Posted on 11/26/2005 9:01:22 PM PST by rey
Death sentencing EDITOR: One week ago, another recent Death Row inmate, Harold Wilson, was proven innocent by DNA evidence, and he was freed after 16 years of imprisonment in Pennsylvania. Imagine that 16 years hard time out of your life. It is imperative that all governors declare a moratorium on the death penalty now. In our society, the death penalty has been judicial lynching. It is relegated inordinately to the impoverished, underrepresented, undereducated people, usually men, of color. Far too often, harrowing stories of attorney inattention, police malfeasance, mishandled or disappeared evidence or rewarding lying witnesses come to light. Far too often, this information is unearthed only through relentless diligence of volunteer advocates studying crime details and court proceedings years later.
I've worked in California Corrections. Prisons are already wretched slave labor encampments over-packed with non-violent criminals. Their sentences are unreasonably long and their rehabilitation is never seriously intended. Mental illness is rampant and untreated. In fact, it appears, the revolving door is essential to prison design today. There's plenty of money to be made by some lucky sorts certain to hold political influence for guaranteed income.
I urge you to write your governor to impose a death penalty moratorium in California, for his peace of mind and our collective conscience.
DR. APRIL M. HURLEY
Santa Rosa
Anybody know the stats on race and the death penalty?
We always hear it is unfair to blacks, but I never see any statistics to prove it.
I had a sociology class where they said the majority race on death row is black. You'd have to contrive a crazy conspiracy theory to explain how this is a result of racism. However, that fact alone seems enough for some to assume it's a result of it.
That's just gotta fry your cookies,doesn't it Dr Hurly?
I think that's the thing a lot of myopic types don't want to cope with. That is, if they accept DNA evidence as valid enough to exonerate someone (and I agree it is), they have to accept that DNA evidence is valid to incriminate someone.
As one factor (but not the only factor) in the administration of justice, if its good enough to help prove someone's innocence, then there are cases where it's good enough to help prove someone's guilt.
I myself am a man of color. Kind of a tan, maybe mocha. Definitely not clear. Am I in danger?
SARCASM OFF
My local newspaper had a picture of deaths by race. Overwhelmingly white people, iirc. I'll try to find it.
I actually went to a dump the death penalty web site.
Guy that was writing there said their antics for the past 20 years were not working. Public opinion on the death penalty hadn't budged.
Said what they needed to do was
1) Quit trying to show the soft fuzzy side of killers.
2) Admit that most of them really did it but they still didn't deserve to die.
See #7. Was it that article?
"Am I in danger?"
Only if you commit a capital crime Sender. Otherwise, you're in the clear (no pun intended ;).
Notice the subtle racism....
Since most of the imprisoned are "men of color" and most of the victims are "people of color" the only logical conclusion is that homicide of blacks should not be punished.
The story here is that a new technique shows that someone was falsely convicted, and perhaps that the system is not as reliable as everyone wanted to believe and convicted many people falsely. I don't see what this has to do with the death penalty.
yeah, it was that article.
They never tell you that most of the blacks on death row are there for killing OTHER blacks. For some reason, people tend to kill those of the same race.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
"...proven innocent by DNA evidence..."
Proven innocent or they came up with some DNA that wasn't his and after so long couldn't get enough evidence/witnesses together to retry him?
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