Under Lock and Key RAIL Radio Program for April 23, 1999

This is Under Lock and Key

The death penalty is defeated again in Massachusetts
Black cops speak up for revolutionary prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal
And Mumia describes torture on death row

Welcome to Under Lock and Key, news and commentary about prisons 
from the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. The United States 
incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other 
country, sending more Black men to prison than to college. The 
purpose of this program is to educate about, and inspire activism 
against, the Amerikan lockdown. 

In February and March the fight against the death penalty really 
heated up in Massachusetts. In late February, Governor Cellucci 
introduced a bill to re-instate the death penalty. Last year a 
similar bill failed by a tie vote in the Massachusetts House of 
Representatives after being passed in the Senate. On March 23, the 
House Criminal Justice Committee narrowly rejected the death 
penalty bill, and the bill was rejected by the full House on March 
29. 

The battle isn't over for good, as Governor Cellucci vows to try 
again. It is also possible the Senate could resurrect the bill 
this year.  Other states also are trying to add the death penalty.

There is an ever escalating battle which uses Black and Latino men 
as cannon fodder. In this battle, Cellucci tried to appear even 
tougher on crime this year, introducing a bill which includes even 
more categories of crimes for which conviction would make a person 
eligible for the death penalty. 

Both sides of the debate are relying on emotional appeals to win 
support. A brutal killing of a young boy last year was turned into 
a key argument behind the need for the death penalty. And the 
release of innocent people from death row provides a compelling 
argument for the potential failings of the legal system and fuel 
for the anti-death penalty arguments that innocent people will be 
killed if the death penalty is reinstated.

Boston College Students Against the Death Penalty hosted a forum 
on March 9th which featured four former death row prisoners, all 
innocent of the crimes they were convicted for and released after 
many years in prison. This forum did a good job of building 
emotional opposition to the death penalty based on the possibility 
that a mistake could be made and an innocent person could be 
killed. But, it failed to offer an analysis that places the 
question of the death penalty into the context of an imperialist 
government and legal system.

All four speakers focused on the fact that we have an imperfect 
judicial system therefore, innocent people will be killed. Three 
of the speakers were Black and one was Latino and they pointed out 
that the makeup of the panel is not just a coincidence but that 
nationality plays a role in who is wrongfully convicted. Several 
of the speakers mentioned the lies the prosecution told and 
falsified statements used to get their convictions. But no one 
clearly drew the connections between the systematic abuses in the 
criminal injustice system that lead to wrongful convictions of 
Blacks and Latinos. These wrongful convictions are not accidents 
of a fallible system but instead the result of a clearly targeted 
and oppressive system. This underlying oppressive political system 
is what the prisons serve.

Freddie Pitts who, along with Wilbert Lee, was sentenced to death 
in Florida in 1963 and was granted a full pardon in 1975. He began 
the forum saying: 

"My case is an excellent case of being the wrong color in the 
wrong place at the wrong time." 

Wilbert Lee went further to point out that "we never heard of a 
rich person being executed." But Lee went on to say to the largely 
white and wealthy audience at Boston College 

"If you don't [stop the death penalty] one day it could be you." 

This contradicts his statement about rich people not being 
executed and underscores the failure of this kind of a personal 
argument. People should not be concerned about the death penalty 
just because a mistake could be made that would affect them 
personally. The fact is, most white people really do not have to 
worry about this. But, people should oppose injustice that 
oppresses whole groups of people for the benefit of other groups 
of people regardless of the personal impact.

Statistics show that Blacks are far more likely to be given the 
death penalty than whites. 53% of the people executed between 1930 
and 1990 were Black but Blacks make up only 12% of the 
population.(1) Convicted murderers are more likely to be executed 
if the victim was white: 50% of murder victims since 1977 have 
been Black but 82% of all capital cases involved white victims. 
Since 1976 85 executions have been carried out involving Black 
defendants and white victims, while only 4 white defendants have 
been executed for killing Black victims.(2)

Shabaka Brown was convicted and sentenced to death for rape, 
robbery and murder in Florida in 1974 even though he had an alibi 
to prove he was not at the scene of the crime. Charges were 
dropped in 1987 after it was learned that the prosecution had used 
false testimony during the trial. 

Making it clear that he sees the criminal justice system as a part 
of the larger system, he said "A system with 400 plus years of 
slavery as its legacy, you can not overturn that overnight." And 
he pointed out that many laws on the books today date back to the 
days of slavery so of course there is going to be bias even in the 
supposedly blind and just laws. In response to a question from the 
audience he made it clear that this is not just a problem with the 
courts saying "the media played a big role in my conviction and a 
very little role in my release."

Several of the speakers addressed the question of the morality of 
a death penalty. Shabaka took the position that "Either all your 
lives are valuable or none" and was very critical of a death 
penalty because restoring the death penalty means "you're gonna 
pick and choose who is gonna die" saying that no one should be 
making this decision. Cruz, on the other hand, said several times 
"I'll support the death penalty in a perfect society." 

RAIL is more in line with Cruz on this question.  This strategy of 
addressing the death penalty as a question of morality mirrors the 
approach by many others in Massachusetts. At a forum organized by 
the organization Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation in 
Boston on March 13th family of murder victims spoke about why they 
oppose the death penalty. 

While Shabaka and Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation are 
correct that this is wrong in Massachusetts, their arguments about 
morality fail to include an understanding of the morality of the 
oppressed. In an imperialist country the death penalty is always 
reactionary because it is a tool in the hands of the oppressors to 
use against the oppressed. But Shabaka's statements like those 
from the family members represent a pacifist political line that 
has resulted in more deaths of the oppressed in the larger battle 
against imperialism. And this moral argument can only lead to a 
stalemate of people on either side arguing over who is more 
morally correct in their individual convictions. Without the 
context of the perspective of the oppressed this debate will never 
go beyond individual arguments about pacifism and retribution.

In revolutionary war people will be killed in order to save more 
people. After a revolution when the power is in the hands of the 
people, some of the oppressors may be put to death. The death 
penalty would be used especially for those who committed the most 
heinous crimes against the people and those who continue to try to 
take power away from the people. Ultimately we fight for a society 
where there will be no need for the death penalty or even a 
criminal justice system but we do not lie to the people about what 
is necessary to get us there.

All of the speakers stressed voting as a key to activism against 
the death penalty. In Massachusetts this year we have the clearest 
example of voting potentially making a difference on this one 
issue. But even the politicians who are opposed to the death 
penalty support life in prison and a life of torture and 
deprivation at that. Cruz pointed out that prison is torture and 
the death penalty actually means less suffering for some people. 
RAIL says that because of this it is not enough to just oppose the 
death penalty and pretend that politicians taking this position 
are progressive.

Lee summed up the position of the speakers saying "You have the 
key to the ballot box. You can always select someone who fits the 
needs that you have." And this gets at the root of RAIL's 
disagreements with the activism that was advocated by the forum 
overall. It is not possible for the oppressed (which is the 
majority of the world's people) to choose a leader in an 
imperialist country that fits the needs they have. The choice is 
between one imperialist and another: all represent the ruling 
class and all act counter to the interests of the oppressed. 
Whether it is the question of bombing Iraq or building more 
prisons or taking away education programs in prisons, the 
candidates that can win elections are the ones representing the 
imperialist interests. 

It is possible to win small reforms within imperialism and the 
abolition of the death penalty would be one such progressive 
reform. But it's important that revolutionaries don't fool the 
people into thinking that electoralism is the way to change the 
system. There are plenty of people unwilling to take part in more 
radical activism who will lobby their congress people and work for 
electoral change. But revolutionaries need to put their time into 
educating people about the connections between individual issues 
of injustice like the death penalty and the whole criminal 
injustice system and it's foundation of imperialism. And we need 
to be in the streets organizing people against this criminal 
injustice system, including fighting against the death penalty. 

In a few moments we will bring you a commentary by Mumia Abu 
Jamal. Mumia is a Black Nation revolutionary fighting for his life 
on Pennsylvania's death row. Mumia was framed for murder because 
he is an outspoken opponent of Amerikan imperialism.

[Play MAJ Commentary. All things Censored. Track 7. Black Police 
Hampton introduction :29]

[Play MAJ Commentary. Ban is the Bastard. Track 1. A Bright 
Shining Hell. 3:10]

Stay tuned to this program for more information on Mumia Abu 
Jamal's case and the struggle to free him.

This has been Under Lock and Key, a Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist 
League program about prisons. For more information, contact: RAIL 
PO Box 712 Amherst MA 01004, or email RAILRadio@mim.org.