CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS, EXCERPT...

CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS: Legal Battles in the Civil Rights Movement, by Jack Greenberg (Twelve Tables Press, NY: 2004), p. 492 “Of all the countries we resemble in our values and political system, none has capital punishment. All of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, most of Latin America, and former Communist nations of Eastern Europe have abolished it. International treaties, by which the United States is bound, prohibit the death penalty. The biggest executors in the world are countries like China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and, of course, the United States. What a lot to be associated with! Our system can hardly be a deterrent and even for those who find satisfaction in retribution, it hardly can serve that purpose well in its uneven application. “It is our history of racism that has kept America from observing the same values that have led all those nations, most of whose ideals we otherwise share with regard to the death penalty. This is demonstrated by the preponderance of executions in the former Confederacy and the disproportionate number of persons on death row who have killed whites. Perhaps, as we move from that racist past, the hold capital punishment has on the American public will diminish and the majority in favor will shift, as it has elsewhere in the world, to a majority against. But given what politicians say, almost all of whom try to outdo others in their commitment to the death penalty, that day will not come soon.”