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“Everybody gets something out of taking a man’s life” – campaigner
Published: 20 June, 2010, 09:38
Edited: 20 June, 2010, 15:59
TAGS: Scandal, Human rights, USA
Following the execution of convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, the death penalty is once again dividing the US. Among the activists for the abolition is Darby Tillis, one of the first to be exonerated from death row.
He was arrested in 1977, found guilty of murder and sentenced with the death penalty. He was put in prison awaiting the execution. But it turned out he was innocent. He was released after nine years in jail. Ever since, he has devoted his life to the campaign against the capital punishment.
Darby Tillis says it is easier to find a “guilty” person quickly and convict him or her.
“It’s all about money, this criminal justice system, it’s about greed. We don’t have money to try death penalty cases,” he says. “Judges use it to build a political foothold. State attorneys write books, public defenders get on TV, policemen move up in rank. So everybody gets something out of taking a man’s life.”
Ordinary people do not go into details of a particular case, thus the death of an alleged criminal does not provoke many emotions, Tillis maintains. “People think, ‘If the police rolled him up, he must be guilty. If they got him in a court, he must be guilty.’ So they feel that one more bad person [has been] taken off the street.”
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13 comments
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I have no sympathy for this murderer, but I do sympathize with the dead, dying, and horribly mutilated victims of American aggression. These protesters are just hypocritical publicity hounds for complaining about an execution of a murderer while their government has killed over a million human being since its invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and continues to kill on a daily basis. Yesterday, America launched a drone attack killing over a dozens human beings, yet there were no complaints from the American people. Russian author, Eugene Zamiatin, predicted correctly in his 1924 book titled "WE" that American "democracy" will eventually turn the naive American people into mutants who will rely on the government lies to sustain themselves. These anti death penalty campaigners are blind mutants who protest the government execution of a murderer, while silently standing by as their government spreads death and destruction throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. This uproar by a few Americans over the execution of this murderer is ludicrous when the lands of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan are awash in blood and human body parts resulting from American attacks.
I like the phrase 'it turned out he was innocent' not becuase it is wrong, but becuase it focuses the attention always on the accused. Couldn't it have also been said that 'it turned out that the court was useless', its use being to determine correct guilt, in which it failed, but notice our conditioning to treat the court as hallowed, and focus the attention on the convicted or the ones giving evidence.... We certainly don't shine the light on the whole law enforcement process; no if you are wrongly convicted, it is somehow a fault of your own, or of the other actors outside the law enforcement process. The law enforcement process remains untoucheable Here lies the problem. The whole law enforcement process does require respect, there is no doubt about it. But that respect is not gained by doing things wrong. That respect comes from making the system as good and with the highest integrity possible and then recognising and protecting against the fact that even if you do this, the system will be imperfect. That is why you cannot have a death penalty based on any court process But it is worse than that, once you have any human system, that is imperfect by definition, it is open to abuse. Add money into the equation and with it politics, then the cocktail becomes intoxicating. The respect mantra, hang um high, coupled with fanacial gain, makes a simple, people support garnering cry and its associated riches a great scheme. The community feels safer, the law enforcers proud, all are richer, except from the wrongly convicted who is just collateral damage. The problem is that the 'greater good' in political and financial terms far outweighs the good of preserving a life. That is the system that has evolved, an imperfect system, exploited for financial and political gain. Doesn't that have an exact analogy with the global financial markets today! The truth is that the underlying 'just make money and position and be the controller' has pervaded every walk of life
Racial inclusion and racial exclusion is the foundation of the United States. Despite many reforms and courageous attempts to reform the United States into a colour blind democracy, the original sin of racial order, of racial exploitation and of racial exclusion, haunts the United States. The Racial foundation of the state is one of the reasons the United States failed to assume global leadership. Majority of those who have been falsely accused and convicted of murder have been black and members of non-white minority groups. The United States is still a land were the colour of one’s skin and not the character of a man or a woman decide life chances including higher rate or incarceration and conviction for blacks and Hispanics. Despite presidency of Barack Obama, the colour line is still the foundation of law and order and rest of the judicial system in the United States. Thank you RT for giving this man the chance to tell his story to the rest of the world.