'The death penalty is a crime'
Based on a talk given by Gloria Rubac at the Dec. 6-7
"Reviving the Worldwide Struggle for Socialism"
conference.
Executions are a legacy of slavery.
In the 1800s slavery and a deep-seated racism flourished in
this country, particularly in the South. The number of
lynchings of slaves during the 1800s is unknown; however,
lynchings of Black people continued well into the 20th
century.
James Byrd Jr. was lynched in 1998 in Jasper, Texas, an area
still known today for its Klan activities.
It is estimated that from 1890 to 1980 there were over 5,000
documented lynchings. The overwhelming majority took place in
the South, with over 90 percent of the victims African
American.
While there is no longer chattel slavery, we now have wage
slavery, and racism has not disappeared.
Today the South still leads the country in the number of
lynchings--only now they are called executions and they are
legal.
Over 80 percent of executions have taken place in the South.
Half of the United States death row population is in states of
the former Confederacy.
Five of every six people executed in the United States have
been put to death in the South. In 2000, Black people made up
12 percent of the Texas population--and 42 percent of those on
Texas death row.
Black, Latino and other people of color are about 70 percent
of Texas death row.
Seventy percent are people of color. That should be a
shocking statistic. The figures for the United States as a
whole: 46 percent of those on death row are white and 54
percent are people of color. Forty-two percent are Black.
Ninety percent of those on death row across the United
States could not afford to hire a lawyer when they went to
trial.
So the death penalty is reserved for people of color and for
the poor. There are not any rich people on death row.
The death penalty, just like the prison-industrial complex,
is a tool of repression used by the ruling class against the
working class, and very disproportionally against people of
color.
The ruling class uses racism to super-exploit workers of
color. Also they try to pit white workers against workers of
color.
Working people are an expendable commodity for the bosses.
They can work us to death on the job and when there are not
enough jobs, they can imprison us. The quality of our lives is
not of concern to the wealthy rulers. All they care about is a
labor force that can produce profits for them.
Prisons and executions dehumanize and terrorize people. The
false notion of white superiority that enabled slavery also
enables executions. Just as slave owners considered slaves to
be less than human, we are told today that because of the
horrific nature of their crimes, those condemned to death row
are "sub-human animals" who deserve to die.
The fact is that there are 20,000 murders committed a year
in the United States. We live in a very violent society. But
those who wind up on death row are those who cannot afford an
attorney and therefore cannot put up a defense. It is not
necessarily those who commit the most vicious crimes. And it's
not even important if those on death row are actually
guilty.
The figures now are that for about every five persons
executed, one person is released for reasons of innocence. Of
course the ruling class commits the most heinous crimes every
day by perpetuating this capitalist system that forces so many
of us to work at slave wages, to live in grind ing poverty, to
be denied access to decent health care, education and
housing.
There are a large number of people on death row who have
very low IQs and are considered "mentally retarded." The U.S.
Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled last year that mentally
disabled people should not be executed. But they still are.
On the night of George W. Bush's inaug ural ball when he was
first elected governor of Texas, an execution took place. Mario
Marquez had the adaptive skills of a 7-year-old. His trial
counsel testified at a clemency hearing that he did not present
any evidence of Mario's mental "retardation" because of a legal
flaw in the Texas death penalty statute. Marquez was executed
on Jan. 17, 1995.
There are even more people on death row who are mentally
ill. Many states will give a prisoner drugs to make them okay
mentally so that they can be executed, but won't treat mental
illnesses on a regular basis.
In fact, in Texas and other states that use super-maximum
prisons for death row, the sensory deprivation is driving
prisoners mad. Those who already had mental illnesses are being
pushed over the edge. Many are giving up appeals and trying to
commit suicide rather than live on death row.
The United States is one of four countries that still allow
the execution of people who were under the age of 18 when the
crime was committed. There are over 120 foreign nationals on
death row who were never allowed to see a representative of
their country when arrested, even though consular rights are
guaranteed under the Vienna Convention. Of these, 55 are
Mexicanos.
The death penalty is so racist and so anti- poor that it
should be abolished immediately.
It not only terrorizes those living while waiting to die--it
terrorizes their families and friends. I have known mothers who
have died within weeks or months of their child's execution. I
have known men who have gone mad from having execution dates
set again and again, even though they haven't exhausted their
appeals. Or men who are innocent and have waited for 15 or 20
years for justice and when it hasn't come, they lose their
minds.
The death penalty is a crime against our class and we must
fight it with the same energy we fight racism, prison slavery,
lesbian/gay/bi/trans oppression, police brutality and other
forms of repression. The cops, the courts and the whole
criminal-justice system--the whole state apparatus--is a
crime.
Reprinted from the Dec. 25, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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