Cameron
Willingham is strapped down to receive a lethal injection
in
February, 2004. Executed for killing his three children by arson
at
his family home in Corsicana, Texas, he was later proven innocent.
It
has been reported that Governor Rick Perry never responded to
his
plea for clemency or examined the evidence exonerating him.
El Tiempo, Colombia
U.S. Should 'Murder' Death Penalty and Join Civilized World
"The
tenacity with which the U.S. clings to this outdated punishment is surprising. In
Germany it was abolished in 1949, Great Britain and France in 1969 and Spain in
1995. … It has often been said that irreversible punishments demand infallible judges,
a circumstance that doesn't exist in the world of human beings."
Amnesty International activists support Troy Davis in front of the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Sept 16, during a protest to denounce the death penalty in America.
The U.S. is wrongly known as
the country with the highest number of legal executions in the world. That sad
privilege belongs to Iran. But in the Western Hemisphere, the United States is
in first place in its application of the death penalty.
The latest occasion came last
week when Troy Davis, a 33-year-old
Black man, received a lethal injection in Georgia. He was accused of murdering
a policeman in 1989 and continued to assert his innocence until the very last
moment. He was supported by serious elements of doubt: the only evidence
against him was eyewitnesses, and of the nine who had initially testified
against him, seven recanted.
The tenacity with which the
United States clings to this outdated and gradually disappearing punishment is
surprising. In Germany it was abolished in 1949, Great Britain and France in 1969
and Spain in 1995. Meanwhile, in the United States, where it had once been abolished,
execution was reintroduced in 1976. From then until January 2011, it has
executed 1,270 prisoners.
Not only is the number of
executions surprising (around three per month), but so is the issue of race in these
trials. According to the Death
Penalty Information Center, even when White inmates on death row are double
the number of Blacks, when the victim of a crime is White, Black suspects are
three times more likely to receive the death penalty. And there's more: when
this year began, there were 3,251 inmates on death row, 54 percent of whom were
Black or Hispanic.
Over the years, many
arguments have been put forward against death penalty. The Pope reminded us, by
opposing the execution of Davis, that only God can take a life. Others denounce
it as an example of extreme cruelty, the very existence of which violates human
dignity. From an ethical point of view, it is considered a legalized form of revenge
- an act of disguised retaliation. Moreover, it has often been said that irreversible
punishments demand infallible judges, a circumstance that doesn't exist in the
world of human beings.
Philosophical considerations
aside, there are many scientific reasons against capital punishment. Eight-eight
percent of criminologists assert, based on statistics, that the death penalty
does not reduce homicide rates. It is unfortunate then, that such a cruel, inhumane
and futile institution persists, and that some Colombian Congressmen are
proposing its use for certain crimes.
