Gisela Fosado, "Introduction" (Page 3 of 4)
The Death Penalty
With so much evidence of bias in our criminal justice system, it is
no surprise that evidence of serious discrimination also exists in
relation to capital punishment. These biases, errors in convictions, as
well as the innate cruelty of killing human lives, have propelled Angela
Davis and Sister Helen Prejean, among many others, to fight for the
abolishment of the death penalty for many years. Despite the fact that
the number of countries who have abolished the death penalty continues
to increase, 74 countries (including the United States) retain the death
penalty. Of these 74 countries, four countries are responsible for the
majority of all executions: China, Iran, Vietnam, and the United States.
In fact, we are the only country in the Western industrialized world to
practice the death penalty.
As Angela Davis and other death-penalty abolition activists note, the
death penalty is thoroughly racist. It is not only racist in terms of
the defendant, but also in relation to the race of the victim. Of the
18,000 executions that have taken place in our country since its
inception, only 42 executions, or less than 0.25 percent, were punishing
a white person for killing a black person. Killing a white person, on
the other hand, has a higher risk for the death penalty than does the
murder of any other person. As Angela Davis mentions in her
presentation, "raped or murdered white bodies have a greater exchange
value than bodies of color" in our society. She further notes the close
tie that capital punishment has with the institution of slavery, noting
that of the 197 black women executed in our country from the 17th
century through 1998, 151 were slaves.[4]
Davis argues that this history alone makes the death penalty a racist practice that should be
terminated.
Wealthy individuals, as the contributors show us, are not only
protected from the police but also from harsh convictions, including the
death penalty. It is well documented that people who pay for good
representation do not end up on death row. Ninety percent of defendants
charged with capital crimes cannot afford experienced attorneys. Their
trials often last less than one week, hardly ample time to make a strong
case.
The injustice of the death penalty has led people from many states to
begin campaigns to end capital punishment, and many have successfully
put an end to the practice within their state. Sister Helen Prejean's
web site lists many of these organizations, as well as national
organizations like her own. As Sister Prejean remarks in
her lecture, we as a society can take seriously the horrors that murder
victims experience without turning to capital punishment and creating
further violence. Botched executions, in which there is proof of torture
through the execution process, and the fact that 123 people since 1973
have been released from death row because of evidence of their
innocence, provide further evidence that this discriminatory, violent,
and flawed practice needs to end.
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