Racism and the Machinery of Death (Updated)
Seventeen years ago, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun pledged “I will no longer tinker with the machinery of death.” Blackmun had tired of the endless permutations of injustice that plague this arcane institution, ranging from innocent people convicted to methods of execution that reek of medieval torture chambers.
We’re still tinkering. In Texas, the world-wide capital of the death penalty, an inmate faces imminent execution in a case where the prosecutor relied on a blatantly racist appeal to the jury during sentencing. The appeal was so grotesque that even many Republican supporters of the death penalty are calling for the sentence to be reexamined.
Buck’s case is one of six convictions that then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn — a political ally of Perry who is now a Republican U.S. senator — reviewed in 2000 and said needed to be reopened because of the racially charged statements made during the sentencing phase of the trial. A psychologist told jurors that black criminals were more likely to pose a future danger to the public if they are released.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the nationwide drives to bring back the death penalty were perhaps understandable. Crime was rampant in many places, and violent offenders managed to gain release to prey again with disturbing frequency. One legacy of the Warrant Court was a dramatic expansion of rights for criminal defendants, raising concerns that more and more offenders could “spring on a technicality.” ”Tough on crime” politicians sought to ride the wave of public fear and resentment against a criminal underclass radicalized and emboldened by the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s.
But Blackmun’s observations have been borne out by history. Law students working through the Innocence Project have identified several cases of executions where the supposed murderer was almost certainly innocent. Moreover, the death penalty has failed on its own terms, becoming so costly and drawn-out as to remove any hope of a cost-saving or deterrent effect. And we keep encountering cases — especially in Texas, where indigent criminal defendants even in capital cases must often rely on sub-standard legal assistance — of death sentences obtained by methods that can only be called underhanded.
Texas Governor Perry is running for President and increasingly appears to be on the road to the nomination. Commuting this death sentence would be a way to show the beginnings of real leadership and ability to make tough decisions where conditions demand it.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Additional information: Statements from the Court in Collins v. James (1994), the denial of Supreme Court review for a death penalty where Justice Blackmun made his famous statement.
UPDATE: The United States Supreme Court has stayed the execution pending review. Opponents of the death penalty should not get too excited, however. The Court has often stayed execution only to briefly review the case and then lift the stay. But it is possible that recent additions to the Court have motivated some new thinking about the death penalty and the question of whether it remains appropriate in a modern nation.
6 Responses to “Racism and the Machinery of Death (Updated)”
I am disturbed that a man’s life or death will be determined by the whims of political popularity, rather than by meticulous scrutiny of guilt or innocence. We cannot possibly be a Great Nation until this is rectified.
Great post and LOL I agree 100% with what was written.
Well, its not clear to me that the death penalty isn’t expensive because we have chosen to make it that way. Nor am I fan of the judiciary being the one to impose their view of what is morally right or wrong.
That said, I do oppose the death penalty. No criminal justice system is perfect and it will end up executing the innocent. Given that it doesn’t seem to be any more of a deterrent than life in prison, those innocent lives probably don’t even save other lives.
Ironically, I oppose the death penalty in spite of most article opposing it. So many of them push out any argument they can like trying to portray cold blooded killers as victims or (in the case of many article from Europe) using it as an vehicle for Anti-Americanism. This article did a good job of focusing on reasons I do oppose the death penalty.
Logan,
Did you fall down and hurt yourself?
A posting that actually sounded moderate and reasonable.
No system is perfect, but… sometimes they work. Note the added bit at the end-the update, the execution’s been stayed pending judicial review of the conviction. If the conviction was obtained in a manner that is clearly unethical (or even illegal) then it goes away-of course, the damage to the man so convicted doesn’t, but at least it is not WORSE.
Personally, I believe there should maybe oughta be some kind of criminal negligence imposed on a prosecutor whose office is more concerned with winning a conviction, than with obtaining what we popularly term ‘justice’ through putting actual-vs.-alleged badguys away, but I don’t see how it could be systemized effectively without it becoming corrupted either with apathy, or hysteria.
But, the Death Penalty, even if never carried out, serves a purpose-it sets an absolute limit. “Beyond this point, your life is Forfeit”.
It might not dissuade everyone, but it will dissuade a few, and if carried out, you know darn well that a felon who’s been executed is NOT going to reoffend afterward.
but it is also right that the system is built to bend-over-backward to first, avoid false conviction (through Habeas Corpus, right to jury trial, stringent evidence discovery rules, and protections from self-incrimination), and, failing that, to enable a broad selection of appellate options to get the conviction reviewed, examined, and if necessary, overturned.
But no system is perfect. Nothing ever is. Those who expect absolute perfection are due a great deal of disappointment, the best we as a society can manage, really, is to try for it, and strive for it in what ways we can.
This case is very different then most. Buck is really just asking for a new sentencing hearing. He is not disputing guilt or asking for a new trial. I’m not sure how much difference it would make being as it is Texas and he killed his ex and another person in front of her 2 children. Also before everyone gets to worked up over the statements the doc was a defense witness not someone the prosecutor brought in.