at this news is that
this is further evidence that the death penalty is deeply, systematically racist and
should be abolished.  

There is a powerful documentary that tells this story in a fresh way called “Race to
Execution” and it’s directed by Rachel Lyon, narrated by Charles Ogletree. While
it’s been out a couple of years now, it recently re-aired on my local PBS station
and I was moved by it once again.   It’s a really powerful, and nuanced, telling of
human stories of those affected by the death penalty interwoven with the court cases
and social science research about race and the death penalty.  (If you’re
considering it for the classroom, there is lots of great additional material here.)
If race is the single greatest factor in who lives and who dies, and now the leading
legal organization in the nation has admitted defeat in trying to change that, isn’t
it time to abolish the death penalty and put an end to state-sponsored racism?