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Volume
I No. 49
01-14-03
Standing
Strong Against The Machinery of Death
{
Outgoing Illinois Republican Governor
George Ryan's Proper Choice }
author:
Vance Cureton
©
Copyright 2003
History was made Saturday
when outgoing Illinois Governor
George Ryan took the
bold, unprecedented step of commuting
the death sentences
of all inmates currently serving time on
Illinois' death row.
It is a move that he should be commended
for. But already the
outrage from prosecutors and proponents
of the death penalty
are at a fever pitch. And their rage will
not abate anytime soon.
Make no mistake. Governor
Ryan's decisions was not the act
of a desperate man worried
about his political legacy. As some
accuse him. Governor
Ryan acted because of the evidence that
the death penalty process
in Illinois is broken. In his own words,
"The
legislature couldn't reform it. Lawmakers won't repeal it.
But
I will not stand for it."
Governor Ryan also stated,
"...our
three-year study has found
only
more questions about the fairness of the sentencing;
because
of the spectacular failure to reform the system; because
we
have seen justice delayed for countless death row inmates
with
potentially meritorious claims; because the Illinois death
penalty
system is arbitrary and capricious--and therefore
immoral--I
no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death."
Profound words indeed.
The death penalty is
flawed and imperfect. Not only in Illinois
but elsewhere in the
United States. Only recently the state of
Maryland announced that
its own study of 6000 homicide cases
found that blacks were
more likely to be sentenced to death for
murdering whites. Than
for whites taking the lives of black citizens.
And this disparity in
meting out the death penalty is somehow
okay? Something to be
glossed over and ignored?
Already Maryland Govenor-elect
Robert L. Erhlich, Jr. has stated
he has no intention
of extending the moratorium on executions that
was enacted by his predecessor.
Even
though the Govenor-elect
now has evidence
that his state's system is flawed and unfair.
Can anything be more
cynical than that!
Politicians and law enforcement
officials-alike seem to have blinders
on when it comes to
the arbitrary nature of the death penalty. There
are several factors
that can not in any way be disputed about the
ultimate civil sanction
as it is currently applied across the United
States.
Here are facts that are
beyond dispute:
1.) the
poor are far more likely to be sentenced to death than the
rich.
2.) one defendant
may be given a death sentence, while another
defendant in a similar
type of case - or even in the same case - may
receive a lesser sanction
than the death penalty.
3.) defendants
in one part of a state may receive the death penalty
at a higher rate than
in another part of the state.
4.) a crime may
be a capital crime in one part of the state, and not a
capital crime in another
part of the same state.
5.) minorities
in general receive the death penalty at a higher rate
than whites.
6.) minorities
are more likely to receive the death penalty for murdering
a white person, than
for murdering another minority.
7.) white persons
receive the death penalty for murdering a minority
at a rate lower than
minorities receive for murdering a white person.
8.) there are
literally dozens of cases nationwide where defendants
who have been convicted
in court, imprisoned - and some even
sentenced
to death - have been subsequently exonerated by DNA
evidence.
If this is not enough
to make your hair stand on end about the
arbitrary nature of
the death penalty. Read further...
The following are suppositions
that are most likely true:
9.) there are
currently inmates imprisoned on death row who are
innocent, but may have
committed crimes where DNA evidence
is not a factor and
other evidence is missing or lost. Thus there
is no current method
by which they may clear their names.
10.) inmates
stand convicted of capital crimes by reason of
incompetent council.
11.) prosecutors
routinely refuse to re-open cases where new
evidence has emerged
that point to a different perpertrator of
a capital crime. The
goal seems to be to preserve a conviction,
rather than to undo
an injustice.
Given what we know about
the criminal justice system in this
country, one can only
wonder how many innocent men and
women have already been
put to death. And are thus beyond
our help.
Yet, the death penalty
remains radioactive. Politicians want to
steer clear of the law.
And all the controversy surrounding
any discussion of the
death penalty and its fair -- or unfair
application.
The majority of perps
accused of capital crimes are bad people.
-- Just by the numbers
and the nature of the criminal mind. These
individuals are undesireables.
So little is at risk for the politician
who stands strongly
in favor of the death penalty, and in favor
of victim's rights.
Which are indeed important.
But there are other ways
that the anti-social types who commit
capital crimes can be
dealth with. Methods that provide justice
for the victims families,
but
which can be undone in the case of
judicial error.
A person wrongly executed
is gone forever.
Further, the convicts
who sit on death row do not reflect the
make-up of society as
a whole. Death row inmates are likely
poor and uneducated.
They are most likely african-american
or hispanic. Some are
mentally ill or emotionally disturbed.
{ another area of
the law that needs a thorough re-examining }
The sons and daughters
of the rich do not face the death penalty
at the same rate as
indigent individuals. -- In some instances, they
are not even charged.
Especially in cases where there is anything
even remotely resembling
reasonable doubt. Or where the case
against them is perceived
as weak by prosecutors. They are
allowed to plead-out
to a lesser offense.
{ In other words,
before a wealthy person is formally charged on
a capital count.
The evidence had better be beyond dispute. Else
there may well be
a steep political price to pay.}
Indigent defendants do
not get the benefit of this kind of reasoning
from prosecutors. And
such defendants do not have the resources
to even begin exploring
the background of their cases to establish
reasonable doubt on
their own. The public defender system fails
miserably under these
circumstances.
And this is somehow okay?
-- That one class of people can routinely
"beat the system"
because of the size of their bank accounts and
political clout. While
another class of people are left to suffer that
silent march to the
death chamber?
There are evil people
in the world who commit heinous acts that
are sometimes beyond
imagination. And they deserve the government's
harshest sanction. But
at the same time society must be more than
"reasonably sure"
about guilt before that final sanction can be
given. And in state,
after state, that high level of integrity has
fallen far short. If
it is achievable at all -- Which makes Govenor
Ryan's action so admirable.
He had no choice. As
he so eloquently stated.
Illinois' criminal justice
system as it involves the death penalty is
flawed. As is the state
of Maryland's.
And both states own research
establish this fact.
But,
yet politicians in Illinois and Maryland fail
to do anything. - Because
of the political risk involved.
These cowards are afraid
to act. Afraid to offend the law enforcement
and prosecutorial communities.
And they are equally afraid to offend
the cold-hearted conservatives
who believe that "biblical justice" is
the only righteous response
to murderers. That somehow 50 or 60 years
in a prison cell with
no hope of parole is sham justice for victims, and
victim's families.
Prison life is a harsh
existence. Don't be misled by the tales of comfortable
country-clubs for inmates.
Murderers don't go to such places.
If one innocent person
in the United States has been put to death.
It is one person too
many. The goverment should not be in the murder
business. Because that
is what the death penalty is. -- State sanctioned
murder.
For all those who blindly
defend this ultimate sanction -- On religious
grounds, moral grounds,
or whatever the case may be. Let them
volunteer to take the
place of any wrongfully accused and convicted
inmate who is sitting
on death row right now.
Ask them to sacrifice
themselves on the principle of an "eye for an
eye." -- And
do so willingly, in this imperfect world of ours.
ReadingPost.Com
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2003
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