Comments | tamago23: Guest post at SWPD

tamago23

Guest post at SWPD

Jan 23, 2010 23:50

I've got a new guest post up at Stuff White People Do. It took me weeks to research and write, and I feel pretty good about it, since I think what it covers is something few people know much about. Stuff White People Do: obstinately support a racist death penalty. Somehow I doubt it's going to get that many comments, since there probably isn't much ( Read more... )

racism, dreams, writing

Comments 8

lordindra January 24 2010, 06:07:34 UTC

The "what if they are innocent" is my issue with the death penalty ( ... )

nimbrethil January 24 2010, 20:40:36 UTC

That's always been my issue. Yes, there's no doubt that some crimes are so barbaric as to deserve a barbaric punishment. But there's too many ways to screw up and execute the wrong person, and as you also pointed out, there's too much room for interpretation of possible mitigating factors, and when you apply subjective human reasoning...there's no way for it to always be perfectly, justly applied. And with the death penalty, it HAS to be all or none. It's NOT acceptable to write off the occasionally wrongly executed person as collateral damage by insisting that killing the right person 9 times out of ten makes the tenth one okay.

tamago23 January 25 2010, 04:41:54 UTC

I accept that there are crimes so heinous that the perpetrator deserves execution.

I'm the same way. I agree with the idea in theory. But there are just too many issues to support it being used in practice, and I honestly don't think they can ever be resolved.

kettunainen January 24 2010, 10:16:26 UTC

awesomeness. purely and truly.

I've never supported the death penalty, in theory or practice, because who gets that sort of say over a person's life? An eye for an eye makes us all blind, as the saying goes.

Aside from that, the American "justice system" is beyond laughable. For that matter, the "justice system" in most countries is beyond laughable due to the many prejudices in place. We're too fallible for it to be anything but imperfect.

As for Canada, it's not as much a matter of blacks as it is a matter of aboriginals, as far as I'm aware. Likely the exact same racist story. Referring to incarceration as opposed to death penalty, as I don't even think Canada *has* the death penalty.

the_moogie January 24 2010, 15:23:02 UTC

Nice article. Well done.

nimbrethil January 24 2010, 20:21:51 UTC

Well, this got my attention.

I have all sorts of problems with the death penalty, and the racial disparity in ts application is one of the main ones--I have two major problems, being that one, and the fact that DNA has exonerated a few people on death row. On top of the injustice of using it more often against racial minorities than against whites guilty of the same crime, there's something indescribably horrific just about the thought of executing a person for a crime they did not commit. I would sooner let a guilty person walk than kill the wrong person. Which is rather what happens anyway, and that renders the whole idea moot, for me.

Off to read the post!

d_bandit January 25 2010, 05:10:15 UTC

But, if the death penalty is racially motivated, why wasn't OJ convicted and executed?!? I think it is more socio-economically based. If you have the money for a team of high priced lawyers, you don't have to worry about getting convicted at all, let alone being sentenced to death ( ... )

tamago23 January 25 2010, 20:18:25 UTC

There's a few aspects here that relate to your points; the first major one is that the death penalty being racially motivated (by the race of the victim) doesn't necessarily mean that EVERY black killer who gets put on trial will lose. What it means is that statistically, their chances of getting the death penalty are much higher if they killed a white person as versus another minority. It doesn't mean it's a guarantee. Also, white killers are rarely put to death for killing a minority. This devalues the lives of the victims, by saying that the lives of minority/black victims were worth less than the lives of white victims.

Also, another racial aspect is that Death Row prisoners who are black are more likely later to be exonerated than white killers, which strongly suggests that their trials are more likely to be flawed in the first place.

Another aspect of what you're talking about is called intersectionality. Intersectionality is when different issues intersect and create a more difficult situation than either would have been on ( ... )