Don't Throw Stones If You Live In A Glass House

I read a story carried by AddictingInfo.org titled "American ‘Ally’ Saudi Arabia Beheads 100 People In Just 6 Months."  It admonishes the United States for being an ally of Saudi Arabia in spite of their high number of executions.

I know the usage of the death penalty in the United States, especially in Texas, is among the worst in the world.  So, I pulled together some data for comparison.  I found data for a block of years - 2007-2012 - for all the countries in the world and separately I found data for the same years regarding Texas.

Only four countries in the world held more executions than the United States.  They are: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.  All the countries that we accuse of inhumanity.  Such fine company we keep.

Since Texas performs the majority of US executions, I decided to compare Texas.  Only 5 countries in the world executed more people than Texas during the years 2007-2012.  As if that isn’t bad enough, since Texas is only one of 50 US states I decided to rank the nations based on executions per 100 million people.  Texas had a higher execution rate than any country in the world during the years 2007-2012.  In fact, Texas executed 20% more than the second highest country, Iran, and 73% more than Saudi Arabia.

One could argue that the Saudis do it less humanely and publicly but dead is dead.  The US also executes minors and the mentally retarded.  The United States is the only country that has not signed a treaty that bans executions of minors who were under age 18 at the time of their crime. The US has executed 281 minors during its history.  In 1987 there were 32 minors on death row.  Although the US Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for the mentally retarded in 2002, states have continued to execute them.  This year two mentally retarded men were executed in one week in Texas and Georgia.

The United States carries on about how exceptional it is but when compared to other nations the United States does poorly.  We are #1 militarily.  I read recently that the United States has a higher death rate among women during child birth than any other developed nation.  We are #35!  That’s certainly exceptional.  Exceptionally bad.

Capital Punishment; How Many Innocent Victims?

Three arson cases are in the news. A man jailed 42 years ago at the age of 16 has been released because the latest arson science proves that the fire was not arson. A second man, jailed for 24 years, may soon be freed for the same reason. Arson experts found that a fire for which a third man was sentenced to death in Texas was not arson. A special commission in Texas found that the man should be retried. The Texas governor dismissed the commission and their recommendation and allowed the man to be executed because a prison inmate testified that the accused confessed that he was guilty. However, 10 years later investigators have found that the prosecutor concealed the fact that the inmate was promised a reduced sentence if he testified that he had heard a confession. The jailhouse witness has also admitted that his testimony was a lie.

Three innocent men. They were in prison a total of 77 years in prison. One is still in prison. One was executed. All were innocent.

Hundreds of convicted people have been found innocent and released. Now there is significant evidence that at least one innocent person was executed. How much longer will the US allow states to execute people, when we know that our legal process convicts innocent people, sometimes because of misconduct by the prosecution?

Thoughts on Church, Torture and Capital Punishment

The Pew Forum surveyed four major religious groups and found that people who attend church most often are also most likely to approve of using torture. 62% of White Evangelical Protestants justify torture compared to 40% of those who are unaffiliated with a church. I would expect most Evangelicals to completely disapprove of torture. Since an Evangelical strives to be Christ-like wouldn’t all Evangelicals disapprove of torture?

Based on what I’ve been taught about Christ, Christ would not approve of torturing anybody for any reason. So why do most Evangelicals approve of torture?

There are more than 200 countries in the world. The Death Penalty is abolished in 113 of them and has never been used in another 4 countries. Of the 91 countries that have not abolished the death penalty 43 countries have not used the death penalty in more than 10 years and 25 have not used the death penalty in more than 20 years. In the first 4 months of this year alone the United States has executed 24 people. Texas has executed 14 of them; almost one per week. In the previous 10 years 636 people were executed in the US and 41% of them were executed in Texas. The population of Texas is 8% of the US population. Thus, the rate of execution in Texas is 5 times as high as it is in the rest of the US. The states with the highest execution rates are the Bible Belt states. The states of the Bible Belt were the slave states prior to the Civil War. The predominant religion in the Bible Belt is the Evangelical Protestant.

The United States in one of only 5 countries that executes minors – the other countries are China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran and Pakistan. The United States and Kyrgyzstan are the only countries that execute the mentally retarded. The United States Supreme Court banned such executions however Texas maintains its right to execute the mentally retarded and in 2001 Governor Perry, vetoed a bill that would have banned such executions.

GW Bush was governor of Texas from 1995 through 2000 during which Texas held 152 executions. Executions in Texas peaked while Bush was governor, increasing 25% in 6 years. Executions in Texas decreased 23% since Bush left the governor’s office. GW Bush claims that each case is reviewed in detail when he considers the final appeal, however, in the case of Terry Washington, a mentally retarded man, Bush met with his legal counsel Alberto Gonzales (the same scoundrel who was Bush’s Attorney General of the US) for only 30 minutes before denying the appeal for clemency. GW Bush is an Evangelical and he approves of torture. In fact GW Bush is the only US President to authorize torture.

The countries that have used the death penalty in 2008 and 2009 are: Sudan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Vietnam, Yemen, United States, Botswana, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Indonesia, Iraq, North Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Belarus and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The United States, which claims to be the Moral Leader of the world, which consistently attacks other countries for Human Rights Violations, uses the death penalty and torture (until the recent ban by President Obama). We are one of the most violent societies in the world. More crimes are committed in the United States than in any other nation. Only 4 countries have more murders: India, Russia, Columbia and South Africa.

The US is far less than it pretends to be. Insisting that we should not investigate and prosecute our own war crimes ensures that we will commit war crimes in the future.