Death Penalty

Death row inmate, John G. Spirko Jr. has got a 120-day reprieve from execution, his 7th, to allow more time for DNA testing.

Governor Strickland granted the reprieve that lawyers for 61-year-old John Spirko sought. Strickland granted a similar 180-day reprieve on March 27^th and former Governor Bob Taft signed the five prior reprieves.

Spirko, 60, was scheduled to be executed Sept. 18 for the August 1982 kidnapping and murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, 48, postmistress of Elgin, a small town in northwestern Ohio. His conviction was based on witness statements and his own comments to investigators. No physical evidence ties him to the killing and charges against a co-defendant who linked him to the murder have been dropped.

As with the other 6 delays, this one was granted to allow additional DNA testing on a number of items, including clothing, cigarette butts and duct tape found at the post-office crime scene and the farm field where Mottinger's body was found 6 weeks after her abduction.

Strickland's latest reprieve expires in January 2008.

The Columbus Dispatch has more on this story

Abolish Intern Dc

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

if and when kenneth foster jr. is taken to the death chamber and his life snuffed out by the state of texas a month from now he will not have been alone...for one thing he has a wife named jav'lin who was born and raised in the city of rotterdam (that's rufferdam in hip-hop lingo)...here's an excerpt from a recent interview with jav'lin about kenneth and his case...for more info visit freekenneth.com...

peace out <3

        --Hans Bennett interviews Dutch hip hop artist Jav'lin

Hans Bennett: What is Kenneth like?

Jav'lin: We've been together for two years. He is very loving, caring, passionate, and charming. He can light up the room when he starts smiling. When I first met him, this surprised me because so many death row prisoners have spiritually died. But Kenneth was still growing and shining after so many years on death row.

We both want to change the world by bringing stories of what we've seen and been through back to the people. He is so conscious and that's beautiful because when you're on death row, you don't have to be conscious. He's chosen to use the time wisely and really search for self.

H: How can folks help Kenneth?

J: We are making as much noise as possible, without being too outrageous, because we don't want to offend people with it. We are focusing on the "Law of Parties". We feel it should not have been used in Kenneth's case because there was no conspiracy, and that alone speaks for itself.

We are collecting letters to the Governor and the Board of Pardons and Paroles, so we can let them know that people are concerned with Kenneth's case. The Coalition to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is organizing rallies and education events.

We don't want letters like "this guy is innocent, ya'll are on some bullshit." We do want people to be honest, because that is our strength. Kenneth wasn't always an angel, and he did get into some bad stuff. But, he's not a killer, didn't mean for anybody to be killed, and he feels bad about that. By law, Kenneth should have some form of punishment, but he should never have been sent to death row for it. We want people to focus on that in the letters.

Folks can email letters to Kenneth.Foster.Jr@hotmail.com and Kenneth's attorney will hand-deliver them to the governor.

H: Anything else?

J: Most people on death row will say that they're innocent, so I know people are very skeptical about issues like this. But, it has been proven before that innocent people have been executed. I would suggest that everybody thinks about the death penalty and that when someone is executed, the punishment is done. He then doesn't have to live with what he did every day. Life in jail is so much harder in many ways.

Also, with life imprisonment, things can still be rectified. The authorities can admit to their mistakes, instead of executing someone who is later found to be innocent.
***
If you wish to read more about his amazing case on the web, go to: http://www.freekenneth.com/ or write:

Kenneth Foster Support Group
P.O. Box 14268
San Antonio, TX 78214

Also click here to read Hans Bennett's interview with Walidah Imarisha, following her visit with Kenneth Foster, Jr...

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

the following are not the words of a death penalty abolition activist, the national coalition to abolish the death penalty, or even conservative columnist george will who certainly has his own agenda...nope, the following words come from a city they call cowtown, from a mainstream newspaper reporter for the fort worth star-telegram named bob ray sanders...

The case of Kenneth Foster Jr., scheduled to die next month for a 1996 murder in San Antonio, is further proof of how cruel, capricious, unjust and utterly insane our death penalty laws have become.

wow!...a dozen years ago such words would have been attributed to a whacko, a charles manson apologist, a displaced remnant of haight-ashbury deluxe, or even worse - a liberal...but today such words are commonplace, mainstream, almost boring...

except for one fact - we're still killing people as a knee-jerk public policy action in spite of the fact that the death penalty has become, um, what did he say...oh yeah, "cruel, capricious, unjust and utterly insane,"...

what foster and opponents of his execution are talking around is something that in texas they call the "law of parties," and it was through this law that foster was convicted and sentenced to die even though he never participated in, intended for or anticipated a murder...

i'm sure we'll be talking about foster's case over the next few weeks...foster is out of appeals and is set to sit at fate's right hand on august 30...a writ application and request for commutation have been filed in an effort to save foster's life...his supporters also have been writing to the governor and the pardons and paroles board...

to read bob ray sanders entire piece on foster click here...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

it didn't come up as a campaign issue in 2004 and perhaps because its resonance as a significant political issue continues to dwindle it will remain below the radar in the 2008 election cycle...yes silly, i'm talking about the death penalty not flouridation...

but as i see mitt romney begin to run election ads in new hampshire, iowa, and south carolina i wanted to remind everyone out there that his so-called brand of political opportunity..., uh, i mean political conservatism is in clear juxtaposition to that of other, more traditional and well known conservative voices...

in fact back in 2003 columnist george will put the kibosh on then governor romney's assertions about the death penalty as a tool of deterrence...the piece was entitled reason and death and ran in the washington post back on october 30th of 2003...here it is for your sunday musing...

peace out <3

Reason and Death
by George F. Will

Of capital punishment, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney says: "It makes reason stare." Indeed it does.

Romney, speaking by telephone from Boston, says he wants to influence the thinking of potential killers. He means capital punishment can deter -- can "save a life or two." That is one reason he wants to remove Massachusetts from the list of 12 states without capital punishment.

A second reason is that he believes there are crimes so heinous that only capital punishment can express -- and by expressing, reinforce -- society's proportionate revulsion. A third reason is Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi.  This month in Boston he pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges in connection with his role in 10 murders. He pleaded to avoid the threat of death penalty charges in Florida and Oklahoma. "I would hate," Romney says, "to lose the ability to get Mr. Flemmi to turn state's evidence."

Romney has appointed an 11-member Council on Capital Punishment. The legal and forensic experts' task is to devise a statute that will meet the "highest evidentiary standards." He and his panel may conclude that all standards are porous enough to allow unacceptable uncertainties to pass through, and that evidentiary standards are hardly the only problem with capital punishment.

So concluded Scott Turow, the lawyer and novelist, after his service on the Illinois commission examining that state's administration of the death penalty. That experience transformed him from "a death penalty agnostic"  into an opponent, a process he recounts in a slender new book "Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty."

He cites several horrifying case histories, including one of an innocent  man convicted and sentenced to death twice. In the span the commission studied, one-third of the times Illinois stipulated the death sentence, the persons sentenced were subsequently either proved innocent or found, on second consideration, guilty of the offense but not deserving execution.  This was the context in which then-Gov. George Ryan this year commuted the sentences of all 167 Illinois prisoners sentenced to death.

Turow cites chilling instances to remind readers that eyewitness testimony can be much less than the "evidentiary gold standard" it is supposed to be.  Furthermore, because of the psychological tangles in the minds of some accused persons, and because of the leverage prosecutors have over the accused, there are exceptions to the supposed iron law that people will not confess to a crime they have not committed.

And some of the very crimes for which Romney wants capital punishment reserved -- the especially heinous -- are the ones that, Turow says, "are uniquely prone to error." Community passions around such cases put law enforcement, and especially elected state's attorneys, under extreme pressure to quickly find and convict a culprit. These passions trigger what Turow calls "the propensity of juries to turn the burden of proof against defendants accused of monstrous crimes."

A properly, meaning narrowly, drawn capital punishment statute is necessarily problematic. Restricting that penalty to a few offenses guarantees that it will rarely be inflicted. Furthermore, the thick fabric of procedural protections that courts have woven around capital punishment guarantees the elapse of, on average, more than a decade between a conviction and an execution, and has generated considerable uncertainty about who among those convicted of the few capital offenses will be executed.

Yet a punishment's deterrent power depends not only on the punishment's severity but also on the swiftness and probability of its application.  Turow says that even in Wyoming, which has the nation's highest death-sentencing rate, fewer than 6 percent of homicides result in a death sentence.

Romney is right that DNA evidence, which opponents of capital punishment  have used to free some innocent persons improperly convicted, can buttress capital punishment by establishing guilt unassailably. However, DNA evidence is not decisive -- does not provide incontrovertible proof -- in most capital cases.

A person's views of capital punishment often turn, Turow believes, on the person's views of "the perfectibility of human beings and the durability of evil." But imperfections and temptations to evil are not confined to criminals; they taint all human systems. And as for making a potential killer's "reason stare," Turow says dryly: "Murder is not a crime committed by those closely attuned to the real-world effects of their behavior."

Turow expects that the Supreme Court will eventually "conclude that capital punishment and the promise of due process of law are incompatible." Be that as it may, if Romney, a reasonable man, reads Turow's essay, he will have an even more rounded appreciation of how the ultimate punishment makes reason not merely stare but ultimately turn away.

georgewill@washpost.com

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

the state of alabama executed longtime death-row inmate darrell grayson by lethal injection on thursday for the killing an 86-year-old woman twenty-seven years ago....it was the state's second execution of the year and its 37th since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976...

grayson, 46, made a peace sign with both hands and waved them at witnesses...he did not make a lengthy final statement but rather he just smiled and nodded at witnesses he recognized and said, "Peace."

more than 50 opponents of grayson's execution, who was 19 at the time of the crime, rallied in montgomery on wednesday, urging governor riley to intervene in order for dna tests to determine if grayson raped the elderly woman...

and pay attention newbies because here's the point at which it gets interesting...

grayson's capital murder conviction did not include the rape accusation...but the rape was an aggravating factor cited by prosecutors to get the death sentence and that alone warranted dna testing...if grayson did participate in the killing of annie laura orr then he should be (and was) held accountable for the act...but if rape was the aggravating factor that landed grayson on death row and he didn't commit the rape then he should have been saddled with a life sentence and not an execution...

for all you legalphiles out there that's the law and that in fact matters...or it should have...

and so it is from that perspective that we appreciate that grayson, the chairperson of project hope to abolish the death penalty in alabama, was more than an awful act that took place in 1980 in montevallo and will be missed by those who loved him and/or came to know him and further that his case then will remain a good example of the injustices of the death penalty and the deadly flaws in its application...should you choose to read the words of phadp executive director esther brown in her tribute to grayson, a tribute that in no way disrespects or demeans the memory of mrs. orr, then click here...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

yesterday afternoon monsters and critics reported that human rights watchdog amnesty international - that's us - welcomed the abolition of the death penalty by rwanda, but warned that the central african country must improve its jailing conditions... yes, that's amnesty international - never a moment's rest so long as we live in a world awash in human rights violations...

the move opens the way for genocide suspects to be tried there...death penalty abolition was one of the conditions set by the u.n.-backed international criminal tribunal for rwanda (ictr) to allow the transfer of genocide suspects to the rwandan judiciary...

the united nations' top human rights official praised rwanda's decision to end capital punishment...louise arbour, the u.n. high commissioner for human rights, called the abolition which took effect this week,

"a powerful endorsement of the importance of pursuing justice while repudiating violence in all its forms."

anaud ryer, central africa researcher for amnesty international urged the government to ratify the united nations convention against torture to prevent mistreatment in the prisons while acknowledging this important step by the rwandan government:

"We welcome this step taken by the Rwandan government. It is a good move for the Great Lakes region as it is the first country there to abolish the death penalty. But we want to raise concern about the appalling and inhumane prison conditions in Rwanda."

as we reported here the bill was initially put forward by the president, paul kgame's rwandan patriotic front, approved by the cabinet at the beginning of the year and by the parliament over the past two months...as a result of the bill's passage approximately 600 rwandans should see their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment...

commissioner arbour praised rwanda for "demonstrating leadership by action" and said the ban announced on the 26th meant countries which had refused to hand over suspects to the courts there because they may face the death penalty could now do so...

"A country that has suffered the ultimate crime and whose people's thirst for justice is still far from quenched has decided to forego a sanction that should have no place in any society that claims to value human rights and the inviolability of the person."

so this is a big ol' shout out to rwanda which becomes the 130th country to have abolished the death penalty...

S-A-L-U-T-E

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

i always try to check out what's happening on the issue around the world and let you in on intersting stuff...i found this article soliciting reader comments on the pattaya daily news web site and i have no clue where this is from...but check it out here or at their site...

peace out <3

The case of Terapon Adhahn, a suspected serial killer crently undergoing trial in the USA, once more raises the controversy of whether or not to impose the death penaly. The phrae draconian punishment, meanihg extremely severe comes from ancient Greece and the lawmaker Draco who executed offenders for murder, treason, arson, and rape.

Religious justification for the death penalty in the West comes from Genesis - "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" and ultimately from the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi)-"an eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth, a life-for-a-life".

In 1863 Venezuela was the first country to abolish capital punishment for all crimes, including serious offenses against the state. By the mid-1960s about 25 countries had abolished the death penalty for murder, although 16 of these retained it for offenses against the state or the military code. For instance, Britain abolished capital punishment for murder in 1965, but treason, piracy, and military crimes remained capital offenses until 1998, including arson in Her Majesty's shipyards.

Today, only about 30 countries enforce the death penalty. In the U. S. 25% of the states have abolished it. However, at the same time over 30 countries have extended the grounds for capital punishment. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines impose a mandatory death sentence for the possession of relatively small amounts of illegal drugs. Thailand also executes for drug dealing still, but for larger amount sthan those previously mentioned.

Up to 20 countries impose the death penalty for various economic crimes, including bribery and corruption of public officials, embezzlement of public funds, currency speculation, and the theft of large sums of money. Sexual offenses of various kinds are punishable by death in about two dozen countries, including most Islamic states. In China, where a top officl was recentky executed for embezzlement, there are some 60 offenses which merit capital punishment.

Tne of the staunchest promonents for aboiltio was Pope John Paul II , who condemned it as "cruel and unnecessary." One of the strongest arguments is that by legitimizing the very behaviour that the law seeks to repress, capital punishment is counterproductive in the moral message it conveys. Moreover, they urge, when it is used for lesser crimes, capital punishment is immoral because it is wholly disproportionate to the harm done. The death penalty has often been imposed unjustly, the victim having been proved innocent after the execution. Other would argue it is applied in an unbalanced manner, that is doesn't deter serious crime and that's more expensive to execute than to give them a life sentence.

IN some cases, however, having capital punishment has proved a strong bargaining tool; the case of Adhahn is such a one, where prosecuters promosed to spare him if he revealed the hiding plce of the body of Zina Linnik. However, he is stiilo a prime suspect in the murder of Adre'Anna Jackson, 10, of Tillicum, killed in 2005. This of course, is where the death penalty as a deterrent braeks down, in the case of serial killers. Onece you've killed once, what's to prevent you continuing ad infinitukm, you can only be executed once!

But good readers, what are your feelings?

In Montgomery, the state attorney general is asking the Alabama and U.S. Supreme Courts not to delay the execution Thursday of one of the longest serving men on Alabama's death row.

Darrell Grayson, 46, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m.Thursday July 26, 2007 at Holman Prison at Atmore. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die for the 1980 slaying of an 86-year-old widow, Annie Laura Orr of Montevallo.

Grayson has been on death row since his conviction in 1982. Of the 195 men on death row in Alabama, only five have been there longer than Grayson, according to the state Department of Corrections.

"In my opinion, justice has been delayed too long," Attorney General Troy King said Tuesday.

I think when the attorney general was urging the courts to keep the execution on schedule, he had in mind the saying ‘justice delayed is justice denied'

Justice is not attained when a person is executed. When a person is executed, we are taking the life of another human being and failing to protect and promote the rights enshrined in several international instruments. Also by carrying out the execution, the state is placing itself in the shoes of the murderer.

What is peculiar about this case is that DNA evidence is available which has never been tested and Darrell Grayson hasn't been given the right to have it tested.

Haven't we learnt anything from the DNA based exonerations over the last few years?

Haven't the DNA based exonerations reflected the errors in the criminal justice system?

Shouldn't we give Darrell Grayson the right to have the DNA tested? What are we to gain or lose if we accord him this right?

I end by saying that we should strive to execute justice and not execute people since we live in a human rights system.

Read the Associated Press for more information

Abolish Intern DC

from the diaries of the tennesse dude...

first off lemme just say this is a reprint from the village voice..got that??? -- i'm just spreading around word for word and graphic for graphic what was already published in the village voice...having said that i've always imagined current attorney general alberto gonzalez (sic) as a sort of smithers wannabe to george bush's monty burns (okay, well in my vision he's a eunuch - both of them really)...

but the point of this is related to gonzalez's counseling (sic) of then governor bush on pending execution warrants to be signed by the governor and the review (sic) of the cases involved...or perhaps it's just because we need to laugh sometimes...

peace out <3

On January 6, 2005, Texas senator John Cornyn kicked off the confirmation hearings for attorney general wannabe Alberto Gonzales by introducing him as "an inspiration to anyone." Well, Gonzales certainly inspired Chuck Schumer yesterday. The New York senator brought out the perspiration in Gonzales.

Call me Ishmael, but Spencer Ackerman and Paul Kiel did a whale of a job on tpmmuckracker.com, quickly posting commentary and clips of Schumer and Arlen Specter lobbing spears at the AG's blowhole.

At one point, Gonzales said he "clarified" a previous statement by calling Washington Post reporter Dan Eggen and retracting it. A few minutes later, Gonzales was forced to admit that one of his aides actually contacted Eggen and that Gonzales himself didn't know what was said.

Eggen was more charitable in his front-page story this morning, but his nut graf was this:

The session was a political low point for the attorney general, whose reputation has eroded over the past seven months in Congress, in public opinion polls and among many of his own employees.

What a tough job it is to be one of the handlers of Gonzales or Bush. You got to watch those two like a hawk. And what the hell do you do when either of them is nakedly grilled? (See the full transcript of yesterday's hearing for an answer.)

In unrehearsed moments, their performances are staggering. Death-penalty foe Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking) recalls an anecdote by Tucker Carlson that left even that Bush fan astonished at the president's callousness and stupidity while the two discussed one of the people Bush had killed, Karla Faye Tucker.

Has there ever been a lawyer who's worse at thinking on his feet? Not much of a shock that Gonzales looked stupid yesterday. Sometimes pols intentionally act that way, of course. It may be difficult to tell whether Gonzales is lying or just plain dumb as a post, but the probable answer: both. He was grossly unqualified in the first place to be attorney general, as the confirmation hearings a year and a half ago showed. See my "Torture in Real Time" coverage of Gonzales trying to answer questions about the then-fresh Abu Ghraib scandal. (The full transcript of the January 6, 2005, session is here.)

Ted Kennedy was apoplectic during the confirmation hearings as he questioned Gonzales on the "techniques" of "live burial."

Yesterday's hearing showed how that's actually carried out.

Nobody should be surprised at Gonzales's performance. Russ Feingold noted back in January 2005 that, during Gonzales's term as counsel to Governor George W. Bush - when Bush became the hangingest governor in U.S. history - Gonzo didn't prepare memos on each case until the day of the execution.

Gonzales insisted that the memos merely "summarized discussions," what he called a "rolling series of discussions" with Bush "about every execution."

That was a lie. Alan Berlow's masterful "The Hanging Governor," way, way back in May 2000 in Salon, noted:

Even Bush's former counsel, Judge Alberto R. Gonzales, says that a typical execution would receive no more than 30 minutes of the governor's time.

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

yesterday lonnie earl johnson, 44, was the 19th man executed in texas this year and the 398th since the state resumed the practice in 1982 after the u.s. supreme court lifted a moratorium...

johnson was executed by lethal injection in huntsville, texas, with his mother, two friends and relatives of the victims among witnesses...in his last statement, he thanked loved ones there...

"Take care. Give everybody my regards. I love you, and I'll see you in eternity. Father take me home. I am ready to go."

for a bit more info from reuters click here...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

that's right, some people talk the talk but lisa thomas walks the walk...

lisa thomas from brewton alabama has taken her efforts to convince governor bob riley to delay an execution scheduled for thursday to the road...she began walking to montgomery on saturday to participate in a rally on the steps of the capitol wednesday and ask riley to order dna testing for darrell grayson, scheduled to die by lethal injection in the 1980 slaying of 86-year-old annie laura orr of montevallo...

amnesty international sends its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of ms. orr for the terrible tragedy that she endured...

while walking to montgomery ms. thomas said:

"If 29 million people can call and vote for 'American Idol,' I hope they will get off their behinds and ask Gov. Riley to do the DNA test."

selma lawyer faya toure, who walked with thomas part of the way sunday, said they want the state to begin administering post-conviction dna testing.

"That should be a constitutional right because it's like a denial of due process and equal protection. Most states in this country have such a law."

toure is the wife of state senator hank sanders...meanwhile assistant attorney general clay crenshaw said evidence against grayson was "overwhelming," noting that orr's wedding rings were found in his wallet "and her blood was on his shirt."

well if the evidence is supposedly so overwhelming then crenshaw has nothing to fear from the requested dna testing, does he??? or does he???

grayson's co-defendant, victor kennedy, was executed in 1999...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

lethal injections in florida are on hold...again...

less than a week after governor charlie crist - no relation to jesus - reinstated them, an ocala judge has essentially put them on hold again...

circuit judge carven d. angel - not a real one that we know of, angel that is -  said he is not confident in the department of corrections' procedures for the death penalty...and that the state has to come up with a new program...

now that's exercising some power...

this is more fallout from the both execution of angel diaz - no relation to carven - in december...it took more than 30 minutes for diaz to die after needles inserted in his arm punctured his veins...that led to a moratorium by then-governor jeb bush - yes, he's related to that other bush - on the death penalty, which crist had lifted last week...

there is no definitive word yet on how this will affect the planned execution of mark dean schwab - not an investment broker that we know of - whose death warrant was signed last week by crist...

a longer but no more insightful associated press story is right here while the st petersburg times weighs in here......

peace out <3

Before each execution (Friday's at 2:00 am, when scheduled), North Carolina Central Prison offers a media tour on the preceding Monday morning to explain the execution protocol and answer questions from the press.

Captured on film, the warden of North Carolina's Central Prison, Marvin Polk narrates the preparation and final hours before an execution in Raleigh, where the state execution facilities are located.

Warden Polk takes members of the press through the prison, detailing hour-by-hour the preparation, and carrying out, of a 2:00 am execution.

Footage includes the deathwatch area, the table where the last meal is taken, the final holding cell, the IV preparation room, the witness room, and footage of Warden Polk and Captain Marshall Hudson wheeling the gurney into the execution chamber.

The short film includes candid discussion by the warden about the role of doctors in lethal injections as well as his own feelings on overseeing the executions.

The film was shot during a media tour in November 2005, between the executions of Steven McHone (11/11/05) and Elias Syriani (11/18/05) by Scott Langley, a Boston-based photojournalist who has been documenting the death penalty for nearly 10 years.

Watch the video

Abolish Intern DC

We have already blogged about the 100th execution in Harris county but i thought i could take an excerpt from the document one county, 100 executions which has an interesting perspective on the executions in Harris County and Texas, and share it with you.

Harris County is only one execution away from a total of 100 and will probably surpass this number before the end of the year assuming it proceeds to execute by lethal injection Lonnie Johnson and other death row inmates awaiting execution.

In fact Harris County has more executions than any other county and state in the U.S other than Texas and Virginia and is also the main supplier of condemned human beings to the state of Texas for executions. If it were a state, it would probably rank second nationally behind Texas.

It is late, but not too late for Harris County and states that still use the death penalty to join the rest of the countries in the world that have abolished the death penalty.

Take action now and help stop the execution of Lonnie Johnson

Abolish Intern DC

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

the near execution of troy davis last week triggered a slew of publishings on the death penalty none of which was any better written than that of leonard pitts jr., winner of the 2004 pulitzer prize for commentary who is a columnist for the miami herald...

what are your thoughts???

peace out <3

You don't know what it's like and neither do I. But we can imagine.

I've always thought it must feel like being buried alive. Lungs starving, lying in blackness, pounding on the coffin lid with dirt showering down, no one hearing your cries.

Or maybe it's like locked-in syndrome, a condition where you lose muscle control - can't move a finger, turn your head, speak. Your body entombs you. You scream within, but no one hears.

Something like that, I think. Something where you're trapped, claustrophobic, unable to believe what is happening, unable to make anyone hear you. That's how it must feel to be an innocent person on death row as execution day draws close.

Tuesday was Troy Anthony Davis' scheduled execution day, though I have no idea if he is an innocent person. I do know that he was convicted of the 1989 killing of a police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail, in Savannah, Ga. And I know that he was on the scene, a Burger King parking lot, that fateful night.

But I also know that Davis has always maintained his innocence. And that no physical evidence - no gun, no fingerprint, no DNA - ever tied him to the crime. And that he was convicted on the testimony of nine key witnesses. And that seven of them have now recanted.

They lied, they say. They were scared, they were bullied and threatened, and they said what the cops wanted to hear. Of the two witnesses who have not recanted, one is a fellow named Sylvester "Red" Coles; some witnesses claim he's the one who actually shot MacPhail when the officer tried to break up a parking lot altercation.

Monday, one day before Davis was scheduled to die, the state parole board issued a 90-day stay of execution.

You and I have no idea how that must feel, either, but we can imagine. The buried man gets a sip of air. The paralyzed man moves his toe.

And then back down into the coffin, back down into the tomb of your own skin, back in line to die.

Surely Davis' lawyers have explained to him the 1996 federal law, signed by President Clinton, that is throwing roadblocks in his way. Designed to streamline capital cases, it restricts the introduction of exculpatory evidence once the state appeals process is done. But just as surely Davis, if he is innocent, must wonder how he could have presented evidence he didn't yet have. And he must wonder, too, how there can be a time limit on truth - especially when a human life is at stake. How can you execute a man when there remain serious questions about his guilt?

That's barbarism, not justice.

What's fascinating is that, though 67 percent of those polled by Gallup pollsters approve of capital punishment in murder cases (and 51 percent say it's not imposed often enough), 64 percent admit it does not deter murder and 63 percent believe an innocent person has probably been executed since 2001.

In other words, the system doesn't work, we "know" it doesn't work, yet we want it to continue - and indeed, expand. What kind of madness is that? It's an intellectual disconnect, a refusal to follow logic to its logical end.

It is, of course, easier to countenance that madness, ignore that refusal, when the issue is abstract, when death row is distant, theoretical and does not involve you.

But what must it feel like when it is not abstract, when it is "you" sitting there in the cell watching the calendar move inexorably toward the day the state will kill you for something you absolutely did not do? Is there a suspension of belief? Do you tell yourself that surely people will come to their senses any minute now? Does the air close on you like a coffin lid? Does darkness sit on your chest like a weight?

You and I can only imagine. Some men have no need to try.

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

also interesting and underreported is the toll that being part of an execution team takes on its participants...from my perspective it's one thing to be senior management in the department of corrections and quite another to be a front line per hour worker deep in the bowels of the system...

most notable among these rare stories is witness to an execution aired on national public radio in october 2000 and narrated by then warden jim willett at the walls in huntsville texas...

most recently the richmond times-dispatch ran the story when your life is taking a job on july 9th about jerry b. givens who led the nation's second-busiest execution team for 17 years...givens recently got out of prison after being convicted of federal perjury and money-laundering charges and serving four years behind bars...

it's another side of the psychic damage that we do to one another through the use of one of the most senseless and barbaric public policy tools ever designed and implemented by human beings...while my fellow southerners who occupy places throughout the criminal justice system refuse to renounce this historic tool of racism, slavery, and cruelty by embracing the always cold-blooded, calculated, pre-meditated killing of another as a response to the killing of another - cold-blooded, calculated, pre-meditated or not - the time is coming when it will be primarily set aside in a process not dissimilar to that through which children are asked to not play with fire or place their hands on a hot stove...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

when the secret police of brazil were busy during the military regime of the 70's and 80's kidnapping, torturing, and murdering innocent citizens in violation of every known portion now embedded in the international covenant on civil and political rights these "law enforcement" (sic) officers were crazy methodical...they were busy documenting every last act of torture to the detail...weird, huh...

but their brethren in spirit work(ed) for the georgia department of corrections...from 1984 through 2001 the higher ups in the process of executing human beings in georgia they recorded audio tapes of 19 of the 23 executions during this time...they created a secret official record of these events that every bit as freaky methodical as the documentation left behind by the brazilian military when democracy was restored in that country...

now georgia officials were pissed off big time when these tapes were publicly released by an insider...the tapes share 2 executions...the first is that of ivon ray stanley killed july 12th 1984...stanley was an accomplice in the murder of an insurance salesman - the triggerman in the murder had his sentence reduced to life in prison...stanley's i.q. - 62...

at the end of this sequence you will here some good natured joking around by state officials that concludes with department of corrections official willis marable acknowledging a compliment by saying, "we appreciate it, just give us another one,"...it's got that homey feeling of a nice ku klux klan lynching, something that occurred quite often in my home state of georgia last century...

the second is a botched execution that took place in december of 1984 - that of alpha otis odaniel stephens...listen carefully to the entire sequence as reported recently on democracy now! hosted by amy goodman (the tapes were first heard on the air back in 2001 although it must be said national public radio refused to air them by their own production)...here the tapes are shared with you via youtube in 3 segments...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

it was one thing - a good thing - to have the bishop of the diocese of the catholic church that includes atlanta and other parts of georgia publicly lay out why he supports clemency for troy davis...

it's quite another, a quantuum leap actually, when the pope himself addresses the case and lends his voice to the unprecedented number of appeals for clemency that are being received by the georgia board of parole...

so P-L-E-A-S-E keep those letters coming by clicking here and check out the full story on the pope's support here or here...

peace out <3

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

the president of the general assembly of the united nations organization has received a letter stating that gabon, democratic republic of congo, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, mali, namibia, russian federation, rwanda, tajikistan and turkmenistan acceded to 85 states that had signed a statement regarding the abolition of death penalty...

the document states that the signatory countries are firmly convinced that the abolition of death penalty facilitates advancement of the human dignity and progressive development of human rights...the death penalty as a means of frightening provides no additional advantages...any mistakes or deficiencies of the system of justice become irreversible when punishment in cruel and inhuman way deprives an individual of his/her right to life...

the statement notes that the trend to elimination of death penalty is being observed in the whole world and contains the call to those countries that still apply death penalty to gradually reduce its application and, as an intermediary measure, introduce a moratorium on execution of death sentences...

now that's what i'm talkin' 'bout willis!

peace out <3