Ju n e 21, 2000
Page A 4
(Elje ìJortlaxiù ©beeruer
Opinion
P i, rtla nil
(P b s rru rr
A rticles do not
necessarily reflect or
1 ,
represent the view s o f
(Tljc |Jnrtlaui> (Dbseruer
Crime and race fears still fuel death penalty mania1
(Elje
Portiani»
(Observer
USPS 9 59-680
Established 1970
STAFF
E
d it o r
P
C
in
h ie f
,
u b l is h e r
Charles H. Washington
E d
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it o
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
B
u s in e s s
M
anager
Gary Ann Taylor
C
opy
E
L o n g s u f f e r in g d e a th p e n a lty
opponents are in a euphoric mood
these days.
A nd w ith good reason. For the past
tw o decades they have been sneered
at as pacifists, bleeding heart liberals,
and even apologists for murderers.
N ow more A m ericans than in recent
years agree with them that the death
penalty should be abolished. Polls
now show that about one in three
A m e r ic a n s
o ppose
c a p ita l
punishm ent, up from one in ten in
1994. A w hopping 92 percent say
that DN A testing should be available
to all prisoners.
It’s easy to see w hy th ere’s been a
sharp turnabout in sentim ent. In
recent m onths w e ’ve been deluged
w ith reports o f accused murderers
being represented by inept, shoddy,
even dozing law yers, blatant racial
executions in the nation since the
death penalty was reinstated in 1976
to briefly turn the switch o ff on Texas’s
killing m achine by granting a 30 day
stay to allow tim e for a condem ned
man to get DNA tested.
Despite the good new s for death
penalty opponents, the public is still
far from ready to scrap the death
penalty. There are tw o reasons why.
O ne is publicly stated: fear o f crime.
Even though crim e figures are way
down, the fear o f crim e isn ’t. That fear
is fueled by high-profile shooting
rampages, a crim e-gorged media that
stuffs the public with m ega-doses o f
crime and violence stories, politicians
who pound aw ay on lawlessness,
and a Suprem e Court flatly rejects
any reconsideration o f the death
penalty.
T he o th er reason that the death
penalty is still alive and w ell is
privately whispered: race. The death
p en alty has alw a y s b een w h ite
typecasting, threadbare and even
horribly tainted evidence, colossal
judicial and prosecutorial errors in
capital cases, and the ju m p in death
row prisoners exonerated by DNA
testing.
T he stench from the death penalty
prom pted a m oratorium by Illinois
governor, a vote by New Hampshire
state legislators to dum p the death
penalty (the governor vetoed it), and
a three year standing call by the
A m erican B ar A sso ciatio n for a
tem porary halt to all executions. It
prodded G eorge W. Bush who has
presided over nearly one fifth o f the
A m erica’s ultim ate legal w eapon
against black men accused o f violent
acts (mostly against whites). Between
1930 and 1996, m ore than h alf o f all
those executed have been African-
A m ericans. W hen the crim e (or
accusation) is rape, the death penalty
has alm ost alw ays been exclusively
reserved for blacks. O f the 453 men
executed forrapesince 1930,405 have
been black. N early all o f them w ere
executed in the South. They were
a rre s te d an d c o n v ic te d on th e
flim siest evidence, usually no m ore
than the word o f a w hite wom an. At
the same tim e, not one w hite man
by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
for The Portland O bserver
d it o r
Letter to the Editor
Joy Ramos
Dear Editor
C
r e a t iv e
D
ir e c t o r
Shawn Strahan
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The Portland O b scrve r-O re go n 's Oldest
M u lticu ltu ra l P u b lica tion -is a m em ber o f the
National Newspaper Association-Founded in
IR85. and The National Advertising Represen­
tative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, N ew Y ork,
N Y , and The West Coast Black Publishers
Association* Serving Portland and Vancouver
I
Re: your D ecision to Reject the First
Recom m endation o fth e Police Study
Group
D ear M ayor Katz:
W earew ritin g to ex p resso u rco n cem
over your statem ent that the police
accountability study group w ould
n o t b e p e rm itte d to ex p a n d its
m em bership. W hen w e m et for the
first tim e on T uesday, M ay 30,
practically the first order o f business
w as to change the com position o fth e
group itself. M em bers o f th e group
voted overw helm ingly to add four
new seats, so as to better represent
the Latino, Asian A m erican, youth,
and N ative A m erican com m unities.
On June 7, at the g ro u p 's second
meeting, you announced that the
com position o f the group w ould not
be changed.
W e feel this is a m istake for tw o
reasons. First, ify o u ’re talking about
addressing police m isconduct, you
need to include those people m ost
affected by police misconduct.
Though Copw atch has contact with
roughly 100 people per year via our
In c id e n t R e p o rt L in e d ir e c tly
w itn e s s e s in c id e n t o f p o lic e
m isconduct, and conducts extensive
research and networking, we do not
presum e to speak, o f everyone in
community.
W h ile th e c o m m itte e in c lu d e s
representatives from the hom eless,
A fr ic a n - A m e r ic a n an d se x u a l
minorities com m unities, the presence
o f two young people who gave input
during W ednesday ’ s publ ic com ment
period m ade clear the need to have
broader representation at the table.
O ur second concern is that you have
rejected th e rec o m m en d a tio n to
broaden the com m ittee m em bership,
w hich cam e from a m ajority - if not a
consensus - o f the group. W e hope
that you will not treat proposals
regarding the structure o f PILAC in
the same manner.
A s y o u k n o w , th e P o lic e
A ccountability Cam paign, or PAC
2000, decided not to jo in your group
c itin g
co n c ern s
th a t
th e ir
recom m endations might not be taken
seriously. PAC 2000 is collecting
signatures fora city-w ide initiative to
restructure the civilian review board,
and increase its pow ers. M em bers o f
the work group, including Copwatch,
the National Law yers guild, and the
N A A C P, have p resen ted sim ilar
proposal seriously, and w e urge you
I
to reconsider the addition o fth e four
seats - A sian-A m erican, Latino,
N ative A m erican and youth - which
the group advised.
In the com ing days there will almost
surely be m ore atrocity tales o f
sleeping lawyers and condemned men
getting 11th hour DNA escapes from
the executioner. This m ay well push
the num ber o f A m ericans who want
to abolish the death penalty even
higher. But as long as violent crim e
remains a prime national fixation, and
received the death penalty for raping
a black woman. There is no official
record in any Southern state o fa lack
man ever being executed for raping a
black woman. The victims ofall but 44
o f th e blacks executed in the South
from 1930 through 1984 were white.
N ot much has changed over the
years. A ccording to the NAACP
Legal D efense Fund a black is still
eleven tim es more likely to get the
death penalty then a white when
the victim is white. At present
nearly h alf o f those currently
sitting on the nation’s death rows
are black. And that number has
remained steady for three decades.
The only real change in the top
heavy racial make-up o f death row
prisoners is the jum p in the number
o f Latinos awaiting execution. In
Texas and California, the runaway
leaders in the num ber o f prisoners
on death row, a signi ficant number
o f the condem ned are Latinos. A
recen t
re p o r t
fro m
th e
LeadershipCouncilonCivil Rights
r e v e a le d th a t L a tin o s h av e
outstripped blacks as the fastest
g row ing im prisoned group in
America. The same glaring racial
bias that insures m any black men
w in d up on d e a th row also
ensnares Latinos.
The appellate court that recently
review ed the death sentence for
convicted Texas m urderer V ictor
H u g o S a ld a n o n o te d th a t a
p s y c h o lo g is t c a s u a lly lis te d
his L atino b ack g ro u n d as an
“ a g g r a v a tin g
f a c to r ”
in
recom m ending that he get the
death penalty. Saldano was lucky.
T h e c o u rt o v e r tu r n e d h is
sentence. But for hundreds o f
other men victim ized by the same
o u tra g e o u s ra c ia l b ia s th e re
will be no last minute rescues.
&
m any Am ericans cling to the even
m ore insidious fixation that the death
penalty is a punishm ent reserved for
blacks and Latinos, the death penalty
will be down but not out.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author o f
T h e D is a p p e a ra n c e o f B la c k
L e a d e rs h ip .
e m a il:
hutchi344@aol.com
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- I’OKTLKM)
DfVKIOPMENT
COM M ISMON
DanHandleman
PortlandCopwatch
Im agine this: You're p ro u d o f th e
children you raised. Your grandkids
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and it's even better than the fantasy
Dear Editor,
How often have you dropped money
into a donation can, given used
furniture or old clothes to a charity
thrift shop, or responded to a fund­
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m ost people, the answ er is probably,
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People for the Ethical Treatm ent o f
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In one experim ent, kittens’ eyes were
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conditions for a year, and then they
w ere killed, despite the fact that it is
well established that hum ans’ and
nonhum ans’ optical developm ent is
so fundam entally different as to
render the findings o f this study
meaningless.
L ik e so m a n y o th e r a n im a l
experiments, this one not only caused
the death and suffering o f innocent
anim als, it also bore no relation to the
human condition. In fact, through the
years, animal tests have often led
scientists in the wrong direction, thus
holding back medical progress and
prolonging human suffering.
Please write to PETA at the address
below fo ra free health charity guide.
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