A Call To Halt Killings

If one is to believe in the accuracy of polls, I am at odds with most black folks in this country when it comes to support for the death penalty.The latest numbers indicate that African Americans, as a group, overwhelmingly favor the death penalty as a form of deterrence against brutal crimes. I have long been opposed to the barbaric practice, partly out of religious convictions but mostly due to a commitment to social justice.Each year, new DNA evidence continues to cast doubts on the convictions of death row inmates who have languished in prison for years waiting for their day to die. Had it not been for the courage several years ago of a group of Northwestern University journalism students, a handful of death row inmates – mostly poor black and Latino men – would be dead today. These students single-handedly raised questions about the convictions of the men and helped to prove their innocence, forcing a former Illinois governor, George Ryan, a Republican, to place a moratorium on the death penalty in the Prairie State.Mr. Ryan’s decision to halt all killings in his state during his tenure was encouraging. What we need now is a national moratorium on the death penalty so we can effectively address the role of race and class in who is executed.We know, for example, that African Americans are five times more likely to receive the death penalty than their white counterparts if they are convicted of the same crime. Add incompetent lawyers to the mix – many of whom get assigned to represent poor black folks – and you have a system crying out for reform.Who can forget the case of Ricky Lee Rector? Mr. Rector, a brain-damaged man, was accused of killing a police officer in 1981.Throughout his trial, Mr. Rector noticed that his court-appointed attorney was falling asleep. When he objected, the judge presiding over his case ruled that the court was obligated to appoint an attorney to him, but not necessarily an attorney who was awake.Mr. Rector was found guilty and sentenced to death. While campaigning for president in 1992, Bill Clinton, who was then governor of Arkansas, left the campaign trail and flew back to his home state to preside over Rector’s execution.Although the Republican Party has generally been in favor of capital punishment, all of the Democrats running for president in last year’s election – with the exception of the Reverend Al Sharpton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich – support the death penalty in some form.At a time when many other countries have banned the practice of executing its citizens, America has legally sanctioned the practice. There have been 1,000 executions in America since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the 1970s. On December 2, the state of North Carolina executed the 1,000th, Kenneth Boyd, a Vietnam veteran who was convicted of murdering his wife and her father.There does appear to be a tide moving in another direction.Last month, Virginia’s governor, Mark Warner, did the right thing when he commuted the sentence of Robin Lovitt to life in prison without parole, a decision he said he made to “ensure that every time the ultimate sanction is carried out, it is done fairly.”Mr. Warner said his decision was based on concerns that Lovitt could not pursue new DNA testing on crucial evidence that could prove his innocence. The evidence, a pair of scissors prosecutors say Lovitt used as the murder weapon, had been thrown out by a Virginia court clerk.Now Governor Schwarzenegger can follow in those footsteps by sparing the life of Stan “Tookie” Williams, a former gang killer turned peace activist who is scheduled to be executed in California next week. Mr. Williams, the co-founder of the Crips street gang, was convicted of murdering four people in 1979, but he denies committing the crimes. His supporters point out that Williams has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times and four times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In Harlem last night, activists held a town hall rally at the National Black Theater of Harlem to generate support for Mr. Williams. The Reverend Jesse Jackson and the NAACP have urged Mr. Schwarzenegger to grant Williams clemency.“For those who believe that the state killing of Stanley Williams today would in anyway be fulfilling justice would mean the forever denying of forgiveness, or the recognition of human beings to grow, learn, and change,” the director of religious affairs for the NAACP, the Reverend Julius Hope, said. “The price cannot be paid or satisfied by the death of someone who has made contributions to reach out to those habitually forgotten individuals whom society does not pay attention or invest in until they are caught up in an ugly vicious cycle of survival.”

A Call To Halt Killings

A Call To Halt Killings

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