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.Return to Under Lock and Key RAIL Radio Program page