Legal lynchings in the U.S. today

Houston — Dramatic changes in the U.S.’s use of the death penalty are happening. Frequently!

Just days before Juneteenth, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine publicly announced that his state should abolish the death penalty. DeWine, who helped write the state’s capital punishment law in 1981, said that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to crime, outraging his fellow Republicans and pleasantly surprising abolitionists.

A horrific milestone in Texas took place on May 15 as Edward Busby became the 600th person legally lynched in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Busby was a person whom all experts, from the defense to the state, agreed was intellectually disabled and was therefore legally ineligible for execution.

The Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement held a press conference the morning of this execution. Speakers included State Representative Jolanda Jones, a member of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, and Minister Abdul Haleem Muhammad with Houston’s Nation of Islam Mosque 45. Muhammad was the spiritual adviser and execution witness for two Texas innocent men: Gary Graham, aka Shaka Sankofa, and Odell Barnes Jr. The American Civil Liberties Union gave a statement as well. 

For decades, lethal injection was most states’ preferred way to execute those incarcerated on death row in the U.S. But recent problems obtaining and administering the drugs have led some states to consider alternative methods.

A new method of executing people began in Alabama — nitrogen asphyxiation. Kim Chandler, a reporter for the Associated Press, gave this report to the public broadcasting station after witnessing Kenneth Eugene Smith’s execution in January of 2024: “Smith began to shake and writhe violently, in thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements, at about 7:58 p.m. The force of his movements caused the gurney to visibly move at least once. 

“Smith’s arms pulled against the straps holding him to the gurney. He lifted his head off the gurney and then fell back. The shaking went on for at least two minutes. The spiritual adviser, Jeff Hood, repeatedly made the sign of the cross toward Smith. Smith’s wife, who was watching, cried out. Smith began to take a series of deep gasping breaths, his chest rising noticeably. His breathing was no longer visible at about 8:08 p.m.” 

Nitrogen gas has been used in eight executions nationally. Seven of those were in Alabama and one in Louisiana.

An Alabama man, Jeffrey Lee, facing execution by nitrogen gas was spared June 11, as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to set aside a lower-court ruling that found the method is unconstitutionally cruel. Dani Allen, activist and host of The Prison Show on Houston’s Pacifica radio station, told this reporter she was pleasantly surprised by the Supreme Court’s decision: “I can’t believe Trump’s court did anything good for those on death row! But they actually did!”

The federal judge’s ruling in Lee’s case means nitrogen gas is no longer an option for executions in Alabama, and that could stop its use in the whole country. 

Oklahoma, which has executed more people per capita than any other state, finally did something good. Richard Glossip was on death row for almost 30 years but walked out of prison on bond this May while he awaits a retrial. He had nine execution dates, had eaten three last meals and was prepared to be murdered by the state nine times. Glossip’s case attracted international attention after actress Susan Sarandon took up his cause. Glossip’s case also was featured in the 2017 documentary film “Killing Richard Glossip.”

Vietnam veterans targeted 

Many veterans have been executed without a jury ever hearing meaningful information about their service. A capital defendant’s military service is an essential part of their story for a jury to consider. 

According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), many veterans suffer from the physical and psychological hazards of military service, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and neurotoxin exposure. According to the Council on Criminal Justice, these conditions are ​“significantly associated with a greater likelihood of criminal justice system involvement among veterans.” 

DPIC reports at least 226 military veterans have been executed — 14% of all people executed in the modern era (1972-present). And veterans are overrepresented on death rows across the U.S. About 200 veterans remain on death row — 10% of people facing execution today, while just 6% of the public are veterans. The vast majority, 66% of death-sentenced veterans who served in active-duty combat, served in Vietnam. A third of these individuals have been executed. 

The Vietnam War impacts capital cases to this day: 75-year-old Vietnam veteran Joseph Ables was sentenced to death this year; 79-year-old Vietnam veteran Richard Jordan was executed; and 20 others remain on death row. 

Last week the Supreme Court denied relief to an innocent Charles Flores who has been on death row in Texas for over 25 years. Why do I say he is innocent? Because the one witness to a murder in Dallas changed her original report. Right after the crime, Jill Barganier described the two killers as being tall, skinny white kids, with long, dirty, stringy hair. Charles is short, rather stocky, Latine and not white. Also, he has little or very short hair. She could not pick out Flores from photo displays. 

But over a year later, the police hypnotized Barganier and, lo and behold, in court she picked out Flores as the killer. Hypnotizing witnesses is no longer allowed and is considered junk science. Texas passed a junk science law, but it is never enforced. Nor is it retroactive. See FreeCharlesFlores.com for more information. 

According to a Gallup poll: “Overall support for the death penalty in the U.S. has fallen to 53% today, a level not seen since the early 1970s. Less than half of U.S. adults born after 1980 — those in the Millennial and Generation Z birth cohorts — favor the death penalty.” 

Youths are our future. Listen to them, and fight to end the racist and anti-poor death penalty!