The death penalty: If you're poor, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Black, or uneducated-you die

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zen to confront an actual execution. He or she prefers more than incarcerating a prisoner for life, and does the threat to the actuality. Michael Millman, Director nothing to reduce the 20,000 murders committed every of the California Appelate Project (CAP), the last legal "A Punishment in Search of a Crime," edited by lan year.

The authors document the evolution of killing tech- resource for condemned prisoners, explains where this Gray and Moira Stanley; Avon Books; New York;

contradiction leads. 1989. 333 pages. $8.95 niques: Hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber, and He says, "The real question is how many executions lethal iniection.

Governor Bill Clinton, Governor of Arkansas, was Each one in turn has been touted as a more "humane" do people really want... Extremists, who argue that campaigning in New Hampshire when he made a hur- means of snuffing out a life. Lethal injection, with the we should execute every first-degree murderer, are not ried trip back home. He wanted to be at the helm when "patient" strapped on a hospital gurney, is the prevalent dealing with reality. ... We know that, historically, we Rickey Ray Rector, a man convicted of killing an killing technique today. It permits the participants the are going to execute between 0.5 percent and 2 percent Arkansas patrolman in 1981, was executed. illusion they are merely carrying out a medical proce- of those convicted. ... If we ever get to 60 a year, Did the so-called "liberal" goveror dash home to stay dure. But, say the authors, the mingling of execution which is two percent of the intentional homicides, we the execution of Rector, who was brain damaged and with medicine violates the centuries-old Hippocratic will have a real crisis on our hands. legally incompetent? Oath, which says, I will give no deadly drug to any, "People call for a return to 'the good old days' when Far from it. He returned to ensure that the execution though it may be asked of me, nor will I counsel such." we had lots of executions. How many executions did we took place. An Associated Press story said, "The execu- The few dollars spent on the needle and drugs might have in the peak years, the 1930s? •.. There were very tion could help Clinton distance himself from his suggest that executing prisoners saves money. Warden few years in which the number per year was more than party's soft-on-crime image, said some political Lawrence Wilson, a veteran of the Califomia correction- 10, and the average for the century is less than six. observers.. 99 "What will be gained by executing Clinton is willing to snuff out a human more than 10 people per year, assumlife to further his political ambition. He ing that anything is gained by also calculates that executing a convicted executions at all? All we are ever going felon would be approved by a majority of to do is perform a 'symbolic ritual' the voters. Many capitalist politicians through which a miniscule percentage believe that a majority of Americans favor WHITES of society's murderers are executed..." the death penalty. But this has not been Who comprises this miniscule perestablished. centage? All contributors to this study Many politicians favor executing peo- agree that they are overwhelmingly ple, and use the fear of crime to stampede Black, poor, and uneducated. Dr. the voters to go along. Their final argu- Michael Radelet, who has written many ment, "at least a dead murderer won't kill AN AND AT HA books on the death penalty, says "One again," is supposed to be compelling. But of the most striking things I have this rationale can also be applied to drunk leared is that people are sentenced to drivers, who frequently drive while drunk a death not so much for what they do but second time, thereby risking the lives of for who they are." innocent citizens. He also observes, "... there are over No one has been sentenced to death for 2000 people on death row. If we were drunk driving, and no more than 30 con- to kill them all ... the United States victed murderers are executed each year.

would witness the greatest slaughter of This "avenges" only a tiny fraction of the its citizens by a western democracy in 20,000 homicides committed annually.

this century.

These few people are chosen so randomly and capri- al system, denies this. "It costs twice as much to That would only clear death rows of their present ciously that the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 ruled the operate death row as the rest of the prison," he says. occupants. Executions would have to continue, as hundeath penalty, as applied, was unconstitutional. Other experts estimate the cost of a death penalty case dreds more condemned men and women take their place.

This ruling halted all executions for five years. Mean- to be a million dollars-often more President Bush wants to make sure there are plenty of while, states modified their laws to comply with the Warden Wilson refutes the argument that without the candidates for the executioner's rope or needle. He has Supreme Court standards and, once again, men and death penalty dangerous psychopaths would eventually sent Congress a crime bill that extends capital punishwomen are being executed. Today, a total of 2000 men be released to kill again. The alternative, he says, is life ment to 55 additional federal offenses. A sample of such and women await execution on death rows throughout without parole. the country. These "lifers" are the least burdensome to the prison offenses includes: murder of a family member of a federof a Crime" as a literary weapon in the fight against the state and its operation," this experienced criminologist treason. death penalty. asks. Others add that the more bestial the crime, the To ensure that the condemned get to the execution The book comprises 42 interviews with prisoners, more important it is to study such psychopaths and find chamber speedily, the bill seriously restricts the right of victims of crime, wardens, executioners, death row answers to their behavior. the prisoner to appeal. This bill, which has not yet chaplains, Congress members, governors, judges, and Death row Chaplain Byron Eshelman says, "The state been passed, is an immediate target of the anti-death prosecutors. Through these witnesses the reader accom- never executes the person who committed the crime. penalty forces. panies the condemned from the court room, through the The one who finally steps into the gas chamber is by The campaign against the death penalty has not yet endless years on death row, to the final walk to the exe- no means the same person who entered death row years recruited mass forces. But logic will ultimately lead cution chamber. earlier. To believe so is to ignore the terrible forces that most Americans to follow the Europeans and many othWhile each interview stands by itself, the 42 chapters mold, strengthen [and] shatter a man in the surrealistic ers to abolish this relic of a less civilized past. "A combine to reinforce our conviction that killing crimi- world of the condemned." Punishment in Search of a Crime" is a valuable tool for nals is a bloody, brutal ritual, that execution costs far This argument rarely reaches the average citizen who winning the debate. The United States has become the Which country imprisons more of its largest prison house in the world population than any other in the world?

Japan? Germany? Britain? Cuba? How about South Africa, where the Black the Netherlands. Federal and state officials majority are not even allowed to vote? estimate the number of Americans in Mark Moore, a professor of criminal None of the above prison will increase 30 percent by 1995 justice at the John F. Kennedy School of "The United States, which imprisons a The report also noted that the prison Government at Harvard University, noted larger share of its population than any population has doubled since 1980 and that, "You can't belp but notice that other nation, has widened its lead over the tripled since 1970 many of these people in prison are poor second-ranking country, South Africa, a The Sentencing Project's report, writ- and Black. You have to feel a large waste Feb. 11 New York Times. Black inmates, reflecting racism in U.S Sentencing Project's Mauer estimates "The group, the Sentencing Project, Society. its costs $20.3 billion a year to keep 1.1 which is based in Washington, said there There are about a half-million Black million Americans behind bars--an averare 1.1 million inmates in American pris- males in prison, giving the United States age of of over $18,000 per year each ons, a 6.8 percent increase from 1989 to an incarceration rate for Black men five Yet the Bush administration and city 1990," Butterfield added. "That gives the times that of Black males in South and state governments are planning more United States an incarceration rate of 455 Africa. The U.S. rate for Black males is resources and new prisons to "fight Those who do carry out anti-social per 100,000, while South Africa's rate now 3370 per 100,000, compared to only crime " activities, for whatever reason, should be declined by 6.6 percent and is now 311 681 per 100,000 in South Africa. What a waste of working people's tax treated as victims. Rehabilitation steps per 100,000, according to a report by the In a 1990 Sentencing Project report, dollars. That $20 billion, and the vast should be taken to facilitate their return Sentencing Project based on statistics the group found that almost one in four budget for the Pentagon war machine, as productive members of society. That, provided by various countries." Black men in the United States between would be better spent on rebuilding the of course, will not occur until a governThe U.S. prison rate is 10 times higher the ages of 20 and 29 is either in prison infrastructure of the country and provid- ment of, by, and for working people is than that of Japan, Sweden, Ireland, and or on parole or probation on any given ing jobs and edacation. established.

4 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1992

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In the face of this dismaying fact, Amnesty Interna- system, where the inmates do all the work. "So why al official, arson, bank robbery, murdering a horse tional, U.S.A., has published "A Punishment in Search not let this guy live out his life, contributing to the inspector or poultry inspector, aircraft hijacking, and

private research and advocacy group said ten by Marc Mauer, the group's assistant of lives and talent, and a failure of the today." reports Fox Butterfield in the director, noted the higher percentage of society."