FLIP FLOPPING ON THE DEATH PENALTY

Dorina Lisson, my Aussie human rights activist friend, sent me the following e-mail with a link to a four-page article describing flaws in the trial and conviction of Jermaine Wright who has been roosting on Delaware’s death row for 20 Years:

Death sentence overturned
Delaware man Jermaine Wright, who has spent 20 years on death row could be freed

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120104/NEWS01/201040340/Death-sentence-overturned

Superior Court Judge John A. Parkins Jr. overturned the conviction and death sentence of Jermaine Wright. Parkins said he had "no confidence" in the evidence against Wright, despite a videotaped confession.

Laurie L. Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said; "It should make everyone stop and gasp that a man could come so close to being put to death when there were so many problems with his conviction. Bells and sirens should go off for the criminal justice system, that such stunning turnarounds are happening more and more in cases like this one, cases that are 10, 15 or 20 years old. This is probably why we are seeing that juries are less and less willing to give the death penalty. We are seeing how easy it is to get it wrong."

Here is how I responded to Dorina:

You've done it. You've succeeded in getting me to switch to your side. I am now unalterably opposed to the death penalty. How could I do otherwise with so many innocent victims of a corrupt criminal justice system sitting on death row or serving life terms in prison. I'm sick to my stomach for my past stance. It's all I can do to keep from puking.

But wait a minute, I must be out of my mind. I just got through reading all four pages of the linked article and while the investigation obviously had flaws, there is nothing in the story that proves this scumbag is innocent. On the other hand, there is his confession. The fact that he changed the details several times does not mean the confession is invalid.

As for being under the influence of heroin during his interrogation, that should not invalidate the confession either. When I was a cop I dealt with many heroin addicts and when I was a California parole agent, I had a special case load of only heroin addicts. I have dealt with many addicts under the influence and believe me when I tell you that they can be completely rational at the time. The fact that Wright ate slips of paper and curled up in a fetal position during the interrogation is not indicative of someone under the influence of heroin, but it is indicative of someone putting on an act.

So I hate to disappoint you, but I'm switching back to my old self as a committed advocate for the death penalty.

And Dorina came back at me with this:

I never suggested the Delaware man was innocent !!! There is a big difference between innocence and wrongful conviction.

Hey, you said it ... "The investigation obviously had some flaws". Holly Sheet, no, really ???

I do not fight for abolition of the death penalty by only using the 'innocence' theory. But then, that's an excellent point.

Please, don't get me and the group ACADP [Australian Coalition Against Death Penalty, the organization Dorina leads] confused with all other anti-death penalty activists. Don't put us all in the same basket !!! Please understand that I am an 'individual' anti-death penalty activist - not easily brainwashed by anybody. Allow me to make myself very clear on this issue. My passionate reasons for being opposed to the death penalty (regardless of crime) are ...

The death penalty is a barbaric, brutal, cruel, degrading, inhuman, uncivilized and repugnant state-sanctioned act of pure vengeance. It is a 'Government Program' - a vile legalized 'hate crime' that has no place in a modern-day criminal justice system. It makes me sick to my stomach - it makes me puke !!!

The death penalty is discriminative. It is seriously flawed. It is riddled with legal errors (wrongful convictions). It is corrupt. It is bias - some offenders are ‘chosen/selected’ to be executed and others are not. It is applied arbitrarily, capriciously and at random. It is a system that has been proven time and time again to be rotten to the core, literally, no matter where you look. It is a seriously broken system that cannot be fixed. It has been declared by the UN to be a 'cruel and unusual' punishment (botched executions). It is a direct violation of the most fundamental human right - the right to life. It creates more victims (the innocent family members and loved ones of the executed offender). It brutalizes a society. It degrades a society. It is a lethal lottery - politics, quality of legal counsel, police misconduct, prosecution misconduct, eyewitness errors, false and coerced confessions, use of snitches as informants, ominous jury members, who you are, your ethnicity, your financial status, your intellect, the jurisdiction where the crime was committed, the political climate at the time of the crime and death sentence and the political rivalry are more often the determining facts - more than the actual facts surrounding the crime itself.

Human Rights is universal. Human Rights belong to everyone - all people on this one planet. Human Rights is all of our business. As members of the human race, every human being has a born right to protect the life of another human being, regardless of location on this planet. Every human being is equal with equal human rights, regardless of nationality. Governments do not give nor grant us human life and they should have no right to take away a human life. The death penalty cannot be separated from human rights. Universal human rights is everybody's business !!!

The death penalty is the most pre-meditated, meticulously prepared, carefully planned, cold-blooded ‘legal ritual’ of killing a human being by government-chosen stealth executioner/s who then go home to their families and sleep peacefully at night. Governments cannot be trusted to control their own power over society, their own bureaucrats and their abuse of taxpayers' money - much less choose the executioner/s and which offenders they want executed. What kind of a decent civilized individual would want a job as a state-sanctioned executioner ??? It takes a 'certain' individual to kill another human being in a stealth, sadistic, chilling, blood-thirsty, carefully-prepared, cold-blooded, pre-meditated, primitive 'ritual' of state-sanctioned killing. A killer is a killer, is a killer. The job of executioner/s should be looked at with the ultimate of contempt !!!

In the words of United States former executioner Jerry Givens ...“The job of executioner turned me into an animal, it transformed my life to become I hate to say - an animal.” Givens spent 17 years as a professional legal killer from 1982 to 1999 and presided over 62 executions. He now opposes what he calls ... “the ultimate revenge”

My final word:

What Dorina says about human rights is absolutely true. But while I can pick apart what she says about the application of the death penalty, I’ll let it go at that.