Sustained!: SOOTHSAYERS

Thursday, September 15, 2011

SOOTHSAYERS

Convicted of Capital Murder and sentenced to Death,
Duane Buck is scheduled to die in Texas tonight.

By: Jacquelyn R. Carpenter

An "expert" witness took the stand and testified that a convicted killer's race was predictive of future violence. I believe that I could stop writing here and the utter stupidity of that first sentence would ideologically still be read with the intended sarcasm.

Nevertheless, all the "expert" witness managed to do was make a jury feel good about their decision to sentence a man to death. Surprisingly, the court and all onlookers seemed to think it was appropriate to consider race to decide what someone was likely to do in the future. Reading about Texas’ denial of a stay of execution for Duane Buck causes me to think that we do not need character evidence anymore. Let us just rely on a stereotype of someone to decide what that person is likely to do in the future. Does that make Caucasians good candidates for theft since, well, let's face it, some predecessors stole land from the Indians? Does that mean that if I have Irish in my blood, I am destined to commit a crime involving alcohol? Are white people prone to be serial killers?

As a matter of fact, if we can predict what people are going to do before they do it based on race, then we should rid America of problems before America even has problems. How efficient would that be? We can just send Hispanics to their respective motherland, African-Americans who have never been to Africa can be sent to Africa permanently. Nevermind the fact that race does not decide citizenship. Or, if sending people to a homeland they have never seen based on race seems too expensive, let's just figure out a way to justify killing them off? Seems farfetched? I'm exaggerating? Well, that is exactly what is occurring: Texas has turned in their nooses for lethal injection.

We already know Texas unapologetically executes more people than any other state in the United States. Governor Rick Perry is quite proud of it. See recent debate statements where Perry says, "In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice." What, pray tell, is the “ultimate justice”? Apparently, unconstitutionally valid executions! Now, despite testimony that a man being Black is predictive of violent behavior, the State, against Duane Buck's constitutional right to a fair trial in all aspects of the proceeding (such as Sentencing), has denied a stay of execution.

This photo depicts the lynching of nineteen-year-old
Elias Clayton, nineteen-year-old Elmer Jackson,
and twenty-year-old Isaac McGhie. June 15, 1920,
in the Northern city, Duluth, Minnesota.

Additionally, the treatment of Duane Buck is even more reprehensible because FIVE other cases flagged as having this same issue of racially inappropriate testimony have received new punishment hearings to correct the problem. Yet, Duane Buck is being executed, put to death, endless sleep, "lawfully" murdered by the State without a redress of unconstitutional proportions. To think for a second that so much as one juror considered Buck's race, Black/African-American, as a reason to justify his death, not only sickens me, but it is a slap in the face of our Forefathers, who envisioned and drafted the inalienable rights that are now being stripped from a protected member of our society.

So . . . where is the lynch mob? I am Black . . . apparently that justifies my execution as well because, you know, we can predict future violence based on my race, which is the same as Duane Buck's. I am reminded of the saying attributed to Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the communists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me,

and there was no one to speak out for me.

I understand that you may read this and think, "I'm not Black; it's not my fight." But when will this be appalling? What if some expert came along and said being of the insert your race here is predictive of future violence? Would it be your fight then? Perhaps blue eyes are deemed predictive of future violence? Sound stupid?

Exactly.

ADDENDUM 10:30 PM SEPT. 15, 2011

The United States Supreme Court just blocked the execution of Duane Buck. A link to the story can be found here.

1 comment:

Marie OwensSeptember 19, 2011 at 12:41 PM
Hello,
I contacted you last week, but I havent heard back from you yet so I thought that I would send another comment just in case. My name is Marie and I am a writer for criminaljusticedegree.net. I have been reading your blog for the past few weeks and I was wondering if you accept guest posts? I have a topic that would strike your interest. Please, feel free to email me. Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon
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