exas 'Justice' Mocks the Concept
I'm at the airport in Austin, Texas, waiting for my flight
back to California and reading the local newspaper. I love Austin but
loathe Texas, and a front-page story
helps explain why.
It tells of a condemned man's attempts to avoid execution -- a man who is
quite possibly innocent but who has been hammered by a criminal justice
system that mocks the word "justice" in just about every way.
The appeals courts and state Board of Pardons and Paroles are utterly
indifferent to the fact that evidence has turned up since Delma Banks'
conviction, many years ago, of a murder he almost certainly didn't
commmit. Nor do they care that the police and prosecutors in the case
were paying witnesses against him, or that they concealed evidence from
the defense that might well have caused a jury to find him not guilty.
Even the former director of the FBI, William Sessions (a death-penalty
supporter and now a federal judge in Texas), has signed a brief asking
for a halt to this train. Sessions, two other judges and a former
prosecutor, according to the newspaper, say killing Banks without giving
him a chance to bring the new evidence officially to light would
""directly implicate the integrity of the administration of the
death penalty in this country."
Oh, did I mention? Banks is black. The victim was white.
The death penalty is barbaric. But to be killing people without even
caring if they're guilty is criminal.
Where is our conscience? We left it in the gutter, long ago.
� posted by Dan Gillmor 06:28
AM
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