Before the Davis Execution Takes Place - TheAtlantic

[WillyT]

Before the Davis Execution Takes Place
James Fallows - TheAtlantic
SEP 21 2011, 2:50 PM ET

<snip>

This is not my normal beat, and I have no expertise or special standing to comment on the case. But before the executioner makes this matter moot about four hours from now, in my "special standing" as a human being and as an American, I wanted to say these things:

1) Please read Andrew Cohen's masterful explanation of the philosophies, practicalities, and politics of modern capital punishment: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/09/the-death-penalty-why-we-fight-for-equal-justice/245101/ It is long but truly important, and among other things it clarifies why use of the death penalty nationwide has been declining, even as it has been on the rise in the South. (Since 1976, there have been four times as many executions in the South as in the rest of the country combined. Texas alone has accounted for nearly 40% of all U.S. executions in that period; together with Virginia, it accounts for almost half. Texas executed 17 last year; California, with more people and more crimes, has executed 13 total since 1976.)

One crucial part of Cohen's argument is that the kind of willful over-reach we see from the Georgia authorities in the Troy Davis case will eventually turn the national tide against the death penalty as a whole. He argues that the 1976 Supreme Court ruling making the death penalty permissible again was based on the faith that it would be carried out with utmost sober-minded care, even reluctance, and that operationally its workings would seem to be "fair."

That's quite obviously not how things seem about the death penalty in general, with the partisan whoops at the mere mention of executions and the comments from public officials (it's not just Rick Perry) that they haven't lost a moment's sleep about even some obviously tainted cases. It's also not how things seem in the Troy Davis case, in which most of the original witnesses have changed their stories and numerous non-softies including Ronald Reagan's appointee as director of the FBI have asked the state of Georgia not to take the irreversible step of putting him to death.

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More: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/09/before-the-davis-execution-takes-place/245452/

:kick:

[Neurotica]

1. Have you read "Ultiimate Punishment" by lawyer/author Scott Turow?

Excellent nonfiction essay/treatise that explains how Turow evolved from a "death penalty agnostic" to someone who believed that capital punishment should be abolished in Illinois.

[WillyT]

3. No... But Thank You For The Heads-Up !!!

:hi:

[ashling]

4. While in grad schooI was a g.a. for a class in criminal law

The instructor ( a local judge) assigned that book.

Turned several people's minds.

[frazzled]

2. We need to push as hard for abolition of the death penalty nationally

as we have for other issues of social justice. My state, Illinois, where it had been on moratorium for many years, recently abolished it for good. But as long as the Supreme Court decision that allows states to use it if they wish, it's going to continue to exist. It's really hard to overturn an established SCOTUS decision. Really, really hard. So the fight will have to be taken to the states. On the Federal level, though, we can begin with abolishing the federal death penalty (rarely used).

Right now, only 16 states and the District of Columbia ban the death penalty. That leaves 34 states in which it is permissible. As the OP states, however, the use of it has been confined increasingly to southern states. I believe the Catholic Church, and the liberal arms of a number of other faiths (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.), could really lead the push on this. It has been a firm belief of mine for many decades that the death penalty is wrong in the absolute sense, not just in individual or doubtful cases. I'd like to see this become more of a priority for progressives.