"Every life is precious" My Donkey! #AbolishTheDeathPenalty #JustMercy #SweetHomeAlabama #SayHisName #NateWood

(Lady, you executed a man last night.) https://t.co/FwEp4XdyQL

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) March 6, 2020

RedEye's Monday Must Reads in "Perfect Context"

Voting:  A privilege guaranteed by the Founding Fathers to Conservative White Christians-h/t What Would Jack Do

The Real Voter Fraud Culprits

No, Alabama is NOT Nazi Germany.  There Are No Gas Chambers There.

Following former republican  Mississippi Governor Haley Barbours'  breadcrumbs to Alabama.  What the heck was he thinking? Good question.

Onward Backwards Soldiers!  Shadrock, I mean,  Shadrack McGill soldiers on

Susan G. Komen Puts Romney's  'Not Concerned About the Poor' in Perfect Context

Race and Death Penalty Juries

What if Wednesday

What if whites were being sentenced to death because of their race?

What if white public workers were the first laid off by job cuts?

What if we the people received a $13 billion gift from our government?

What if everyone refused to just shut up and smile?

What if Occupy's next frontier is foreclosed homes?

What if we had the kind of mainstream media that told us what we needed to know instead of what they want us to know?

What if we actually had freedom of speech and the right to criticize public officials in America?

What if Paige Parnell hadn't run a clean, honest campaign in HD45?

What's on your What if List?

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Troy Anthony Davis

Thousands of his supporters and loved ones will gather at Jonesville Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, to honor the spirit and legacy of a man who has galvanized a global movement for justice.

We would like you to join us, too.

To accommodate the worldwide demand to mark this moment together, as a global community, Troy's family has generously allowed his funeral to be broadcast live on www.NAACP.org.

Beginning at 11 a.m. today 10/01/2011, you will be able to share the experience with the Davis family and Troy's supporters and loved ones around the world.

Troy Davis: A Celebration of Life
Saturday, October 1st, 2011 at 11 a.m.
Watch the service live at www.NAACP.org

Even in the face of death Troy understood how his story could change this country forever. In the days and weeks ahead, we will work to ensure that Troy's mission is carried out, and the brutal practice of the death penalty is abolished in this country once and for all.

Troy's story has touched each of our lives. Please join us tomorrow as we stand alongside his family in this time of reflection and remembrance.

Sincerely yours,

Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP

P.S. Many have asked about contributions to the Davis family. Letters of condolence may be sent to "I am Troy Davis," P.O. Box 2105, Savannah, GA 31407

In lieu of flowers, donations may be mailed to: "I Am Troy Fund," Capitol City Bank, 339 MLK, Jr., Blvd. Savannah, Georgia 31401

P.P.S. If you have not yet already, please sign the petition in Troy's memory, calling for an end to the death penalty in the United States: http://action.naacp.org/EndTheDP

"1 death row inmate down and many to go!"

"Troy Davis was a MURDERING THUG and he got what he deserved!!"

These are comments the resident right wing Troll FED UP had the audacity to post in response to the execution of Troy Davis.

Real classy huh?

But it got me thinking...this is the mindset the Georgia Board of Clemency, The Georgia Supreme Court and eventually the United States Supreme Court heard instead of the activist around the world who cried in vain to stop the state sanctioned murder of an innocent man.

This is why elections matter. It's not about abortion, gay marriage, affirmative action, or illegal immigration or some other wedge issue.

It's about electing people with the power to exercise racism.

It's about electing Governors who make appointments to the Parole Boards.

It's about electing Presidents who make life time appointments to the Supreme Court. Can you a Rick Perry/Sarah Palin/Michelle Bachman/Rick Santorum/Ron Paul/Newt Gingrich/Herman Cain/Mitt Romney/Jon Huntsman Supreme Court? Shudder

If we are going to engage in collective murder, we need to be sure beyond any doubt. What gets me is gopers, and the people who pander to them, don't see the hypocrisy of their beliefs and subsequent actions.

How can they be compassionate, Christian conservatives and pro death penalty?


The last words of Troy Anthony Davis were "May God bless your souls” . Are those the words of a MURDERING THUG? I think NOT.

Georgia Rep. John Lewis perhaps put it best. “Do not weep for Troy Anthony Davis, he will be with God, weep for Georgia and for our Nation. Capital punishment is barbaric.”


When did we we become a nation of Barbarians?

"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"

Lyrical story

A young woman tells the story of her unnamed older brother who returns home after a two-week trip from a place called "Candletop." The brother meets his best friend, Andy Wolloe, at Webb's Bar ("Andy Wolloe said hello, and he said, 'Hi, what's doing, Wo?'"), and Andy informs the brother that his young wife (who is later described as "cheatin'") has been seeing another man in town, Seth Amos. Andy then reveals that he, too, has been sleeping with his friend's wife. The brother is understandably upset, which scares Andy, who leaves and walks home. The brother assumes his wife has left town, gets his gun, and heads out to the back woods to sneak up on Andy and confront him. When the brother arrives at Andy's house, he finds tracks outside ("tracks that were too small for Andy to make") and discovers that someone has already killed Andy. The brother, in a moment of panic ("he started to shake"), fires his gun in the air to summon a passing sheriff. When the sheriff approaches the scene, the brother is immediately accused of murder. A "backwoods Southern lawyer" doesn't keep the sheriff and a judge from convicting the brother in a kangaroo court ("the judge said 'guilty' in a make-believe trial / slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile"), and hang him that same night, effectively lynching him. This was apparently the same night of a statewide electrical blackout, although the phrase "the night the lights went out in Georgia" could refer to the fact that the "light" of justice went out that night as an innocent man was killed by the law.

The "light" of justice went out for real last night as Troy Davis was killed by the law. What is the difference between killing your own people and the death penalty? Isn't that the excuse, I mean justification, our country used for regime change in Iraq and Libya?

The decision of the United States Supreme Court to deny a stay of execution for Troy Davis will join The Dred Scott Decision, Bush v. Gore and Citizens United in infamy as one of the stupidest decisions ever. How could the voices of millions of people be ignored?. I guess they showed us who was Boss.

Huge numbers of people all over the world are begging them to reconsider but it seems to be falling on callously deaf ears. This is a travesty.

The execution of Troy Davis illustrates all the flaws in the death penalty, and why it should be abolished. H/T Booman

The debate about Troy Davis should have been about whether he had been wrongly imprisoned for two decades, not over whether he could prove his innocence beyond a reasonable doubt.

How did we arrive at a system where so much discretion is stripped away from the decision makers?

This case highlights every flaw with the death penalty. Even from the point of view of advocates of the death penalty, it took 20 years to get 'justice.' Whether we abolish the death penalty or not, this case proves that it is in need of an overhaul. Georgia might have killed an innocent man last night simply because the system didn't allow people to save him, despite the obvious doubts about his guilt.

It's time for America to stop condoning cruel and unusual punishment.

According to Amnesty International, 137 countries have abolished the death penalty. Argentina, Chile, and Uzbekistan outlawed the death penalty in 2008. During 2007, 24 countries, 88% in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States alone, executed 1,252 people compared to 1,591 in 2006. Nearly 3,350 people were sentenced to death in 51 countries. More than 20,000 prisoners are on death row across the world.

Ask yourself the following, "What kind of society do I want to live in?". What kind of society do I want future generations to live in? What if Troy Davis were my son/brother/father/uncle/cousin/friend?

Do you want to live in a society where people, prideful, imperfect, deceivable people reserve unto themselves the right to kill other people?

Because I guarantee you that so long as we think that people en masse under the guise of The State have the right to kill they are going to find ways to exercise that power.

We must not let the lights of Justice be extinguished.

Defiant until the end, Troy Davis was executed Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer. He convinced hundreds of thousands of people around the world, but not a single court, that he was innocent.

As he lay strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, the 42-year-old told relatives of Mark MacPhail that he was not responsible for his 1989 slaying.

"I am innocent. The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun," he insisted.

"All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth," he said.

Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. The lethal injection began about 15 minutes earlier, after the Supreme Court rejected an 11th-hour request for a stay.

Let us march on until victory is won. The movement continues.
This movement couldn’t stop Davis’ execution — but it’s a movement that won’t die with Troy Davis. There’s no better way to honor Troy’s memory than to keep fighting for justice.

You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression ... If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. And if we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to Earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie, love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until "justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream." Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Three Strikes You're Out! Die Boy Die!

Troy Davis has three major strikes against him. First, he is an African-American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And third, he is in Georgia

.
The Georgia Clemency Board denied clemency for Troy Davis. The legal lynching will continue.

Early Tuesday morning, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles elected to deny clemency to Troy Davis, letting his original punishment stand. His date of execution by lethal injection will take place September 21st as scheduled. The fate of Davis, 42 rested in the hands of the five board members. They are the only entity in Georgia with the power to convert Davis’ death sentence, outside of a last-minute appeal by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Well, I guess they showed us.

The Internet community has also been buzzing in support, with Twitter promoting the hashtag #toomuchdoubt bringing attention to the idea that Georgia may potentially execute an innocent man. Also, close to 1 million signatures have been collected in a petition supporting Davis attempt at clemency. Protesters have also been holding demonstrations outside the board meeting in Atlanta with posters saying “Justice for Tray Davis” and “I Am Troy Davis.” Demonstrations were also held in 300 towns across the globe, which perhaps shows a changing attitude towards executions.

The Georgia Clemency Board shines a harsh light on the American legal system for the world to see.

Davis’ case has garnered international attention, since his impending day of execution this week. While Davis was sentenced to death 20 years ago for the murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. During the course of his time incarcerated, his case has caught the attention of various dignitaries, such as former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and former FBI Director William Sessions, who all believe that Davis should receive clemency.

The board members, with their dates of appointment, are:

-- Gale Buckner (January 2005), a former GBI agent

-- Bob Keller (January 2007), a former Clayton County district attorney

-- James Donald (January 2009), former commissioner of the Department of Corrections

-- Albert Murray (May 2010), former commissioner of the Department of Juvenile Justice

-- Terry Barnard (May 2010), former state Representative

If I were a member of the Board, I would want to make damned sure that whomever is sentenced to death actually did the crime.I would not want to execute someone only to find out later that the condemned person was innocent. An execution does not allow for “do-overs” to get it right.

Troy Davis's fate is now in the hands of the United States Supreme Court and, President Barack Hussein Obama.

While Davis is set to go before the state board of pardons and paroles for a final review on September 19th, President Obama should consider granting clemency.
There are several arguments to support Obama's intervention in this case, not the least of which is salvaging the U.S.'s reputation with regard to the integrity of its justice system. We learn in school that the fair administration of justice is a fundamental value in our democracy. We speak of our justice system as if it sets us apart from other leading nations and reflects, at its the core, the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven and the guarantee of a fair trial, if someone has been accused of breaking the law.

And before the righty's start whining, two words, Terri Schiavo.

The legislative, executive, and judicial branches, of both the United States federal government and the State of Florida, were involved in the case of Terri Schiavo. In November 1998 Michael Schiavo, husband of Terri Schiavo, first sought permission to remove his wife's feeding tube. Schiavo had suffered brain damage in February 1990, and in February 2000 had been ruled by a Florida circuit court to be in a persistent vegetative state. Her feeding tube was removed first on April 26, 2001, but was reinserted two days later on an appeal by her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.

I HOPE and PRAY someone will stop the judicial lynching of Troy Davis.

Despite evidence that he's innocent, Troy Davis faces execution on September 21. With a culture that cheers Rick Perry's execution record, what chance does he have?

What chance does anyone have? What will we tell our children?

And if the clemency bid fails, and Troy Davis is executed next week, I will tell her (and I will pray that it is so) that her message and all the other messages and all the well wishes of all the tens-of-thousands of people who have supported him these many long years were in his heart as authorities gave him those drugs -- that as his life ended, Troy Davis at the very least knew he was being held by tens-of-thousands of loving hands.

Amen and Amen.

Reasonable Doubt for Dummies!

A broke clock is right twice a day, and every once in a while our resident righty FED UP gets it right(pun intended), as in this comment regarding the pending execution of Troy Anthony Davis, even though the case against him as fallen apart.

FED UP said;

You DO NOT know that he did not commit that crime and I do not know that he did!

This my friends is REASONABLE DOUBT for Dummies. This is why Troy Davis should not be executed. This is why Troy Davis should be granted a new trial. This is why I am against the death penalty.

Troy Davis and the politics of death.

Troy Davis has three major strikes against him. First, he is an African-American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And third, he is in Georgia.

More than a century ago, the legendary muckraking journalist Ida B. Wells risked her life when she began reporting on the epidemic of lynchings in the Deep South. She published “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases” in 1892 and followed up with “The Red Record” in 1895, detailing hundreds of lynchings. She wrote: “In Brooks County, Ga., Dec. 23, while this Christian country was preparing for Christmas celebration, seven Negroes were lynched in twenty-four hours because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a colored man named Pike, who killed a white man ... Georgia heads the list of lynching states.”

None dare call it racism, but the fact remains there are more blacks than whites on death row, because they're well....black.

Barring some miraculous intervention by Gov. Rick Perry, Duane Buck will become the 11th person to be executed this year in Texas’ death chamber and the execution will be wrong—not because of some anti-death penalty view I may have but because his death sentence was definitively the result of race.
Buck, an African-American, was convicted in 1997 for the 1995 double murder of his girlfriend and her companion. During Buck’s 1997 trial, his defense attorney called a psychologist named Walter Quijano who testified during the punishment phase of the trial and who, upon cross examination by prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, stated he believed that because Buck was black, he posed a greater risk of “future dangerousness” in the prison setting. Future dangerousness is a critical factor a capital jury must consider in deciding whether the death penalty is appropriate in a given case.
In 2000 U.S. Senator John Cronyn, then Texas’ attorney general, said that Buck’s case was one of six his office had identified in which Quijano had introduced race into jury deliberations. Then Attorney General Cronyn said that all of the condemned inmates were entitled to a new punishment hearing. Five of those inmates was given new punishment hearings by various federal courts which resulted in each being re-sentenced to death. One of the five has been executed.
Neither state nor federal courts ever ordered a new punishment hearing in Buck’s case. Why Buck’s trial attorney would call a psychologist who had a history of injecting race in the trial process is not readily available in the public record. What is known is that state and federal courts over the last few weeks have rebuffed the determined efforts by Buck’s current attorneys, David Dow and Katherine Black, to secure a new punishment hearing. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday denied Buck’s last legal opportunity to get a new punishment hearing.

Is Duane Buck guilty of the crimes he was convicted of? Yes. Should he be executed because he's black? No. And FED Up, before you tune up your spin machine, just because I oppose the death penalty doesn't mean I want rapist and murderers to go free, or live among civil society. It means I want them to spend the rest of their natural lives in behind bars. I oppose the death penalty because I'm pro life. For real.

Under Politics 101, a conservative governor, especially in Texas, would not intercede in a case that has been rejected by the courts and the pardon board. But these are not normal political circumstances. Gov. Perry is running for the presidency of the United States and has already faced serious media questions about his refusal to stop the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, despite compelling evidence indicating the condemned inmate was innocent. The Buck case offers the governor an opportunity to redeem himself, especially among African-Americans who believe the death penalty in Texas unfairly targets blacks. A thirty-day reprieve would not cost the governor a single point among his conservative political base because chances are the courts would not order a new punishment hearing during the reprieve period and the pardon board most certainly would not. Thus, the only thing a reprieve would probably accomplish is a few more months of life for Duane Buck—an insignificant price considering the good will the governor would benefit from granting the reprieve.
As I said in my opening, barring some miraculous intervention by Gov. Perry, Buck will be executed tonight.

Thou Shalt not Kill. That means everybody.

The primary reason God hates murder is that out of all creation, only human are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:4-6). Even before the codification of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai the murder of other human beings was wrong (Genesis 4:8-12; 4:23-24; 9:4-6; Exodus 1:16-17). While on earth, Jesus spoke out against murder (Matthew 5:21-26; Mark 10:17-19). We also see in the writings of Paul (Romans 1:18, 29-32; 13:8-10; Galatians 5:19-21), James (James 2:8-11; 4:1-3), Peter (1 Peter 4:15-16) and John (Revelation 9:20-21; 21:7-8; 22:14-15) that murder is wrong.

WWJD?

Kill Baby Kill!

Troy Davis artwork by Amnesty International

Troy Anthony Davis, the eldest child of Korean War veteran Joseph Davis and hospital worker Virginia Davis is scheduled to be killed on September 21, 2012, even though the case against him has fallen apart.

Contrary to the opinion of the uninformed and the misinformed, Troy Davis is not a thug just because he's an African American. Troy Davis Davis grew up with four siblings in the predominantly black, middle-class neighborhood of Cloverdale in Savannah, GA. He attended Windsor Forest High School but dropped out in his junior year to be available to drive his disabled younger sister to her rehabilitation. Davis obtained his GED in 1987. People who actually knew him described him as a "straight-up fella" who acted as a big brother to local children.

Although Davis was convicted by a jury of his peers, seven out of the nine people who said it was him have "recanted" or changed their testimony. In addition to that, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, the first person to accuse Davis -- might have actually been the shooter because, since the conviction, several people have testified that he lied about Davis to protect himself. And boasted about getting away with it.

To make things worse, they don't have any physical evidence (nothing you can see or touch) against Davis either. What little physical evidence the State of Georgia once had it has since withdrawn and new forensics technologies have revealed grievous error, making the assumptions of the past wrong.

Troy Davis's wheelchair-bound sister Martina Correia said: “They know my brother is innocent but the state is bent on taking his life." Ain't that a dip?

How do you explain the death penalty to children?

There are moments in parenting when not telling the whole truth is very important. I did not say "They will wheel Troy into a tiled room. They will strap him to a gurney. They will inject him with a series of drugs that will kill him in stages, despite the fact that there is real evidence that these drugs do not always work as smoothly as we are told. Despite the fact that he may suffer as he dies, they will strap him down, and people will watch, and they will inject him, and Troy Davis will die, even though he is almost certainly innocent."

Instead, I swallowed hard and thought about our cat, the one we put to sleep a couple years back, the one whose last living memory was of being in my arms. I said "Oh no, honey, they'll give him drugs like we gave Chauncey. The first one will make him sleep, and the next one will stop his heart. Do you remember how Chauncey died, quietly in my arms?"

What the Christian Progressive Liberal said, all the damn way!

If I’m the Governor of a state that has the Death Penalty, I would want to make damned sure that whomever is sentenced to death actually did the crime.

I would not want to execute someone only to find out later that the condemned person was innocent. An execution does not allow for “do-overs” to get it right. From what I’ve read about Troy Davis, there is hell of enough reasonable doubt to set him free, let alone grant him a new trial.

What if that were the kind of Governor the State of Georgia had instead of the kind of Governor they have?

An execution warrant setting Troy Davis’ execution has been signed by a Chatham County judge. The execution date has now been set for September 21st.

An execution is NOT inevitable. This merely sets the clemency process in motion. Before Sept. 21, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles will rule on whether Troy Davis’ sentence should be commuted, or whether the execution should be carried out as scheduled. Previously, the Board stated that it would not allow an execution unless there was “no doubt” as to guilt.

Oppose the killing of some body's baby.