On Being Against the Death Penalty

Today Brandon Rhode was set to die.  Before the state could take his life, he chose to attempt to take his own.

To be clear, I am wholeheartedly against capital punishment.  Both as a casual criminologist and morally.  Often people say that must be because I have never been a victim of crime or known a murder victim.  That is not the case.  My sister's best friend, a close family friend, was murdered.  I was against the death penalty before her death and I am still against it after I help my sister pick up the pieces.  I will never advocate the killing of another human being, no matter the wrong they have done.  It serves no purpose, it deters no crime.

And then there's the possibility of executing an innocent person.  I thought the criminal justice system believed it is better to let a thousand men go free, than incarcerate one innocent person.  Guess not. Maybe that only exists in my idealistic mind.  My freshman year of college, I had the opportunity to hear Sister Helen Prejean speak and one quote stuck with me to this day.  "What if we were all judged by the worst thing we had ever done."  Though the rehabilitation of people on death row can be debated.  The most cynical arguing that everyone "finds religion" in jail but society is not helped, only harmed by the use of capital punishment in the United States. All of the world is looking at us and how does this make us look?

If I ran television stations, I would play The Life and Times of David Gale  on a day like today.  To force whomever is watching to see how easily an innocent person can be executed.

The Black (Wo)Man Did It!!!

As you have all heard, the story of the Vancouver, WA woman, Bethany Storro, who claimed to be the victim of some freak attack with acid. And that is was fake, a hoax, a big bold faced lie. I was watching the coverage of the case on Jane Valez Mitchell's show on HLN and she asked one of the commentators about the detailed description Ms. Storro gave of her attacker. The man brushed it off and went into a rant about the emotional turmoil Ms. Storro must be under and poor her etc. Interesting. Many people do not want to talk about why in this elaborate attention-seeking scheme, she chose to describe a black female who attacked her because she was jealous of her beauty *read whiteness*. Setting the stage for this to be a hate crime. Why? Why has there been no discussion as far as i have seen, of the racial implications of this case specifically?

The first case that I can recall during my lifetime of the convenient black description of a nonexistent perp was in the Susan Smith trial. She has the opportunity to describe any type of carjacker that she wanted, since the person did not exist and she chose a Black man. I'm sure there are more cases but Susan Smith popped into my mind instantly. Why is it acceptable to always pin your faux crime on a Black person and any Black person will do? I just remembered the case of Charles Stuart in Boston who killed his pregnant wife and pointed the finger at a Black man. The case garnered sympathy initially as well as a wide spread round-up of Black men in Boston.

What about our society accepts this perception of Black criminality and that the best way to deflect away from your own guilt in perpetuating the crime is to say 'The Black (Wo)Man Did It!!"?

Introduction

Hello dear reader! I am the budding criminologist!! For as long as I can remember, I have had a weird fascination with crime, specifically serial killers. I decided to parlay that interest into an Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice. As an undergrad, I branched out beyond the serial killer realm of criminology into studying the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, etc, basically any marginalized group in society, and crime policy. I wanted to understand the impact of one's position in society on the way their criminality was perceived, shaping their interaction with the criminal justice system. I will use this blog to further explore criminal justice policy topics that I come across and other "crime-y" topics that I want to share.

ENJOY!