Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Rest in Peace Troy Davis

It has been terrible watching the clock tick down over the past week, knowing that Troy Davis almost certainly would be executed.

I've always been opposed to the death penalty. I was against it before we knew we were killing lots of innocent people. Naively, I thought that once DNA testing conclusively proved that hundreds of innocent men were on death row, there would be an outcry. People would demand reform of our criminal justice system. Certainly execution of the innocent would turn the tables on the public's opinion of the death penalty. But there was no reform and the public remained as bloodthirsty as ever. In fact, Rick Perry's record breaking death toll was a big crowd pleaser at the most recent GOP debate.



This completely baffled me for some time. How could people not care that we're executing innocent people? And the only conclusion that I could reach - the only thing that makes sense - is that only poor people (and really only poor men of color) are executed. The odds of being sentenced to death is largely dependent on economic status, gender and race (of the defendant and the victim). That should be an argument against the death penalty. But it turns out it's the reason so few people care. Even when the poor, African-American man we execute is innocent.

Rest in peace Troy Davis.

Cross-posted at Daily Kos.
Posted by Saphron at 9/21/2011 10:18:00 PM

8 comments:

  1. I don't think that race inordinately figures in capital punishment any more--not since the Supremes struck down the death penalty for reasons that included racial bias. But your point about class still holds. Those who can afford good lawyers don't get the death penalty.

    Why all the support for it, when it is statistically increasingly obvious that innocent people get executed? Why all the support for it on the right among people who don't trust government to do anything else right? Guilt or innocence, though, even on shaky evidence--now with that they trust the government.

    So, why? I think it's just more Republican id-driven policy. Go back in history--the public enjoyment of torture and carnage has been with us for a very long time. That shit has to be civilized out of us. And, you know, Republicans. Civilized? I think we should be grateful they're potty-trained. Moreover, two other things beyond basic human depravity drive them not just to accept the death penalty but to passionately embrace it--first, they are so wrong here, without any supporting argument to justify their position, and they NEVER admit they're wrong, so they have to scream really loudly; second, liberals oppose it, intellectuals oppose it, Europeans oppose it, and we know how much they hate anything we believe, so fuck yeah, death, death, death. Besides that, (Godwin's law warning), they share with fascists their cult of manliness. Things like mercy, gentleness, compassion, understanding--wimpy female virtues. They'd much rather go watch Red Dawn and kick some commie ass than tease out some quiet moments of sympathy.

    That's my take.

  2. Actually, it still does. Here's Amnesty International:

    From initial charging decisions to plea bargaining to jury sentencing, African-Americans are treated more harshly when they are defendants, and their lives are accorded less value when they are victims. All-white or virtually all-white juries are still commonplace in many localities.

    But actually, the biggest predictor of whether you will receive the death penalty is the race of your victim.

  3. I should have known I wasn't right. To paraphrase somebody--you'll never go broke betting on the bloodlust of Americans.

    I should have known better on the grim day after the state of Georgia killed Troy Davis. I'm just sick about that, and I should have known better than to give the US credit for anything other than the relish with which we take lives.

  4. This bloody-minded support for the death penalty, I think, is not really about the guilt or innocence of the person being put to death, and not even about that person's race or economic status (yeah, I agree that race and economic status are what gets people sentenced to death; I'm talking about what happens after they've already been sentenced). I think it is more about death-penalty supporters' tortured need to achieve self-esteem.

    Remember what one member of that focus group told Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign staff when she was weighing a run against Rick Perry and her staff floated the very likely possibility that Perry had executed an innocent man in Cameron Willingham? "It takes balls to execute an innocent man."

    That's what this bloodthirst is really about. It's not about the man being put to death, it's about the guy ordering the execution (and the people cheering that execution on) having "balls." It's the reason these people break into applause at the mere mention of the death penalty, it's why they have such a gun fetish, it's why they want to let poor and sick children die and go hungry, it's why they sneer at vegetarians, or environmentalists, or anybody who evinces any degree of consideration, compassion or caring.

    They don't care about the people they hurt; they just care that they are the ones who get to do the hurting. They just care that, unlike some liberal wimps out there, they are tough enough to do the hurting. To them, that means they've got "balls." For them, that is how they know they are "winners."