Why Do American Southern States Love To Kill People?
By Mary Hamer
03 January, 2013
Countercurrents.org
*PURPOSE: “ Mounting evidence shows that innocent people have been sentenced to death and that serious legal errors infect the administration of capital punishment. ” “ In response to growing concerns about (Wrongful convictions for the Death Penalty), many states have suspended executions or experienced a decline in the use of capital punishment, but most SOUTHERN STATES have continued to condemn and execute large numbers of people who disproportionately are poor and racial minorities. (1) The Purpose of this essay is to investigate why the Southern States including Florida, Texas & Alabama love to Kill people. Specifically, Why do the Southern states: #1. Condemn & execute large numbers of people who disproportionatley are poor & racial minorities? #2. What role do State “E lected ” judges have in these Death Penalty cases in Southern states? #3. Why is Florida the Nation 's Leader in Wrongful Convictions? (2)
*KEY SECTIONS: The Key Sections of this paper are: I. Death Penalty: Legal Lynchings & Slavery. II. God, the Bible & the Death Penalty. III. Texas. IV. Florida: Nationwide Leader in Wrongful Convictions. V. Florida 's Billionaires, the Americans for Prosperity & Fearful Judges. VI. Alabama & Racism. VII. Conclusion.
I. HISTORY OF SOUTHERN EXECUTIONS: LYNCHING, RACIAL VIOLENCE & OPPRESSION:
A. LYNCHING: “The death penalty is a direct descendant of lynching and other forms of racial violence and racial oppression in the American South.” “ Critics have referred to official executions in the South as “Legal lynchings” because of how closely state-mandated executions resemble mob lynchings. … “Often, the ‘due process' that distinguished legal executions from extralegal ones was merely a charade, with trials that were no more than a formality.” (3)
B. The DEATH PENALTY, DEHUMANIZING, SLAVERY & EXCLUSION.
“ James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen … argue that Texas' execution rate reflects the Southern ‘cultural tradition of exclusion' and that ‘such exclusion was a basic element of the legacy of slavery.' “In other words, the South has a cultural tradition of dehumanizing certain groups of people, which has made it easier for Southerners to separate themselves from those who do not adhere to the normal social (and in this case, legal) code.” (4)
“Executions simply replaced lynchings as the accepted way to state the popular (white) need to ‘dehumanize' or ‘exclude' certain groups from normal society.” (5)
II . GOD, The BIBLE & The DEATH PENALTY.
“Allen Woods, a former lawyer now serving at Sugar Land Bible Church ” states: "God put … the hands of the government to punish people who commit murder." He says the Bible “Support(s) government's rights and said it is legitimate homicide. He has also explain(s) that one of Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not kill," prohibits murder but … states that (the) death penalty is required for deliberate killings. (6)
III. TEXAS. Why is Texas #1 in Executions? (7)
“ Brent Newton argues that there are three procedures unique to the Texas judicial system that enable it to execute convicted murderers with astonishing frequency.”
A. “ Texas ' appellate judges are elected to office and hence serve according to the pleasure of the public. Not surprisingly, they require a record of toughness on criminals in order to win re-election . Also, there are many indications that elected appellate judges generally are of a lesser quality than their appointed counterparts in other states. Newton even claims that these elected judges do not carefully consider the complexities of each specific death penalty case. As evidence, Newton argues that "especially during the past few years...the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has refused to publish most of its decisions in death penalty cases … Often these opinions take positions entirely inconsistent with prior decisions by the court and fail to mention the conflict. Generally speaking, there is a hit-and-mostly-miss quality in the Court of Criminal Appeals' death penalty decisions. Only a few judges during the past decade have been capable of or willing to write thoughtful, scholarly decisions, whether granting or denying relief." Additionally, Newton notes that these judges tend to dismiss Habeas corpus appeals even in cases where there appears to be glaring unanswered questions about the defendant's guilt.”
B. “ Texas does Not have a public defender system for indigent defendants, and instead relies upon court-appointed lawyers who likely do not have experience in capital murder defenses or appeals. Newton notes that incompetent defenses in capital murder cases are legion in Texas … One decision, which turned down a defendant's habeas appeal due to bad lawyering , concluded that "[t]he Constitution does not say that the lawyer has to be awake" during trial proceedings. Furthermore, Texas was not obliged to provide lawyers free of charge to post-conviction habeas appeals until September 1, 1995, and the amount the state is willing to pay lawyers for these appeals is sufficiently low that most defendants still do not receive counsel for their appeals.”
C. “Until the early 1990s, Texas did not permit jurors to adequately consider mitigating evidence in the sentencing phase of a trial. Thus, there are a number of people currently on death row that may well not be there had information about their mental illness or youth been weighed.” (8)
IV. FLORIDA is the NATIONWIDE LEADER in WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS:
” Florida is the nationwide leader in wrongful convictions (for death penalty cases) with 23 death row inmates exonerated since 1973. This dubious honor led the Florida Supreme Court to create the Innocence Commission in 2009, which was ordered ‘To conduct a comprehensive study of the causes of wrongful conviction & of measures to prevent such convictions.' Given the poor track record of the state's justice system, it would seem that capital punishment – a contentious moral issues … -- could benefit from serious reconsideration.” (9) The (Florida Innocence Commission) study determined where, in the process of determining the guilt of a suspect, poor procedure has often led to false conviction of an innocent person. Such procedures that need serious reform (include:) eye-witness reports, assessing the reliability of interviews with jailhouse snitches, & … ill-equipped defense lawyers. (10) In General, t he main causes of Wrongful Convictions & Factors which deny defendants to the Right to Due Process & a Fair Trial are: Government Misconduct (Police, Prosecutorial & Judicial), Bad Lawyering, Faulty Scientific Evidence, Eyewitness Errors/Perjury, False Confessions & Jailhouse informants/Snitch Testimony. (11)
V. FLORIDA 'S BILLIONAIRE KOCH Bros. & The AMERICANS for PROSPERITY: -- BUYING VOTES & ELECTIONS in FLORIDA 'S JUSTICE SYSTEM.
“Carl Hiaasen of the Miami Herald states: ‘The new stealth campaign against three Florida Supreme Court justices is being backed by those meddling right-wing billionaires from Wichita , Charles and David Koch. … (and their) political action committee, Americans for Prosperity.” “The mission of the Kochs … is to get the three justices dumped at the polls so that Gov. Rick Scott can appoint replacements.” “The last thing these guys want is fair judges who know the law; they want partisan judges who'll obediently support their political agenda. It's worse than just trying to buy an election. It's trying to hijack Florida 's justice system at the highest levels.” (12) Note: Florida 's Governor Rick Scott supports the Death Penalty. (13)
VI. ALABAMA 'S ELECTED JUDGES, CHEAP LEGAL COUNSEL & RACISM.
A. ELECTED JUDGES OVERRIDE JURY VERDICTS: “ Alabama sentences more people to death per capita than any other state, due in part to elected judges who are allowed to override a jury's verdict of life.” (14)
B. CHEAP LEGAL COUNSEL: “ Alabama is also the only state in the country without a state-funded program to provide legal assistance to death row prisoners. Nearly half of the people currently under sentence of death in Alabama were represented at trial by appointed counsel whose compensation for trial preparation was capped by law at just $1000. ” (14)
C. RACISM: ” Each year in Alabama, nearly 65% of all murders involve black victims, yet 80% of the people currently awaiting execution in Alabama were convicted of crimes in which the victims were white. Only 6% of all murders in Alabama involve black defendants and white victims, but over 60% of black death row prisoners have been sentenced for killing someone white. Although black people in Alabama constitute 27% of the total population, none of the 19 appellate court judges and only one of the 42 elected District Attorneys in Alabama is black. Nearly 63% of the Alabama prison population is black. ” (14)
VII. CONCLUSION:
*In Conclusion, Southern states including Texas , Florida & Alabama execute relatively large numbers of people including the poor & racial minorities. There are many reasons for this Southern Kill ethic: Historical Southern Lynch-mob ethic, God & Bible-ordained & Christian sanctioned homicide, Poor quality elected state appellate judges compared to more competent appointed federal judges who write more scholarly decisions, Judges under threats of losing votes & elections due to 3 rd party billionaires & their powerful political action committees & Elected judges who override a jury's verdict. These state sanctioned homicides are carried out with an underlying philosophy of Dehumanization, separation & exclusion.
*As the AMERICAL CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION (ACLU) states: “A decent and humane society does not deliberately (in a pre-mediatated fashion & with ceremony) kill human beings. An execution is a dramatic, public spectacle of official, violent homicide that teaches the permissibility of killing people to solve social problems -- the worst possible example to set for society. In this century, governments have too often attempted to justify their lethal fury by the benefits such killing would bring to the rest of society. The bloodshed is real and deeply destructive of the common decency of the community; the benefits are illusory . ” (15)
*The AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION states: “When the government metes out vengeance disguised as justice, it becomes complicit with killers in devaluing human life and human dignity.” (16)
*OVERALL, As best said by Florida 's Trial Lawyer Spencer Aronfeld: “I find it hard to understand how Florida (or any other government agency in the world) can take it upon itself to intentionally kill a person in the name of justice”. (17)
Thank you. Respectfully, Mary Hamer, M.D. Florida, a Southern Death Penalty state .
REFERENCES:
1. Equal Justice Initiative . eji.org. Death Penalty.
2.www.nationalmemo.com/gov-rick-scott-vetoes-funds-for- wrongful - ... BY Axel Tonconogy. June 7, 2012 .
3. www.schr.org/ death _ penalty /south . The Death Penalty in the American South | Southern Center for ...
4. www. pbs . org / wgbh / pages / frontline / shows / execution /.../ texas . html . By Ned Walpin. Research Assoc. Frontline Online. Referencing: James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson & Jonathan R. Sorensen. The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas , 1923-1990. Austin : University of Texas Press, 1998. The percentage declines slightly when one tallies all executions from 1976-Jan 1999.
5. www. pbs . org / wgbh / pages / frontline / shows / execution /.../ texas . html . By Ned Walpin. Research Assoc. Frontline Online.
6. Texas -The Death Penalty State . swc2.hccs.edu/PROBERTS/diginetxpress/fall2010/politics/ho.xml. Texas — The Death Penalty State By NhuNg Velvet HO. 10/27/10 .
7. Why Is Texas #1 In Executions? | The Execution ... - PBS . www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/.../ texas .html. by Ned Walpin. Research Assoc. Frontline Online. Referencing: Brent Newton, "Capital Punishment: Texas Could Learn a Lot from Florida ." Texas Lawyer , February 26, 1996 .
8. Why Is Texas #1 In Executions? | The Execution ... - PBS . www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/.../ texas .html. by Ned Walpin. Research Assoc. Frontline Online. Referencing: Brent Newton, "Capital Punishment: Texas Could Learn a Lot from Florida ." Texas Lawyer , February 26, 1996 .
9. www.nationalmemo.com/gov-rick-scott-vetoes-funds-for- wrongful - ... BY Axel Tonconogy. June 7, 2012 .
10. Florida Innocence Commission . www.flcourts.org/gen_public/ innocence .shtml
http://www.flcourts.org/gen_public/finalreport2012.rtf. 6/27/12 .
11. Causes of Wrongful Convictions | Midwest Innocence Project . www.themip.org/Causes .
12. Billionaire Koch brothers try to buy state's court - Carl Hiaasen ... www.miamiherald.com › Opinion › Columnists › Carl Hiaasen .
13. Rick Scott on the Issues . www.ontheissues.org/Rick_ Scott .htm .
14. Death Penalty | Equal Justice Initiative . www.eji.org/deathpenalty .
15. The Case Against the Death Penalty . users.rcn.com/mwood/deathpen.html.
16. deathpenalty.procon.org › ... › Is the death penalty immoral? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in an Apr. 9, 2007 website section titled "The Death Penalty: Questions and Answers.
17. Spencer Aronfeld: How Florida's Death Penalty Is Killing Us . www.huffingtonpost.com/.../ florida - death - penalty _b_1563...
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