Death Penalty
Well, we passed the semi-symbolic mark this morning of 1000 executions since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. It happened in my former homestate of North Carolina as they executed Kenneth Lee Boyd early this morning.
A few days ago I read about some recent developments in the 1993 execution of Ruben Cantu. He was charged in 1984 with capital murder during a robbery in San Antonio and convicted. However, just recently the lone witness recanted his testimony and a co-defendant admitted he had allowed his friend (Cantu) to be falsely accused under police pressure (CNN link).
But it’s really too little too late. He was executed 12 years ago. Not guilty, it seems. But executed anyway.
Maybe mistakes and injustices like this are another reason why it should bother us that 97 percent of worldwide executions took place in only four countries: China, Iran, Vietnam, and the USA (2004 data from Amnesty International). To be clear on my implication, these are three countries that we in the US generally consider to have poor human rights protection overall… plus ourselves.
We can do better.
