October 5, 2011
^ìorttanù (Observer
Page
We Allow the Execution Madness
There was no
mercy for Troy
Davis
T he original ju d g e and prosecuting
attorney q u estio n ed the verdict.
This conviction w as a w rongful
conviction and the w orld know s it.
1 w aited through the night at the
prison in Jackson, G a., as T roy was
by R ev .S ala WJ. N olan G onzales
strapped to a gurney, preparing a
fourth tim e for his death.
A fter a four hour delay,
the c u rta in s o p e n ed to
give the M acPhail fam ily,
police and T ro y ’s tw o a t­
torneys a clear view o f the
man on the table. He raised
his head, looked directly
at O fficer M acP h ail’s son
and brother and said, “I ’m sorry for
y o u r loss. I did not personally kill
y o u r son, father and brother. I am
innocent. He asked those present
to continue to search for the truth.
On Sept. 21 at 11.08
p m „ the state o f G eorgia
executed Troy A nthony
D avis for m urdering p o ­
lice officer M ark A llen
M acP hailin 1989.
N o physical evidence
linked D avis to the case.
He was convicted based
on testim ony from nine w itnesses.
Seven recanted, saying police c o ­
erced them to nam e D avis as the
shooter; one is questionable; the
last is suspected as M acP hail’s killer.
T o prison officials, he said, “M ay
G od have m ercy on your souls. M ay
G od bless y o u r souls.”
I sat w ith T roy D avis. I believe in
his innocence. 1 know w hat he had
to offer. He understood this e x ec u ­
tion was not really about him , but
about a system that kills people
based on race and poverty, one that
supports institutional lynching and
genocide.
Troy D avis w as a black man. O f­
ficer M acPhail was a w hite m an. In
G eorgia, less than 40 percent o f
hom icide victim s are w hite, but in 87
percent o f death penalty cases, the
victim was white.
In G eorgia, 22 percent o f blacks
convicted o f killing w hites are sen ­
tenced to death, com pared to 8 p er­
cent o f w hites killing w hites, 3 p e r­
cent o f w hites killing blacks, and 1
percent o f blacks killing blacks. In
the U .S., blacks m ake up 13 percent
o f the population and 42 percent o f
the people on death row.
A m ong countries with state-sanc­
tioned executions, the U.S. is fifth,
after China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi
Arabia. We have exonerated 130 death
row inmates since 1973, but we ex ­
w hite, 5 percent; H ispanic, 17 per
cent. Visit any prison and you wil
see poor people, low -hanging fruii
for “get tough on crim e” politicians
A ny prisoner w ill tell you life is nol
fair. You ju st d o w hat you can to
stay sane.
Troy D avis was buried but un­
ju st “ju stic e ” will not be buried.
There will be m ore w rongful convic­
ecute even though we know som e are tions, m ore executions, m ore incar­
innocent. C lem ency from death row cerations for m inor offenses w hile
usually m eans a life sentence o f soli­ serious offenders w alk free.
tary confinem ent, also internation­
W e allow this.
ally recognized as torture.
T here was no m ercy for T roy
Prison is not about fair p u n ish ­ Davis. M ay G od have m ercy on our
m ent. It co ndem ns people to d e ­ souls.
stroyed potential, poverty, and sepa­
Rev. Sala W.J. N olan G onzales is
ration. T he likelihood that a black the m in ister f o r C rim inal Justice
m an will go to prison in his lifetim e a n d H um an R ig h ts in the U nited
is m ore than 32 percent; if the m an is C hurch o f Christ.
Immigration Enforcement was Shocking
I
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♦'A
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h.
1 —
_
W AT T A oftnr
i
President li B arack
O bam a a n ­
Common
sense
approach
was
MIA after
nounced this new initiative, and a
za
by M atias
.
W ashington, D .C. area.
T hanks to a petition drive by
friends, colleagues, and su p p o rt­
ers, IC E eventually relented and had
the shackle rem oved. But thousands
o f other undocum ented im m igrants
aren't so lucky.
T he experience was shocking and
upsetting. But as a veteran im m i­
grant rights activist living in o u r
nation's capital, I w as no stranger to
the facts about the m assive and
inhum ane deportation system that
has defined the O bam a years w hen
it com es to im m igration policy.
M ore than a m illion people have
been shipped out o v er the last three
a
R amos
N ow that the electronic shackle
is off, it’s really nice not having to
listen to the eerie com puter-voice
w ho are citizens. This new directive
w as supposed to free the govern
m ent to focus on deporting people
deem ed to be crim inals or national
com m ands regularly broadcast from security threats.
its plastic speaker.
A s a college-educated, 25-year-
For 10 m iserable days, I had to old undocum ented im m igrant w ith
w ear a thick rubber and plastic c u ff r__ -_____________________
around my ankle for 24/7 G PS m oni­
toring. Every few hours, it w ould
bark out strange co m m en ts and
dozen years after I arrived in the
U nited States, I was placed on a
supervision-intensive program run
by a private co m p an y called BI Inc.
Under this program, a BI em ployee
- shackled
—
>..v
« , u . a v u r o - c n a o ie u
me w
ith a G P S -enabled
m onitoring device on my ankle that
com m ands until I pressed a button
to m ake it stop. Som e w ere clear:
"Call y our officer." "R echarge the
battery." But it also w ould som e­
tim es declare "L eaving y our m aster
inclusion zone."
W hat does that even m ean? Beats
me. But then, the fact that I had been
shackled by an em ployee o f a p ri­
years, putting the O bam a ad m in is­
tration on track to potentially d e ­
port m ore people in one term than
B ush adm inistration did in two.
I am an undocum ented A m eri­
can. I cam e to this country w ith my
parents at the age o f 13, and after a
dozen years o f legal lim bo, my a t­
tachm ent to this country is u n d en i­
able. I learned English as a teenager
reading C atcher in the Rye, w atch ­
ing W orld W restling Entertainm ent,
and enjoying T op 40 hits. But to the
vate com pany w ith a lucrative D e­
partm ent o f H om eland Security con­
tract m ade no sense either.
O n the other hand, now I get w hat
it really m eans to experience ab u ­
sive governm ent intrusion into your
life. A nd I know firsthand that the
O bam a adm inistration isn ’t yet up­
holding its pledge to exercise som e
g o v ern m en t c o n tra c to r that su d ­
denly becam e charged w ith m y case.
I w as ap parently ju s t fo dder for a
profiteering schem e.
W hen O bam a addressed Latino
voters at the N ational C ouncil o f La
R aza in July, he said he needed a
"dance partner" to fix the nation's
im m igration failures and that he
couldn't act alone. The new policy,
announced in a letter from D ep art­
m ent of H om eland Security S ecre­
tary Janet N apolitano to Sen. Dick
D urbin, seem ed to be playing a m ore
d anceable tune.
A fter m y ordeal, I have som e
advice for O bam a. O ne thing he
could do to show that he w ants the
nation's largest m inority gro u p to
em brace him is to cancel the Bush-
era co n tracts w ith unethical and
profiteering com panies like BI. Then
he should tell im m igration au th o ri­
ties to actually follow his new , co m ­
m on-sense approach.
M a tia s R a m o s is a C arl Jea n a n d
E d w a rd F. N ew m a n fe llo w a t the
In stitu te f o r P o licy S tu d ies a n d c o ­
fo u n d e r o f the U nited We D ream
N etw o rk.
com m on sense w hen it com es to
deciding w hether a specific d ep o r­
tation case is a priority.
Matias Ramos and the ankle monitoring device he had to wear
U nder a new policy instituted in
for 10 days.
A ugust, im m igration agents and
ju d g e s are supposed to use m ore an active deportation case and no I d have to w ear at all tim es, even in
discretion w hen deciding w hether crim inal record, I w elcom ed this the show er. A nother called m e a
to deport som eone. T hey're sup- change — until I learned the hard w eek later, telling me I should buy a
I
posed to w eigh such factors as how
long the person has lived in the
U nited States, as well as w hether he
o r she has obtained o r is pursuing a
college degree, or has dependents
I TELEPHONE.’
I A l J O R F S ’s ’
I
-
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I ot email subscriptiQns@portIandobserver.com
w ay that Im m igration and C ustom s
E nforcem ent field offices are actu-
ally becom ing even m ore ruthless
than before.
O n Sept. 13, less than a m onth
plane ticket in tw o w eeks. BI agents
w ere free to m ake unannounced vis-
its to m y hom e, and m y girlfriend
and I had no right to refuse them
entry. N or w as I allow ed to leave the
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