USA: death by discrimination - time to halt executions

Minjok-Tongshin ^ | 4.27.03

[Enemy Of The State]

Freep Info:

For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org

For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org

[Enemy Of The State]

"studies consistently indicating that the justice system places a higher value on white life than on black".

That is the most rediculous line of Horse Hockey I have ever heard.

Our justice system does not place a higher regard for the lives of Whites over Blacks and if these fruit cake peons would look at the real figures they would find out that the reason the majority of death row inmates are black is because the number of blacks comitting these are higher than whites. duh!

[BeAllYouCanBe]

"We don't believe the courts catch all inequities, including those caused by conscious or unconscious racism"

This usconscious racism is an interesting concept. So even though we are trying not to be racist until the numbers come out right we're racist.

Maybe the numbers (statistics) are unconsciously biased to find a problem where none exists?? Just asking - but my limited exposure to the "justice system" says that incompitance is responsible more than anything mystical.

[kesg]

If racial discrimination is supposedly the problem (a premise I do not accept, but will assume for purposes of argument), how is halting executions the solution to the problem? Applying the death penalty more rigorously (e.g. in more cases in which the victim is black or the accused is white) would be an equally effective solution. This argument also ignores how capital crime cases are actually decided, i.e. they are based on what the accused actually did (as proven by the prosecution beyond a reasnable doubt), not on the color of his skin.

[dark_lord]

Most murders in the USA involve perpetrators and victims of the same race, yet nearly 200 African Americans have been executed for the murder of white victims --15 times as many as the number of whites put to death for killing blacks, and at least twice as many as the number of blacks executed for the murder of other blacks.

One reason for this statistic is that murderers are much more likely to get the death penalty if they kill a stranger rather than an immediate member of their family or a "friend". The latter are often considered "crimes of passion" and have a lower penalty (for various reasons -- the killer may feel terrible remorse from a killing while drunk, and they may not be viewed as someone who will "kill again".) It is also the fact that many of these black killers have been dangerous low-life scumbags with little regard to human life. Killing a few people while robbing a convenience store, with a long criminal record, will get you executed regardless of your race.

[thoughtomator]

It's too bad that the anti-death penalty brigades have latched onto racism as the keystone of their reasoning, when there are at least two reasons that are much more compelling and universal that they ignore. (Of course, those reasons are conservative, that's why they ignore them.)

[codercpc]

I know I will be flamed on this board, but I have on my fire retartdent gear on so I am ready.

I am a firm believer in the death penalty in principle, but in reality I find it extremely unfair. I don't have a problem with the number of blacks on death row unfair, if they deserved it, I find the descrepancy of numbers of whites on deathrow the problem.

If we truly have a color-blind, and "wallet"-blind justice system, why are the descrepancies there? Why is a poor person more likely to get on death row than a rich person.

I don't find the total #'s disturbing, I just think it should be more across the board. Why did the DA of California even hesitate to charge Scott Peterson with a Capital offense? Because of the chance of not getting a good looking white man found guilty. Its a proven fact in some jurisdictions that you have a better chance of a guilty verdict if you take out the capital punishment. Why? Look at OJ. Until it is either enforced across the board in the states where it is a law, I have problems with it.

I hope you all understand my point, I am not against the death penalty at all, I just think it has become to unfair to have in a "fair" judicial system.

[Bogey78O]

What is this the California chapter of Xinhau?

I read on the People's Daily that only 15 white people have been executed by the Feds ever. While over 10,000 blacks have been executed.

Talk about off by a mile.

[nothingnew]

Minjok-Tongshin ^

Who or what the heck is that?

FMCDH

[templar]

African Americans account for 12 per cent of the population, ...

The author seems to have omitted the per cent of overall murders they account for. A simple oversight, I'm sure. However he does mention almost equal numbers of murders of blacks and whites and most murders involving members of the same race, which makes me think that maybe 12 per cent of the polulation commits 50 per cent of the murders (based strictly on race, but not implying all blacks are murders or other races not murderers. I have no idea from this article what percentage of blacks are murders or other races not murderers).

Somebody please correct me if my thinking is wrong here.

[Enemy Of The State]

oh, so you think we need an afirmative action death penalty?

[codercpc]

Maybe. I just have a problem with the lack of consitancy in delivering the death sentence, not the death penalty in itself. Does that make sense? I don't know if it does to me or not. But I just think until we have more justice to ALL victims we have an unfair system. I actually think my misgivings would be put to rest if I saw more people on death row, not less.

I don't want to shave penalties off any criminal whether he be black or white, rich or poor. I just want to see more color blind , wealth blind justice.

Please remember I believe in the death penalty. I have more problems with justice than with race.

[Search4Truth]

Amnesty International is of the opinion that white people love to put black people to death, at every opportunity. That we place a lower value on someone's life, simply because of their race.

What is an honorable man to think of an organization that would have such a degraded view of him?

Reminds me of a saying, "A man sees in the world, that which is already in his heart".

[arthurus]

Amnesty International is a RACIST organization that believes that hatred, terrorism and torture is properly ascribed only to English speakers and/or Jews. Other peoples are either socialist, for which hatred, terrorism, and torture are only necessary methods for the creation of New Man and thus are for the greater good of all mankind or they are Non English speaking non Jewish societies of an order of magnitude less intelligent than English speakers and Jews and are unable to understand the higher things and thus cannot be held accountable for hatred-like or terrorism-like or torture-like actions and attitudes. In fact English speaking peoples and Jews are responsible for all such attitudes and actions in other peoples because those English speaking peoples' and Jews have not equally distributed the wealth they stole or stumbled onto purely by happenstance throughout the population of the whole planet.

[arthurus]

This usconscious racism is an interesting concept. So even though we are trying not to be racist until the numbers come out right we're racist.

We are officially racist until every political position in the country is held by a certified minority officeholder who got his position due to Affirmitive action and espouses the far left line , whatever it is at any given moment. Then we get into relative minority...

[MEG33]

I don't consider Amnesty Int.,I don,t consider them at all.

[ex-snook]

There also is sexual discrimination. More men than women receive the death penalty. What to do. Women have to change their nature.

[onedoug]

The penalties we ascribe for murder are a function of how we value human life. The way we carry them out may well reflect our human imperfections. But nothing should undermine our fundamental, American values.

[DED]

I have supported capital punishment since I've been old enough to understand it - UNTIL RECENTLY.

I changed my mind, not because of the screwball reasoning in this article, but because we're finding so many people on death row who are innocent. (They're found to be innocent through DNA testing not available when the murders occured.)

On top of this, when inmates are found to be innocent, it frequently turns out that either the police completely ignored evidence that didn't support their conclusion, or they went so far as to fabricate evidence.

In addition, the death penalty at this point is used so infrequently, and takes so long for the penalty to be imposed, that it no longer functions as a deterrent. If the would-be killer even considers the penalty, they can easily conclude that, I probably won't get caught, if I do get caught, there's a good chance I can get off, if I don't get off, I probably won't get the death penalty, and if I do get sentenced to death, it'll take 'em 18 years to execute me!

But the overriding factor for me is the number of people found to be wrongly convicted. How many innocent people are we willing to execute in order to have a death penalty?