A Brutal Murder and the Aftereffects

On January 15, 1982, in his birthplace of Oklahoma City, OK, a 29-year-old man was gunned-down in the parking lot of a popular night club by his roommate, a person who he considered his close friend. The murder victim had a young son, siblings, and one surviving parent. A very talented man, he built and sold wood furniture and played the drums. He worked hard at everything he did, and he had many friends.

His murderer shot him twice, once in the chest, and once in the abdomen, but did not stop with just killing him. He drove the victim’s body 50 miles from the murder scene where he dumped it in a drainage ditch like a sack of garbage. A road crew found the body five days later. The man had been robbed and his clothing partially removed. On January 30, 1982, the Oklahoma City police department notified the victim’s family of his death.

The killer’s trial began in April 1982, and after deliberating for 22 minutes, a seven-woman, five-man jury found 27 year-old Dennis Ray Benton* guilty of first-degree manslaughter and later sentenced him to 70 years in prison.

Every three years when Benton’s parole hearing takes place, the victim’s sister petitions the Oklahoma parole board in an effort to keep him incarcerated. Although she did not want his life taken as he took her brother’s life, she feels that he should serve his total sentence. She reasons that he suffers more for his crime by living his life in prison, whereas he would suffer very briefly if executed. If Benton lives long enough to serve his sentence which got reduced to 46 years, a 73 year-old broken-down man will leave prison with no income, and a lot of worry about survival on the outside.

My older brother, Michael, should not have died in such a gruesome and tragic manner. However, while it seems logical that the state of Oklahoma should have taken Benton’s life, killing him would not have brought Michael back.

Although I still grieve heavily over my brother’s death, I do not believe that the execution of Benton would have provided my family and me with relief or closure. Yes, Benton took Michael from us, but the intentional taking of a human life by any method, including government mandate, still constitutes murder.

Judicial Death

Since 1976, judicial death has claimed the lives of 1,184 Americans with 20 of the executions carried out in 2011. As journalist William Bole questioned, in 1977 countries such as Western Europe and Cambodia stopped using capital punishment, so why does the United States still kill in order to demonstrate that killing is wrong? When other nations view a practice collectively, the United States takes a different position regardless of the consequences.

In America, 34 states practice the “an-eye-for-an-eye, a-tooth-for-a-tooth” method of retribution against people who commit savage and barbaric crimes such as murder. Other than the satisfaction that each stakeholder in an execution feels when the killer realizes that his or her own death has arrived, how can we justify committing the same crime that the offender committed to bring justice and closure to victims’ friends and families? How can the murder of a second person correct the murder of the first person when not one, but two or more lives have been taken?

Bedau’s Fantasy Argument

I’ll give an example of the death penalty offered by professor of philosophy, Gary Colwell, where in 2002, he presents philosopher Hugo Bedau’s fantasy-world argument to establish the morality of the death penalty. What if the execution of each murderer simultaneously restored the murder victim back to life as if no murder had ever happened?

On May 2, 1973, racial prejudice would change the life of Assata Shakur. An incident of what would now be labeled “racial profiling” takes place on the New Jersey Turnpike. Ms. Shakur, an active participant in the Black Liberation Army (BLA), was traveling with friends, Malik Zayad Shakur and Sundiata Acoli when state troopers stopped them, reportedly because of a broken headlight. A trooper explained that they were “suspicious” because they had Vermont license plates. The three were made to exit the car with their hands up. All of a sudden, shots were fired. When it was all over, state trooper Werner Foerster and Malik Shakur were killed.

Ms. Shakur and Mr. Acoli were charged with the deaths of state trooper Foerster and Zayd Malik Shakur. While held in jail, she was shackled and chained to a bed, with bullet wounds still in her chest. She was also forced to undergo the jabs of shotgun butts of the New Jersey State troopers and heard their voices shouting Nazi slogans and threats to her life. In the history of New Jersey had a female prisoner ever been treated as she, confined to a men’s prison and placed under a constant twenty-four hour surveillance of her most intimate bodily functions.
Ms. Shakur and Mr. Acoli were eventually sentenced to life plus thirty-three years. Although the verdict was no surprise since it was an all White jury who convicted them, many questioned the racial injustice of the trial because it was riddled with many human rights violations and constitutional errors. The pretrial publicity was extremely negative and African-Americans were purposely excluded from the jury. Even more incredible was the fact Ms. Shakur was shot with her arms in the air, making it anatomically impossible for her to commit the murders she was convicted of.

However, in the country of the United States where there is suppose to be freedom, justice, and liberty for all, the only people who have that luxury are the rich, particularly, White males. Ms. Shakur had the triple jeopardy of being Black, female, and poor and she was a member of a political organization that had been targeted by the CIA and the FBI because of its political views. Any organization that challenges the status quo has to be eliminated at all costs.

Assata Shakur spent six and a half years in prison, two of those in solitary confinement. During that time, she was beaten and tortured on a daily basis. Although there is no mention of rape, she was probably sexually harassed everyday of her imprisonment. While imprisoned, she gave birth to her daughter Kakuya, whom they took away a week after birth. In 1979, fearing for her life, she made a daring escape that continues to infuriate the United States government. There was a nationwide search for her but not a trace of her or the people who aided her escape was ever found. In 1984, she was granted political asylum by Fidel Castro, dictator of Cuba and was finally united with her daughter. On May 2, 2005, the federal government issued a statement in which they labeled Ms. Shakur a domestic terrorist. In addition to doing that, the government also increased the bounty on her head from $150,000 to an unprecedented $1,000,000.

When I first read about Ms. Shakur, I cried. I could not believe the things that
this woman went through for fighting for basic human rights. Because of the triple
jeopardy of race, sex, and class and her political affiliation, she was unjustly sentenced to jail for a murder she did not commit. According to research, African-American women experience more bias in the courts than White women on the basis that White women are presumed to be good mothers by virtue of marital status (Andersen, p.285) and Black women are not. Black women have been historically stereotyped as sexually deviant troublemakers who need to be controlled.

Resulting from 1978 economic reform from a Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented economy, China’s economy is always on the upward spiral. Early 1990s is China’s economic heyday, resulted from foreign direct investment, trade integrations and other like privatizations.

Today, almost everyday, we hear about China’s increasing economy, surprisingly for the last two decades China is the fastest growing economy in the world.The economy of the People’s Republic of China is the fourth largest in the world when measured by nominal GDP. Its economic output for 2006 was $2.68 trillion USD. Its per capita GDP in 2006 was approximately US $2,000 and rising rapidly everyday. And it’s global trade exceeded $1.758 trillion at the end of 2006.

Resulting the above very practical economic facts, we can presume that China’s economy is becoming more and more civilized. However, its “human rights” issues are still very uncivilized; I dare to say China’s human rights/civil rights always never grow at all.

According to different credible sources, China’s human rights and civil rights abuses are still ubiquitous and systematic.Human rights violations in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) remain systematic and widespread. The Chinese government continues to suppress dissenting opinions and maintains political control over the legal system, resulting in an arbitrary and sometimes abusive judicial regime. The lack of accountability of the government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) means that abuses by officials often go unchecked. This fact sheet identifies the most common types of abuses, including arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, severe restrictions on freedom of expression and association and violations specific to women.

Until today, freedom of expression and opinion, press freedom, freedom of religions, rights of the minority groups and other democracy-oriented freedoms are still systematically and ubiquitously restricted. Despite this modern time and its praiseworthy economic growth, Chinese government still embraces its barbarian natures: capital punishment, organ harvesting and extrajudicial execution, racial/political discrimination, and other systematic human rights and civil rights abuses.

It now comes to the time that China needs to balance its economic growth to its human rights and civil rights issues. No matter how strong will its economy be, Chinese government is still barbarian, as long as its people’s human rights and civil rights are still systematically and ubiquitously violated.

Notorious Prison

Of course, people do not come to Cape Town to actually see the great man himself. Mandela is in his nineties, and lives in quiet retirement. But they do go there to take the ferry boat out to Robben Island, site of the notorious prison that was Mandela’s home for 18 years. For many visitors, this trip is more like a pilgrimage. Robben Island is a bleak, windswept outcrop of sand and limestone, covering just twelve square kilometers. It was here that Mandela, having been sentenced to life imprisonment on a conviction of treason because of his opposition to apartheid, laboured in the limestone quarries with criminals and other political prisoners. Of the tiny cell in which he was kept, Mandela wrote in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, “I could walk the length of my cell in three paces… When I lay down, I could feel the wall with my feet, and my head grazed the concrete at the other side.” Even in prison the rules of apartheid applied. Black prisoners were allowed less meat in their rations than Asian prisoners. Not one to let stone walls and iron bars imprison his spirit, Mandela, who was a lawyer, educated other inmates, and even some guards. He and his fellow prisoners often looked across the water at Table Mountain towering above Cape Town for inspiration.

A Shrine

To many of the visitors who come over from Cape Town, Mandela’s old cell is like a shrine. It has been left just as it was when he was finally taken out of it to be transferred to another prison. The door is kept locked, so visitors can only look in, but other cell doors are open for anyone who wants to step inside and get the experience of being in a claustrophobic cage. As you wander around the island and feel the cold wind that continually blows up from the Antarctic, you keep in mind that the prisoners were never allowed to wear anything but light clothing.

Marketing Mandela

Cape Town, and South Africa in general, have been actively marketing Mandela; not all of which activity meets with his personal approval. Gift shops in Cape Town sell a Presidential Collection of shirts; that is, shirts designed like the ones he wore during his presidency. A hot item for tourists returning to Cape Town from Robben Island are tee shirts emblazoned with “466/64″, Mandela’s prison number. In Nobel Square at the V&A Waterfront Complex, visitors can see a statue of Mandela, along with South Africa’s other Nobel Prize winners; Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk, and Albert Luthuli.

Most prisoners smoke. This is universally the case regardless of country of origin. A 2006 Polish survey indicated that 81% of men incarcerated in Polish prisons were smokers and a recent New Zealand survey showed a smoking incidence of 67% amongst prisoners which represents a three fold increase in smoking behaviour compared to the fortunate free in New Zealand society. Prison is not a microcosm of society. The average prisoner is socially and economically disadvantaged and often poorly educated.

Smoking Bans

The banning of smoking in prisons is a relatively new phenomenon but is likely to increase in the coming years. An estimated 50% of American correctional institutions are smoke free and New Zealand has recently introduced a smoking ban in all of its prisons. Many reasons have been put forward by governments in support of prison smoking bans. The fear of lawsuits from prison staff and prisoners alike provide strong motivation. A ruling by the US Supreme Court decreed that exposing a prisoner to tobacco smoke represents “a cruel and unusual punishment”. There is no doubt that banning smoking is great news for the prisoner’s long term health, as long as they remain locked up. Whether banned, or not, tobacco represents a very saleable commodity within the confines of prison walls and tobacco has traditionally been seen as prison currency; once banned it becomes contraband. The problem with contraband is that it brings violence and intimidation in its wake. Also prison guards may become tempted to fuel the supply of tobacco; the financial rewards may prove overwhelming. It is fair to say that the vast majority of guards are honest individuals however the corrupt few are ideally placed to exploit the system. After all, they are the system. Prison visitors can also be a source of smuggled tobacco. Although visitors are constantly monitored throughout their stay on prison property they can be remarkably inventive and resourceful and it is unrealistic to expect that this route of tobacco smuggling can be entirely stemmed. It seems that other contraband items such as drugs are relatively easy to obtain and it is naive to think that tobacco could be an exception.

Smoking Relieves Tension

There were great fears from prison guards, prisoners and politicians, prior to the New Zealand smoking ban, that the introduction of the ban would cause tension, violence and even rioting. The prison situation is an abnormal environment and prisoners are not renowned as model citizens. It is unlikely that prison inmates are going to be totally happy about losing their access to tobacco. Tobacco is addictive and smokers are drug addicts. The imposition of a tobacco ban places additional strains in an already volatile environment. There is always a chance that prisoners may vent their anger, pent up frustration, and drug withdrawal on fellow inmates and prison staff. A prison riot in an Australian prison in 1997 was partly attributed to a smoking ban.

Healthy Prisoners?

Although smoking bans are implemented to promote prisoner health, the long term health consequences are sadly limited. Less than 10% of prisoners remain smoke free once released into society. There seems no basis to the argument that smoking bans improve the long term health of prisoners, unless of course they are incarcerated for life. It could be argued, by those of a cynical turn of mind, that banning smoking is just another way of punishing prisoners. Governments and prison authorities would deny this. The law abiding general public are usually not very sympathetic to the prisoner’s plight and are more than happy for prisoners to lose their smoking privileges. Understandably prisoners see the situation in a different light and view the ban as a reduction in their already limited rights. Perhaps, in an unintended way, prison smoking bans may act as a very real deterrent for smoking criminals to commit crimes.

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