I'm always intrigued, as well as frightened, by those who look at our country and honestly believe racism is dead. Yes it may not be as prominent and apparent as it was (lets say) during the sixties, but still very much alive. From as blatant as the hate crimes that occur everyday, to the more subtle racism such as African-Americans not making the same amount of money as whites in businesses and corporations . I hear all too often that maybe African-Americans are too sensitive, and view any unfortunate event that occurs to an African-American as some racist conspiracy plot. How about this then? A man in 1989 was accused of killing a cop. He was wrongfully convicted of murder with a lack of evidence. He was still sentenced to the death penalty, and after several appeals and key eye witnesses recanting their story. Troy Davis was not granted clemency by Georgia parole board and was given lethal injection on sept. 21st. at 11:08 pm.
Heres where the problem becomes even bigger though. " The parole board in the state of Georgia spared a convicted killer from execution hours before he was due to die by lethal injection on Thursday and commuted his sentence to life in prison. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles made its decision less than three hours before Samuel David Crowe, 47, was to be executed, according to a spokeswoman for the state's prisons. "After careful and exhaustive consideration of the requests, the board voted to grant clemency. The board voted to commute the sentence to life without parole," the parole board said. Crowe's death would have marked the third execution since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty last month. Crowe was not present at the parole board hearing in Atlanta. He had already eaten his last meal and was preparing to enter the execution chamber at the prison in Jackson, Georgia, Mallie McCord of the Georgia Department of Corrections said. In March 1988, Crowe killed store manager Joseph Pala during a robbery at the lumber company in Douglas County, west of Atlanta. Crowe, who had previously worked at the store, shot Pala three times with a pistol, beat him with a crowbar and a pot of paint. Crowe pleaded guilty to armed robbery and murder and was sentenced to death the following year. "David (Crowe) takes full responsibility for his crime and experiences profound remorse," according to Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, an advocacy group, who welcomed the board's decision. At Thursday's hearing, his lawyers presented a dossier of evidence attesting to his remorse and good behavior in jail, according to local media reports. The lawyers also said he was suffering from withdrawal symptoms from a cocaine addiction at the time of the crime." - Reuters
How can anyone be blind to what is happening here? Double standard? Although blacks are not being hung anymore from trees, obviously we're being executed in other ways. I won't go into my personal/family history involving racism, although I doubt anyone would dare use that as an argument for me being biased in this particular case. I will admit though that this blog is much of bitching, as I cannot offer any solution to this problem. I guess freedom comes with its price.
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