U.S. death penalty
A crime against humanity
By
Teresa Gutierrez
Over the last several months, a number of prominent
individuals and organizations have emerged to express their
opposition to the death penalty, the most blatant example of
repression in the United States.
The opposition is so broad and diverse that it may signal a
turning point in the struggle to abolish the death penalty.
What remains is for a mass movement of the workers and the
oppressed to enter the political arena and demand the death
penalty be eradicated.
Behind the growing opposition
A driving reason for the opposition to the death penalty is
the facts themselves. They are truly astounding--enough to
expose the death penalty as a thoroughly anti-worker, anti-poor
and racist tool that serves no purpose other than to divide,
control and repress the masses of people.
Heroic abolitionists have been fighting for years to expose
the reality of this penal tool. What they have been saying is
finally surfacing in more and more venues through out the
country.
Two recent developments confirm that the death penalty is
unjustifiable.
On Nov. 14, a conference on "Wrongful Convictions and the
Death Penalty" was held in Illinois. The conference was a
stunning affirmation that the so-called justice system in the
United States is completely awry.
Twenty-eight women and men of all nationalities attended.
They all had been on death row in different parts of the
country. They came together to tell their horror stories.
Each had been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death.
But through the pressure of volunteers, family members and
independent research, they were able to win their freedom.
Then, on Feb. 4, Anthony Porter, an inmate on death row in
Illinois for 16 years, was released from prison after having
been found innocent of a murder charge. He had been scheduled
to die in a few days.
An independent investigation by Northwestern University
students and their professor gathered the evidence needed to
prove this Black man's innocence.
This event revealed that for poor and working people,
especially African Americans and Latinos, the judicial system
in this country is a total sham.
The 28 people whose accounts stirred the nation are just the
tip of the iceberg. Anthony Porter's story is not an isolated
case. These are just examples of hundreds, perhaps thousands of
cases. No one may ever know how many Anthony Porters languish
in prison today.
Under the capitalist judicial system, on a daily basis, the
overwhelming majority of courts, cops, judges and lawyers carry
out innumerable flagrant violations of even the most basic
democratic rights. Case after case proves that many are on
death row or in prison simply because they did not have the
proper representation or enough money available to prove their
innocence.
Rampant racism
In June 1998, the Death Penalty Information Center published
a study on the racist character of the death penalty. The facts
are staggering.
The study pointed out that in death penalty cases the main
decision makers--a whopping 98 percent--are white men.
A white person charged with murder is more likely to get
life in prison than the death penalty.
The DPIC states: "Race is more likely to affect death
sentencing than smoking affects the likelihood of dying from
heart disease."
The report revealed that in Philadelphia, for example, the
odds of receiving a death sentence are nearly four times higher
if the defendant is Black.
The report documented many other kinds of atrocities. In
courtrooms around the country, contemptible racial slurs abound
and go unchallenged. Many racist remarks are made in front of
juries by judges and lawyers, including by the defendants'
lawyers.
One DPIC illustration: "When a prosecutor refers to a
Hispanic defendant as a `chili-eating bastard,' as happened in
a Colorado death penalty case, it sets a tone of acceptance of
racial prejudice for the entire trial."
Acts like the following are common: A prosecutor in Alabama
said that he barred several potential jurors because they were
affiliated with a predominantly Black university. A reviewing
court considered this "race neutral."
In Philadelphia, Assistant District Attorney Jack McMahon
used a training video for new prosecutors instructing them on
how to exclude Black jurors. In 16 of McMahon's cases, Black
jurors were struck from the jury four times as often as
others.
McMahon has prosecuted 36 murder cases. Some of those
defendants are on death row today.
In Chambers County, Ala., the prosecutor keeps lists on
prospective jurors under these categories: "strong," "medium,"
"weak" and "Black."
The race of the murder victim is a determinant of the death
penalty. Black people and Latinos are more likely to go to
death row if accused of killing whites.
In Kentucky, for example, 100 percent of the inmates in 1996
were on death row for allegedly murdering white victims. None
was there for the murder of a Black victim.
According to the DPIC, in the entire history of the United
States only 38 whites have been executed for murdering Black
people.
The DPIC continues: "This gross disparity among capital
cases sends a message that the taking of a white life is more
serious than the taking of a Black life."
The shit hits the fan
These gross disparities and inequalities have forced the
death penalty issue to the forefront. More and more mainstream
and progressive forces have been compelled to come out against
the practice.
Recent opponents include several judges and attorneys
general, including Florida Supreme Court Justice and former
prosecutor Gerald Kogan. Two prominent newspapers in death
penalty states--the Virginian-Pilot and the Dallas Morning
News--wrote significant editorials. They pointed out that the
decision as to who dies and who lives has nothing to do with
guilt or innocence, but poor representation, personal wealth or
race.
Recently national lesbian, gay, trans and bi organizations
announced their opposition to the death penalty in general and
in the Matthew Shepard case in particular.
Joining these voices are the International Court of Justice
at the Hague, Texas Conference of Churches, the pope, and the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Despite this opposition, the main capitalist state
institutions and their representatives remain staunchly in
favor of the death penalty. Even though the Supreme Court ruled
it unconstitutional in 1967, the high court reinstated it in
1977. Courts today rebuff any proposals that may address even
minor remedies to the situation.
For example, 16-year-old Sean Sellers, who had been
diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, was executed Feb.
4 in Oklahoma despite worldwide opposition. The U.S. Court of
Appeals ruled that even though Sellers may be "factually
innocent," innocence alone was not sufficient to grant federal
relief.
And the Supreme Court recently rejected claims based on
statistics of racism in the courts. It said the problem might
be addressed through remedial legislation, referred to as the
Racial Justice Act.
What has Congress done on the issue? Both Democrats and
Republicans voted to enact severe restrictions on death-row
inmates' access to federal courts. And they eliminated all
federal funding for legal resource centers.
Abolish the death penalty
There is a virtual avalanche of information proving the
death penalty is a repressive tool that has nothing to do with
deterring crime. It is ineffective and costly, as each
death-penalty case costs on average $2 million, compared to
$400,000 for life imprisonment.
There is not a single rich person on death row.
How can the death penalty continue to be justified after the
incident in Florida two years ago when an execution by electric
chair went haywire and the ill-fated man's head exploded?
Some groups are for abolition because of the barbarity of
the practice. Some give priority to combating its racist bias.
For communists, it is also a class issue in a country like the
United States.
The capitalists uphold the death penalty because they will
use anything at their disposal to intimidate the working class.
Their aim is to maintain rule, and the death penalty serves
their aim by deepening and broadening repression.
As long as the death penalty is a tool of the capitalist
class against the workers, the working-class movement must
oppose it.
The overwhelming facts, however, build an airtight case to
call for an immediate moratorium on all executions in this
country. Just over the horizon is a mass movement that will win
the final abolition of the death penalty. But the movement must
not stop there. Justice and reparations must also be won for
all those who have languished in the concentration camps for
the poor called U.S. prisons.
On April 24, a massive demonstration in Philadelphia will
demand a new trial for former Black Panther, journalist and
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. That will also be a
resounding message against the despicable death penalty.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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