Follow workers.org on
RED HOT: TRAYVON MARTIN
CHINA,
AFGHANISTAN, FIGHTING RACISM, OCCUPY WALL STREET,
PEOPLE'S POWER, SAVE OUR POST OFFICES, WOMEN, AFRICA,
LIBYA, WISCONSIN WORKERS FIGHT BACK, SUPPORT STATE & LOCAL WORKERS,
EGYPT, NORTH AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST,
STOP FBI REPRESSION, RESIST ARIZONA RACISM, NO TO FRACKING, DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION, ANTI-WAR,
HEALTH CARE,
CUBA, CLIMATE CHANGE,
JOBS JOBS JOBS,
STOP FORECLOSURES, IRAN,
IRAQ, CAPITALIST CRISIS,
IMMIGRANTS, LGBT, POLITICAL PRISONERS,
KOREA,
HONDURAS, HAITI,
SOCIALISM,
GAZA
|
|
Supreme Court ignores fatal flaws, OKs executions
By
Gloria Rubac
Houston
Published May 1, 2008 8:13 PM
Starting in May executions in the United States will resume after a
seven-month de facto moratorium that began last September, when the Supreme
Court agreed to hear a Kentucky challenge to the constitutionality of lethal
injection procedures.
On April 16 the U.S. Supreme Court, in a splintered opinion, ruled 7-2 in Baze
v. Rees that the three-drug protocol used in the state of Kentucky did not
violate the 8th Amendment to the Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and
unusual punishment.
Responding to the ruling, Harvey “Tee” Earvin wrote from Texas
death row: “The Court’s determination to kill us must be met by our
determination to end the killing. Death row prisoners must commit today to
organizing ourselves, our families and our friends. We need them in the streets
with the activists who are fighting the death penalty.
“The mood on the row has changed drastically since the ruling. The men
here become friends, we are a community. When something bad happens to one it
affects us all. And when there’s good news, we are all happy. But this
court ruling negatively affects every single one of us,” he continues.
Earvin is a founder of the Texas prisoner organization, Panthers United for
Revolutionary Education (PURE).
Seven out of nine justices wrote separate opinions in the case, which indicates
that the court is far from a consensus about how to resolve additional
challenges that are likely to arise, both around lethal injection protocol and
the death penalty itself.
But the court totally ignored the fundamental facts of the death penalty (DP)
itself—that it is racially biased, meted out only to the poor, and that
innocent people are often convicted and likely to be executed.
Garcia White writes from Texas death row: “How is it that everything
concerning the DP is a hurried-up and rushed thing? What’s the rush when
we see and know that there are all kinds of flaws in the whole
system?”
The American Veterinary Association forbids putting down animals with the three
drugs now used in lethal injections. Prisoner Quinton Jones told Workers World:
“It’s a damn shame when animals are put down with a higher standard
of care and decency or the handlers must answer to the highest court. Now the
Supreme Court has approved a lower standard for human beings.”
During the seven months that no person in the U.S. was executed, several
significant events occurred:
New Jersey abolished the death penalty.
The Supreme Court ruled that the use of the electric chair is
unconstitutional, which left the state of Nebraska with no effective death
penalty since electrocution was the only method used there.
The American Bar Association called for a national moratorium on
executions and the United Nations voted for an international moratorium,
reflecting a worldwide trend limiting executions.
Also during the last seven months, hearings in California and Tennessee
have studied their respective death penalty systems, and New Mexico and New
Hampshire have raised constitutional questions regarding application of the
death penalty in those states. Wrongful convictions have led to releases in
Dallas. Ongoing crime-lab woes and district attorney scandals in Houston
continue to make headlines in Texas.
The last person executed in the U.S. was Michael Richard in Texas last Sept.
25. Texas’ highest court had decided to close at 5 o’clock that day
instead of waiting 20 minutes for an appeal for Richard based on the Supreme
Court’s acceptance of the Kentucky case just hours before Richard’s
execution.
As of April 29, there are 11 executions scheduled in the U.S. with dozens more
likely in the coming months. It is no accident that 10 of these 11 scheduled
are in Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana and Texas, all former Confederate states
where capital punishment has historically been a legal alternative to
lynching.
While the Supreme Court responded to one state’s question about its
lethal injection method, many more questions about capital punishment remain
unanswered.
Justice John Paul Stevens, the court’s most senior member, took aim at
the entire system of capital punishment, writing in an opinion that it was a
“pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal
contributions to any discernible social or public purposes.”
It is the first time 87-year-old Stevens has called on states to stop
executions entirely.
Many on death row in Texas have communicated with Workers World:
Ronnie Neal says: “This ruling affects us all, not just those given
immediate dates. The fact is the door is open. The death chamber is once again
operational. Any number at any time can be called. Yours or mine.”
Juan Reynoso proclaims: “I will fight to the death. What else is there
left? I’ll never give in, until my last damn breath.”
Milton Mathis, whose family in Houston is concerned about the issues of his
limited mental abilities, said: “This ruling affects me because I have
had a date once already and at any time my number can be called. As I brace
myself for the fear of the unknown, my only hope is that there will be someday
justice for the poor and the have-nots.”
Activist Howard Guidry, also with PURE, wrote from his death row cell in
Livingston, Texas: “With the recent ruling comes a wave of urgency and
desperation for most of the men on Texas death row. It is difficult to
interpret the tension here. Executions are being scheduled. Men are grasping
desperately for relief from the appeals courts. Some men have resigned to
planning their funerals. We are going to be herded into the slaughter pen. Four
brothers here in Texas are already in the so-called death watch cells. Men are
talking about raising money for their own funeral. They are talking about the
law. They are desperate. It’s fight or die and fight we must!”
The writer is a Houston organizer of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition
Movement.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: [email protected]
Subscribe [email protected]
Support independent news DONATE
|
|