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PAGE
TITLE:
http://www.suntimes.com/index.html
ARTICLE
TITLE: Death
Penalty
DATE: Monday January 17,
2011
AUTHOR: Stella Foster
AUTHOR
INFORMATION: Stella
Foster is a retired Sun Times Chicago Columnist.
Death penalty
Stella’s column WITH STELLA FOSTER
sfoster@suntimes.com January 17, 2011 10:42PM
Updated: September 24, 2012 6:25AM
STELLA’S SPOTLIGHT
T HE DEATH PENALTY IS MAKING prominent headlines in
the news, especially in Illinois. So I decided to reprint an article I wrote
about the death penalty that first ran in the May 1995 issue of Sister 2 Sister
mag, and was reprinted in the Sun-Times’ “Personal View” letters to the editor
section on May 18, 1995, when I was then an assistant to Irv “Kup” Kupcinet. The
article raised a lot of eyebrows and garnered many responses from folks who
agreed . . . and disagreed.
Given the senseless mass shootings that have been
shocking this country in the past few years and the latest massacre in Arizona
allegedly committed by Jared Lee Loughner, who could be called the poster child
for crazy, I feel the same today as I did 15 years ago. I know that this is a
sensitive subject, but the beauty of living in the land of the free, you are
free to agree or disagree. Here it is:
“News reports about the death penalty usually
include someone saying that executing a person for a violent crime such as
murder is not a deterrent to crime. I don’t understand this. Common sense tells
me that if a perpetrator of a heinous crime is tried and found guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt and is then executed and put in the ground, if nothing else,
that person has certainly been deterred.
“In the case of the blatant and vicious taking of
another person’s life during a robbery, rape, etc., I believe in an eye for an
eye. Sentencing a vicious killer to life in prison is too costly to us
taxpayers. A person can get used to any type of lifestyle. . . . even prison.
Prisoners get free room and board, free medical care and schooling, recreation
time and, in some states, conjugal visits.
“On the other hand, the victim is still six feet
under, no longer enjoying any of life’s pleasures, and will never, ever be
paroled from the grave — not even 40 years later.
“The death penalty may not sit well with some
people who claim it is cruel and unusual punishment. I say what is cruel is
letting the murderer languish on Death Row for 10 to 15 years while his lawyer
files appeal after appeal tying up the courts with mountains of paperwork and
wasting everyone’s time. If the person is guilty BEYOND a shadow of a doubt,
get it over with.
“And, by the way, the death penalty is not fair to
all. Given all the senseless murders of blacks committed by blacks, it seems to
me there should be even more blacks on Death Row for the killing of other
blacks. About 40 percent of Death Row inmates are black, but 84 percent of all
prisoners executed were convicted of killing whites, according to Amnesty
International. Why isn’t the life of an African American just as precious as
any other? If your beloved relative is shot down in the street like a dog and
the perpetrator is arrested and found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,
shouldn’t that victim’s family have an opportunity to see justice done? I think
so.
“I feel that our court system subliminally sends
out the message: Feel free to kill one another, black folks, but if you kill
one of us, you will never see daylight. If black criminals knew that the
penalty would be death for killing another black, maybe they would think
twice.”
ACCORDING to the Death Penalty Information Center
website: Since 1976, 82% of the studies [reviewed], race of the victim was
found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or
receiving the death penalty, i.e., those who murdered whites were found more
likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks.” — (U.S.
General Accounting Office, Death Penalty Sentencing, February 1990) And in
another report: “Blacks who kill non-blacks are more likely to receive the
death penalty than blacks who kill blacks.” Hey, this tells me that an
African-American victim’s life is not valued no matter who does the killing.
The death penalty is harsh and in a few cases
flawed, but tell that to the doctor in Connecticut who survived an attack in
his home by two thugs who tortured, raped and set afire his beloved wife and
two daughters. And even if the death penalty is forever abolished in Illinois
by Gov. Quinn, mass murderers should be the exception. Some human beings are
just plain EVIL. Also, lifers in jail have nothing to lose, so they still can
kill guards and other prisoners. And I applaud Mayor Daley for being a staunch
advocate of the death penalty.
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