Death Row U.S.A.

[I first became really conscious of the evils of this barbaric practice virtually uniquely now practiced by the U.S. among the developed nations when one of my former students invited me to speak at an Amnesty International Conference on the death penalty down the street at Riverside Church. I was obliged for the first time to do an in depth study of this cruel phenomenon deriving from ancient times and borrowed by our Western religions from the cruelest of the old ones -- that of the Babylonians who viewed the gods as hostile to humans -- the dread lex talionis -- "an eye for an eye . . . ."

Other speakers such as Burton Roberts, former Bronx D.A. and later judge, were far more experienced with this ugly phenomenon than was I. Roberts was particularly known for the severity of his sentences -- but never the death penalty. Others included Ramsey Clark and a Mississippi death row chaplain. Variously they detailed what we now know all too well:

1) that the death penalty is largely reserved for the poor and minorities charged with killing their social betters.

2) that death sentences are not infrequently imposed upon the innocent.

3) that the U.S. has executed juveniles, the insane, and the mentally incompetent -- now with some limited reforms with which particular authorities play games: Is his I.Q. above or below the dividing line of 70?

Supporting the death penalty shortly after this conference became a quick ticket for out doing one's political competitors in close races -- Koch, Pataki among NY's notables. The media was at that time shifting from news to entertainment and nothing appeals more to a TV audience than a juicy murder and the prospect of punishment of the presumed murderer -- increasingly tried by said media rather than by judicial procedures and juries. In Britain no media coverage is permitted of a trial once an indictment has been brought down until the trial has been concluded.

I recommend to any and all a visit to the Death Penalty Information Center for basics here: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

It is with a heavy heart and too much knowledge of this grim subject that I recommend to my neighbors yet another effort at reform scheduled at our nearby Harlem Church, St. Mary's (quite safe to visit, as it is opposite our 26th Precinct headquarters). Ed Kent]

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From Death Row to Guantanamo: Torture at Home & Abroad

Speakers: Lawrence Hayes, former death row prisoner;
Campaign to End the Death Penalty

Ejim Dike, New York City Human Rights Initiative

As outrage builds over military torture tactics from Abu Ghraib to
Guantanamo, the sanctioned killing of prisoners continues here at home.
With the death penalty in place, the American government practices "cruel and unusual punishment" every day. Torture abroad is only one extension of tactics that for years have included coerced confessions, indefinite detention, and the daily, psychological torture of awaiting the march to the death chambers - in jails across America. The death penalty is legalized torture. Until it is abolished, we can expect the sadistic acts of the US Military to continue as the rule, not the exception.

Join us to fight against torture at home an abroad!

Thursday, August 18th @ 7 pm.

St Mary's Church, Harlem

521 West 126th Street (between Old Broadway & Amsterdam)
New York City, NY

Trains: 1 or A,B,C,D to 125th Street

Sponsored by: Campaign to End the Death Penalty-NYC
www.nodeathpenalty.org
nyc@nodeathpenalty.org
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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