I’ve been thinking about the death penalty a lot lately. Ever since I learned that the state of Georgia signed an order to execute Troy Davis on Sept 6th. Then the very next day during the Republican Presidential Debate, I watched as a mostly white audience clad in tailored red and blue suits applauded Rick Perry for holding the distinction of executing more people than any other Governor in modern history. Sigh. Well, at least they were a well dressed lynch mob. Rick Perry has executed 254 people since he took office in 2000 and according to Perry he sleeps well at night because he knows that every single one of those people is guilty and deserved to die. I’m sure the audience at the Republican debate and other supporters of the death penalty probably all agree with him. I don’t and nor do the Forensic Investigators on Cameron Todd Willingham’s case. In 2004, Perry reviewed forensic findings that proved Willingham’s innocence just 15 minutes before his execution and Perry just brushed it aside. I guess he had his eye on the prize, all-times highest death penalty scorer. Sadly, there are too many cases in the state of Texas alone where the innocent are convicted and Rick Perry is applauded for his tough stance on crime.
In Georgia another man may lose his life under a system of capital punishment that has proven time and again to be flawed. Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a Savannah Police Officer and sentenced to death in 1991. His conviction hinged on the testimonies of nine eye witnesses and ballistic evidence that would later be thrown out. Since his conviction, 7 of the 9 witnesses have recanted or contradicted their original testimony, many claiming they were coerced by police. Davis is set to be executed on Sept 21st. Millions of people around the world have come together in support of Troy Davis, calling for a stay of execution but the state of Georgia has yet to act. One final clemency hearing will be held on Sept 19th but there is no guarantee that the Georgia Board of Parole and Pardons will grant Davis clemency. Having been hear before praying, demanding, standing for the lives of others on death row it is impossible to know if Troy Davis will live.
After all, the death penalty machine in this country was built for this very purpose. Rick Perry would have us believe that capital punishment laws are effective, that they are designed to punish those who kill innocent people. But the statistics paint a very different picture. It paints a picture of a system seems to efficiently and strategically replace Jim Crow lynchings. When people blindly support the death penalty do they realize the unsettling racial dimension of capital murder convictions? Maybe. Here are some facts about race and the death penalty that I found through the Death Penalty Information Center.
-A study in California found that those who killed whites were over 3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed blacks and over 4 times more likely than those who killed Latinos. (Piece & Radelet, Santa Clara Law Review 2005)
-In a 1998 report to the American Bar Association Professor David Baldus found that 96% of the states where there have been reviews of race and the death penalty, there was a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or both.
-Over 75% of the murder victims of cases resulting in an execution were white, even though nationally over 50% or murder victims generally are white.
But we live in a colorblind America, right? I think not. This is the reality of the criminal justice system in the U.S. If you want this reality to change then start by picking up the phone and calling the Georgia Board of Parole (404-656-5651 & select #5) and let them know that you believe that justice has not been served in the case of Troy Davis. Demand that he be granted clemency. But we can’t stop there because before we know it, there will be another innocent person’s life being signed away by a Governor staking his political legacy on being tough on crime.
Video: Rick Perry on Death Penalty
Justice for Troy Davis
Colorlines: Georgia Plans to Kill Troy Davis Next Week
Cameron Williamgham Case
Will the Next Man Rick Perry Executes Die Because He’s Black
As I sat down at my desk to write this morning I felt a deep need for inspiration. A reminder about the purpose of imagination and storytelling. So I went online in search of Isabelle Allende, Chimamanda Adichie, and Nawal El Saadawi, writers I trust to remind me of why I am a storyteller. There is a bridge that creativity and imagination naturally forms with stories told from the soul’s knowing. Every day I wake up, sit down at my desk, and begin the work of building that bridge again.
