Racism And The Death Penalty Lorenzo Komboa Ervin A few weeks ago, Janet Reno's Department of Justice released a study showing there was widespread racial discrimination in the federal death penalty process. Seems it showed that Blacks and racial minorities were being summarily designated as drug "kingpins" or mass murderers, and then sentenced to death. Well, this is just racial profiling that has been going on with the state death penalty process for years. And yet, those states which have used the death penalty as a tool for "protecting the public" can produce no statistics which show that they offer any deterrent against murder. So if deterrence is not the reason, why do they continue to kill? Racism and government political power. If you doubt this, then think about this: here in Michigan, and in the dozen other states that have chosen not to enact the death penalty since the Supreme Court ruled on the "constitutionality" of it, they have not had any higher homicide rates than states with the death penalty, according to the New York Times, which used a government report and a survey by the states. In fact, according to the report, capital punishment rates have been well below Texas, the leading death penalty state, over the last 20 years. In other words, some 48%-101% higher rates of murder in Texas, Georgia and Florida than Michigan and other non-death penalty states. So, it is an established fact that there is no death penalty deterrent effect, and that nobody is any safer from murder or other personal violence in this society from government executions. But we are talking about racism and the death penalty here, and that is the greatest possible indictment of the sentence. When one looks at the death penalty, that is who gets it and in which cases the state seeks it, one can only wonder why any Blacks support it. If one looks at the death penalty, s/he finds a majority of the people on the death rows are Black, even in states like Pennsylvania where Blacks are less than 10% of the population. Also the overwhelming majority of cases where the government seeks death are in cases with white victims. Implicit within those statistics is the message that black life is inherently cheap, and white life is valued more than any other. That is racism and genocide. Well, some Black folks might ask: who is to protect us from murderers in our midst. Well, not the police, courts or the death penalty. Like imprisoned death row activist, Mumia Abu Jamal, once said: "This system, its courts, its media, are all erected on the edifice of white supremacy, and all are sworn above all else, to protect white life, and this requires a disparagement of all non-white life...When blacks, even in their righteous grief, call for the state to kill, they are arming an enemy that will later turn on them." The imposition of the death penalty is racially biased. Nearly 90% of persons executed were convicted of killing whites, even though African-Americans make up nearly half of all homicides in the United States. The death penalty, legal or illegal, has always been used against Blacks. Since 1890-1980, after over 5,000 documented lynchings, the fact is that 90% have been of Blacks and no one has been punished. That does not include the over 4,000 Blacks legally executed by various states since the death penalty was first enacted. Who can deny that the death penalty has fallen most heavily on Black people? I do not seek the state to ever kill in my name, but I observe that very few whites, even Klan members, have been put to death for the murder of a black person, nor have any of the murderous cops who have shot Black people down in the streets or choked them to death in jail cells or police cruisers been sentenced to death, yet the death rows are full of Black and poor people all over this land. It's not just that this is "unfair" like the liberal lawyers and civil rights groups weakly, and we should just "reform" the system, the issue is that this is racism and class injustice, and that all executions should stop. That fact is that this system should never put anyone to death, this government is not morally qualified to take anyone's life, no matter how murderous they are. We need a national moratorium against the death penalty. I believe that the only way we will get that is not lobbying, praying or deferring to politicians, but rather getting people in the streets in large numbers to obtain justice and fight for the lives of the condemned. So far, only one state has actually enacted a moratorium, and that was in Illinois after massive negative publicity about people railroaded to death row and then freed by a group of NorthWestern University journalism students. I believe that we can win moratoriums all over the USA if death penalty opponents will unite and do community based organizing. We must organize city-by-city, state-by-state, and bring many new people in the struggle. A moratorium is not a panacea, but it is the first step toward elimination of the death penalty entirely in the United States. Winning a moratorium, I am convinced, would have the potential to throw the present political on its head, and would be a tremendous defeat for the right-wing conservative movement in this country, who have used fear, hysteria, hatred, religious bigotry, and racism to win passage of the death penalty in state after state. If the Left progressive forces could win this victory on a very unpopular issue, could we not press forward on other issues in the political arena, and create a new agenda and mass movement entirely? I think we would be in a position to re-phrase the whole question of crime and punishment, to educate millions, and to really call for an implement new solutions to the current repressive system. Back to Anarchism And The Black Revolution