What does one do when one disagrees with the political direction and philosophy (or lack of philosophy) of both major candidates? I reject the advice of "voting for the lesser evil" as that has brought our country to wear it is now: a population of frightened, morally bankrupt individuals who cower under PC and believe that government "programs" are their right.
Take the extreme example: If you were told it was your duty to vote and you were given the choice between Stalin or Hitler, would there be much of a choice?
The death penalty is an example of the dilemma of "no real choice." Both Republicans and Democrats are pushing the country in the same direction, over the cliff...
GEORGE W. BUSH: THE GOVERNOR OF DEATH
Even in the face of growing concern that innocent men and women are being sentenced to death, this "Compassionate Conservative" insists that Texas' killing machine is foolproof. The truth is that the
death penalty in Texas is plagued with
injustices. Bush continues to give his
mandate to a system that is fraught with
wrongful convictions, racism, class-bias
and prosecutorial misconduct.
THE FACTS ABOUT BUSH'S KILLING MACHINE
As governor of Texas, George W. Bush has overseen the executions of more than 130 death row prisoners. This means he has overseen more executions than the three governors before him combined, and more than any other governor in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Texas is leading the country in putting inmates to death. Last year in 1999, Texas killed 35 prisoners -- far more than any other state. In 1997 Bush allowed the executions of four prisoners in one week, eight in one month, and 37 for the year -- all modern records.
Texas' Death Row currently houses over 450 prisoners, more than any other state except California.
A disproportionate number of Texas' death row prisoners are Black. Although Black males only make up 6% of the Texas population, 40% of Texas' death row prisoners are Black males.
Poor defendants in capital cases are subject to court-appointed attorneys who are not required to have
any experience with capital cases. After spending 16 years on Texas' death row, Calvin Burdine was ordered released from prison on March 1, 2000 by Federal District Judge David Hittner. Burdine's conviction was thrown out because his attorney slept through much of his 1984 trial.
GEORGE W. BUSH: THE GOVERNOR OF DEATH
GEORGE BUSH'S KILLING MACHINE -- THE MENTALLY ILL AND MENTALLY RETARDED
Bush opposed a bill in 1999 that would have banned executions of the mentally retarded. The bill had already passed one house of the Texas legislature and it was Bush's opposition that killed the bill.
John Paul Penry is on Texas death row.
He has the intellectual capacity of a
7-year-old. He never got passed the first
grade, and he spent his childhood years in and out of mental
institutions. Court records describe how his mother beat him as a
baby and dipped him in scalding water. Now he awaits an even greater
punishment, which he likely cannot even comprehend.
Larry Robison was executed by the state of Texas on January 21, 2000. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic when he was 21. His parents attempted to get treatment for him, but because they were poor and lacked health insurance, and because Texas is ranked 49th in the country in funding mental health care, they had no options. His parents were warned that Larry would likely become violent. He had no history of violence when he eventually did kill 5 people for no apparent reason. At his trial, the judge excluded almost all the evidence of Larry's mental problems.
Larry requested January 21 as an execution date because he wanted to die on a night with a full moon. The state, maintaining that Robison was competent, granted his request.
While Texas ranks near the bottom of the 50 states in expenditure for mental health services, it is first in the nation in prisons and executions. As an editorial in the Dallas Morning News rightly noted, "Texas has never adequately funded mental health services -- yet it is perfectly willing to execute people for crimes that good mental health care might have prevented."
GEORGE BUSH'S KILLING MACHINE AND JUVENILES
Texas leads the nation and the world in executing juvenile offenders. And under Bush, Texas has nearly tripled the capacity and population of its juvenile detention facilities, and punishments for juveniles have been strengthened. He has pumped money into the juvenile justice system while doing little for schools besides promoting vouchers, holding children back who can't pass standardized tests and encouraging children to read.
In April of 1998, Joseph Cannon, who was a juvenile when he committed his crime, was murdered by the state of Texas under Bush's leadership. Cannon was 17 when he committed his crime -- not old enough to vote or drink but old enough to be killed by the state. Cannon was executed at the age of 38, which means he spent most of his life on death row. He was brain-damaged and illiterate and
at a 3rd grade level.
More recently, Texas executed Glen McGinnis on January 25, 2000. Like Cannon, McGinnis was also only 17 years old at the time of the crime. Bush refused to commute McGinnis' sentence to life in prison despite appeals from the European Union, the American Bar Association, and even Pope John Paul II.
BUSH'S KILLING MACHINE AND THE INNOCENT
Gary Graham, who has since changed his name to Shaka Sankofa, was also 17 when he allegedly committed a murder. But he has managed to avoid death so far, and remains on death row. The more
shocking factor in Graham's case, however, is that there is significant evidence that Graham is innocent.
There is no physical evidence linking Gary to the crime that he allegedly committed, and there is only one, highly unreliable eye-witness. There are multiple eye-witnesses who were closer to the scene of the crime and say that Graham did not commit the killing. There are also alibi witnesses who were with Graham far from the scene of the crime, and who have passed polygraph tests. These favorable witnesses were never called upon to testify, partly because Graham's court appointed lawyer admitted that he believed Graham
was guilty and therefore did nothing to find proof otherwise.
Bush does, supposedly, review death row cases before execution to ensure that individuals have received a fair trial and are truly guilty. He meets with his legal staff to make his decision. It has been noted by a
former general counsel to Bush's legal staff, Al Gonzales, that Bush was briefed on cases when inmates sought clemency; such briefings, according to Gonzales, usually took about 15 to 30 minutes.
BUSH'S KILLING MACHINE AND RACISM
African Americans are over-represented on Texas death row. As of September 1999, 41% of death row inmates were Black, while only 12 % of Texans were Black. There is little doubt that the reason Blacks
are overrepresented is because of racism. This becomes even more evident when you compare those being prosecuted with those doing the prosecuting. According to a 1998 report from the Death Penalty Information Center, Texas has 137 white district attorneys, 11 Hispanic district attorneys and no Black district attorneys. These D.A.'s prosecute the death penalty cases that land so many poor Blacks in prison or on the execution gurney. Of course the judges and legislators in Texas are also overwhelmingly white.
Texas, remember, was part of the Confederate South. The former slave states are, not coincidentally, the biggest executioners. Capital punishment is essentially a modern day lynching, and Bush is carrying on this racist tradition.
BUSH'S KILLING MACHINE AND THE POOR
There is no statewide public defender system in Texas. Texas provides legal services to indigent defendants, in capital punishment and other criminal cases, via a court appointed patronage system in
which elected judges appoint their favorite lawyers for the job -- they sometimes appoint campaign contributors.
One federal judge, after hearing incidents where these appointed attorneys slept in court or abused cocaine, called the Texas system a "farce" and a "travesty." In Harris county, where Houston sits and which has more inmates on death row than any other Texas county, defendants with appointed lawyers are twice as likely to go to jail as those who could afford to hire lawyers, according to the Houston Chronicle. Yet, Bush vetoed a bill in 1999 that would have reformed this unfair system by establishing an independent public defender's office.
BUSH'S KILLING MACHINE: CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT
David Long was also murdered by Texas under Bush's watch. State authorities used an airplane and a team of medical attendants to fly David Long from the intensive care ward of a Galveston hospital to the death chamber in Huntsville on December 8, 1999, so that he could be executed on his appointed date. Such actions erode the argument that executions are needed so victims can have closure and heal. If this were the case, why would they revive this man only to kill him? George Kendall, head of the NAACP's death penalty project in New York, was bewildered: "Putting him on life support and flying him out of the hospital so they can kill him? People are asking, 'What the hell are they doing down there?'"
GORE JUST AS BAD
The Democratic candidate for president, Al Gore, is no better than Bush. He recently admitted that "any honest and candid supporter of the death penalty has to acknowledge that... there will inevitably be some
mistakes." As the Vice President of an administration that has expanded the number of crimes punishable by death, Gore is a stalwart supporter of the death penalty over justice. |
