With 80 per cent of the inmates of Death Row being persons of colour, isn't it just a modern form of lynching?

Question

If Bush suceeds, the right of appeal for Death Row inmates will be swept away. As many of them are found innocent, and a disproportionate number of them are coloured, isn't it just an attempt to blame coloured people for crime, and sacrifice them in order to make whites feel better? Is it not true that more crime is commited by whites, but they can afford better lawyers? Is it not a fact that the police force is institutionally racist?

Just to be clear, I am white. I am a follower of Christ and do not indulge in smoking, drinking, drugs or sex. I love my fellow man and deplore the death penalty as Christ would. My figures come from reliable sources and those figures indictate that you are just as likely, if not more likely, to be violently attacked by a white person as a member of a minority group. For example, all but two of the teenagers that have shot up their schools in recent years were white. Most of the drug offenders in America are white, middle class and middle aged. Police search more cars driven by black people than white, but when they search the cars of whites they are more likely to find something incriminating.

These are the facts. Deny them if you want, but don't try to justify killing innocent people of any colour because as a detterent, it just doesn't work.

George, read your Bible. Jesus says 'You have heard it said, 'an eye for an eye' BUT I SAY UNTO YOU etc., he was saying it is the wrong way to behave. He came to sweep away the old laws, to tell the people about the love of God and the new law 'To love one another, as I have loved you.'

Read the sermon on the mount and see what he is saying about the Christian life. If you worry about posessions, status or want to get revenge, then you are not really a follower of Christ.

Answer 1

Isn't it incredible that you have to even ask this question?
America and Europe abuse black people all the time. Our cultures are aggressively and deliberately racist.

Black people are being systematically abused by every piece of policy, procedure and law. No one sees it. The whites are blind.

I hate my country. I hate my culture. I even hate some of my relatives!

I have reached the stage where I don't think a nuclear holocaust is such a bad idea. Get rid of the scum...clear the decks...start again with properly terrified white folks...sounds good to me!!!

Oooooooh...thumbs!!! I'm so fwightened!!!!

Answer 2

People keep saying that Jesus would be against the death penalty but in the Bible He tells everyone to obey the law or face the consequences,which in those days was the death penalty for serious crime.The oft quoted saying an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth is proof of this.If this was followed through today then what ever crime a person commited,he or she would then have the same thing done to them,which would mean that if you murdered someone then the equal punishment would be the loss of the perpatrators life.An eye for an eye or a life for a life.I disagree that coloured people are being made scapegoats,they are there because for the most part they are guilty as are the white people who are there.

Answer 3

It is not a fact "the police force is institutionally racist". There are hundreds of police departments in the US, ranging from excellent to lousy. There is institutionalized racism in some, maybe many, but certainly not all.

It is not true that more crime is committed by whites. Where are your facts to support that claim? The makeup of death row is disproportionate to the makeup of our population as a whole, but does reflect the fact that those accused of capital crimes are more often non-white.

As a white person, I can tell you I never "feel better" when a non-white person is accused of a crime, and I don't look to "sacrifice" anyone.

The death penalty is given to those who have been convicted of a capital crime. Lynching involves no trial whatsoever.

I agree that there should be an opportunity for the convicted to appeal at the state and federal level, at least once, before the sentence is carried out. That system is designed to expose flaws in the trial process.

But I won't agree that those flaws are because every white person is out to lynch innocent persons of color.

And--57% of persons executed in the US since 1976 were WHITE!

45% of death row inmates in prison in the US today are WHITE!

EDIT on your additional details--your "reliable sources" are flat out wrong if you are standing by your claim that 80% of death row inmates are "persons of colour". This is not factually correct in any way, shape or form.

Answer 4

I am adamantly against the death penalty. However, I don't believe this is a modern form of lynching. I believe it's an expression of the modern desire to form sound-byte opinions and stick to them at all costs.

This question discounts the primary driving factor behind the continuance of the death penalty: natural human reaction. People victimized by a crime which is punishable by the death penalty react in normal human ways with intense grief, despair, rage, and a desire for revenge. We have a legal system in order to substitute more objective detachment for all those feelings, but our justice system is-and always will be- fallible. When many people consider this issue, they imagine how they would feel as victims and want a legal system that will agree.

People forget they are also citizens. They fail to imagine themselves as a person wrongfully accused at the mercy of that very same fallible justice system. How many people know the name of their district attorney? In electing this person, as many places do, we cast our vote and say, "I trust this person never to make a legal mistake where I'm concerned." This person can stand between a suspect and a needle, and yet the very same people who are for the death penalty have no idea who that person is. This ignorance and reliance on empathy in an imagined situation keep the death penalty in effect.

The death penalty isn't responsible for the disparaties in prison populations. Yes, I agree that many police officers have biases. They go beyond race, however. You fail to mention religious minorities, gender biases, and economic prejudices which can affect people of every other minority.

Execution isn't the modern form of anything. It's just plain obsolete, because we ought to know better...and be better...by now.

Answer 5

In UK we don't have a Death Penalty but to answer your question - if the lawyers did their job properly, the need for such a long period of detention on Death Row would not be necessary.
Yes, we have executed some innocent people here years ago but with the presence of DNA and the excellent use of the detection systems here, we are finding more and more guilty people from over 20 years ago.
Perhaps your Judiciary should take some advice from 'The Old Country'.

Answer 6

No matter what color you are. If you did something that deserve the death penalty you should be on death row. What is the reason you are singling out people of color?There are white people on death row too.

You should be more concern about Bush taking the right to appeal for all Death Row inmates and not those of color.

Answer 7

Color has nothing to do with being on death row little girl.If you do the crime be prepared to do the time or if you kill then you should die. Most death row inmates go thur years of appeals be for execution And no all police forces are not racist, there may be a bad apple in the barrel so to speak but you can find them in any profession.

Answer 8

I agree with you. This is a very good question. The only thing that I will change from you question is "people of color" for minorities.
It is a fact "the police force is institutionally racist".
I have always said it "race is a big fact" ohhh yes , but money can buy justice and liberty for all those who has it "

Answer 9

its not a coulor issue. if you take some ones life you should pay for it. dont matter if your black or white. i prefer to think of the victim and dont give a lot of thought or care to the perpertrator. no one makes! you take the bad road. ive been poor in my life. i havnt stolen from any one, or! killed any one. you choose your own path KNOWING!! what you do is wrong, then you face the punishment.

Answer 10

You are talking CRAP!! If a person commits a crime and gets sent to death thats tough shite. All it does show is more coloured people got caught, and as for using the word sacrifice doh!!

Answer 11

Let me guess you feel bad that three time rapist isn't gettin cookies with his milk! You know regardless of skin color if you do the crime you better be prepared to to the time.I'm sick of this b/s that the white man is holding down the blacks.Your the racist why don't you just admit it!!!!