Sustained!: September 2011

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.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Only In Texas

By: Eric J. Davis

During a trial in Tyler, Texas, a teen who appeared to be getting some "Texas-sized" Justice decided to show the Judge just what he thought of "his honor." In open court, the teen pulled down his pants and peed in a trash can. Unfortunately, the Judge did not question the competency of the teenager. Nor did the Judge even hold the Child in contempt. Surprisingly, the teen pled guilty and is set for sentencing before the same Judge on September 16, 2011. Certainly this all does not seem like sane behavior. What competent person would pee in court in front of a Judge, get scolded by that Judge for doing it and then give that same Judge an opportunity to sentence him up to life in prison for a violent crime? Hopefully, challenges to the child's competency will be SUSTAINED!

Did you notice that the child's lawyer requested a competency examination and then pled him guilty?!?!?? How could he allow a client he thought was incompetent to enter a plea of guilty? Usually Judges will inquire about a defendant's competency prior to accepting a guilty plea. If a person is incompetent then there is a great likelihood that the person does not understand the nature of the proceedings and the rights they are relinquishing by entering a plea. What happened in this case? Did the Judge just ignore these obvious signs of mental impairment, in favor of his desire to send a message to the public and exact some "Texas-sized" justice? Are the young man's rights so unimportant in Texas, that the Court quickly set sentencing less than a week away? Is that sufficient time to conduct a presentence investigation (an investigation into the defendant's background - social, psychological, etc.)? Or is this Tyler Judge doing what so many other courts do.... herding cattle? If the cameras were not present in court, this certainly would never have happened. Most small-town bailiffs would have been all over a defendant who walked out of place without instructions like this child did before he peed in court. Sadly, this youth gave the media ammunition to villify him and others who are in his situation. Mental illness does not equal disrespectfulness in most places in America.... only in Texas.

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Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Martin was returning from a store buying some green tea and skittles. Trayvon Martin was wearing a hooded and was, by all accounts, minding his own business. Zimmerman shot Martin and alleged self-defense. His death was tragic. But to make matters worse, when officers sought to arrest Zimmerman and charge him with manslaughter, a prosecutor stepped in and blocked the charges. Upset by the disregard for this young man's life, people accross the nation took to the streets and protested. The lack of charges sparked discussion and activism from school yards all the way to houses of congress. Trayvon Martin's death increased awareness of our present state, much like Emmitt Till's death and the injustice that followed it increased awareness in the 1950s. People's objections to the status quo and the good ole boy's network were SUSTAINED! when Zimmerman's case was taken over by a new prosecutor and charges were filed.

The Gavel Goes Down on the 1%: Occupy This!

Protestors took to the Streets in New York, occupying Wall Street to protest corporate greed and corruption. The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and since then other protests have been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Many of these protest are still on-going. Here in the City of Houston, protestors are staging rallies nearly every week. Internationally, other protest have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide. These protests have been growing. We are witnessing the beginnings of a social movement. With their goals yet undefined, but steadily becoming more defined; the gavel goes down on the "Occupy" Movement's objections to the explotation of the 99% by the 1%. It will only be a matter of time until the energies of the protestors are transferred to other vehicles: like voter registration drives and engaging in other activities to increase social awareness.

The Gavel Goes Down: Police Officers Committing Crimes

In many places police officers commit crimes with impunity. But on March 31, 2011, a federal judge in New Orleans sentenced a former New Orleans police officer to 25 years in prison for his role in the shooting death of a man and the burning of his body after Hurricane Katrina.

David Warren was convicted in December of shooting 31-year-old Henry Glover without justification outside a strip mall less than a week after the storm hit in August 2005.

Sentencing is scheduled later for former officer Gregory McRae, who burned Glover's body in a car near a police station.

A jury also convicted former Lt. Travis McCabe of writing a false report on the shooting. His sentencing is on hold while his lawyers seek a new trial. But the Gavel Goes Down on Police getting away with Police Abuse. Twenty-five years may seem a little light for murder (The feds do not have parole and he will serve at least 20 years), but it certainly is a start.

The Gavel Goes Down: Oppression and Genocide in Sudan

Sudan may be headed for a split, with Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan forming two independent nations. Southern Sudanese election officials posted early results Sunday, January 16, 2011, indicating that perhaps more than 95 percent of voters in this regional capital voted to secede from Sudan. The referendum, held last week, was the capstone of decades of civil war in Sudan, which pitted Christian and animist rebels in the south against Arab rulers in northern Sudan. All indications show the weeklong referendum passing.

While the results are the first concrete steps for the south to secede from the rest of Sudan and become its own country, the final vote tally is not scheduled to be announced until Feb. 14. And true independence would not come before July 9, when an U.S.-backed peace agreement between the north and the south expires. It was signed in 2005. Still, many issues need to be ironed out, including citizenship rights, oil sharing and the future of the contested and volatile Abyei region, which was supposed to hold its own referendum on whether to join the south or the north but never did. But, the Gavel Goes Down on the world's objections to the attempted genocide that occurred in Sudan that resulted in the indictment of Sudan's president by the International Criminal Court.

In Washington, President Barack Obama congratulated the south on holding a peaceful, orderly referendum, calling it an "inspiration." But he also warned against breaking the peace agreement timetable.

The Gavel Goes Down: Ignoring the impact of Slavery on American History

After more than eight years of street demonstrations, arguments, haggling and missed deadlines; after extensive public debate about the impact of slavery on life in the United States and on the life and moral character of George Washington; after countless news articles and TV programs, the site marking the intertwined lives of presidents and slaves opened to the public on December 15, 2010 on Philadelphia's Independence Mall. "President's House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation" chronicles the story of race and power at the heart of our nation's birth. President George Washington owned some 300 slaves. His ownership of these slaves brought him status and power, which positioned him for the presidency. Despite Washington's signing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793, many slaves owned by him struggled and obtained freedom. The exhibit is the fruit of the struggled of the Black community in Philadelphia. It is an acknowledgment that Black people were part of America and contributed to it from the beginning. The exhibit tells the story of the inhabitants of the first Executive Mansion: George Washington and John Adams and the nine enslaved Africans held there by President Washington during his two terms in office. It is a stark objection to the white-washing of American history.

The Gavel Goes Down: 55 Years After Rosa Said No

The Gavel Goes Down: Eliminating the Kibera

The Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya has long been known as "the largest slum in Africa." This assertion has been recently challenged and many observers now believe that Kibera is the second largest slum in Africa. In September of 2009, the government of Kenya began clearing the Kibera to -rehouse all of the Nairobi's slum residents. Kenya plans to move all of the residents within the next nine years to communities that will include schools, markets and other facilities. Through the use of U.N. funding, funds from other relief efforts, and its own resources; the Kenyan government is spearheading the project. I (Eric J. Davis) visited the Kibera in 2006 and had the opportunity to spend time with some of the residents. Due to my ethnicity and the fact that we were accompanied by some Kibera residents, we were able to blend in and pass for locals. The resilance of the people was amazing. It was a small city where the people appeared to govern themselves well. The Kibera was safer than many major American cities. Nevertheless, the effects of poverty were apparent. There were no schools, no clean water, no sewage and no hospitals. Should the resettlement survive legal challenge (some slum lords are claiming ownership of the land and are taking the government to court - people pay rent to live in the slums), this African nation will take a big step towards eliminating poverty in its borders. Kenya is proof that African nations can govern themselves. The gavel goes down on Kenya's objections to poverty.