The Worst of the Worst

If you're still in favor of the death penalty, I implore you to read this emotional post over at Talk Left. It's a testimonial by a death row inmate named Luis Ramirez, a man executed by the State of Texas in October for a shotgun murder he adamantly denied taking part it until the time of his death.

Luis Ramirez was convicted of a capital murder (remuneration) in San Angelo, Texas in 1998. In this case, the state offered no tangible evidence to support the conviction. They have no DNA evidence, no physical evidence, no scientific evidence, no eyewitnesses no murder weapon and they could not place him at the crime scene. They relied primarily on the hearsay testimony of a paid informant. The informant s a self described daily drug user. He is not someone that Mr. Ramirez knows, nor does he know Mr. Ramirez.

Luis writes about his experiences on his first day on Death Row.

The first person I met there was Napolean Beasley. Back then, death row prisoners still worked . His job at the time was to clean up the wing and help serve during meal times. He was walking around sweeping the pod in these ridiculous looking rubber boots. He came up to the bars on my cell and asked me if I was new.. I told him that I had just arrived on d/r. He asked what my name is. I told him, not seeing any harm in it. He then stepped back where he could see all three tiers. He hollered at everyone, "There's a new man here. He just drove up. His name is Luis Ramirez."

Like anyone, Luis fears the worst. He figures that, now that they all know his name and that he's new, he'll be beaten or harrassed or worse. But that's not quite how it went...

After supper was served. Napolean was once again sweeping the floors. As he passed my cell, He swept a brown paper bag into it. I asked him "What's this"? He said for me to look inside and continued on his way . Man, I didn't know what to expect. I was certain it was something bad. Curiosity did get the best of me though. I carefully opened the bag. What I found was the last thing I ever expected to find on death row, and everything I needed. The bag contained some stamps, envelopes notepad, pen, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, tooth brush, a pastry, a soda, and a couple of Ramen noodles.

The other prisoners pooled their belongings to make a care package for the new guy. I mean, do those sound like actions of soulless monsters? Doesn't an incident like this just destroy the notion of people as "good" or "bad," sinner or sinned against, worthy of redemption or ready to die? Luis would eventually be executed for a crime he may not have committed, and Napoleon was killed for a crime he'd committed as a teenager...But they weren't evil comic-book villains. They were men who may or may not have made a mistake years before. To keep them in jail may be unfair, but to kill them is DEFINITELY inappropriate.

I have not yet seen Munich, but I was just discussing it with a few people, including a friend who caught it at an early (early!) screening this morning. He said that it's pretty balanced, showing both the evils of Palestinian terrorism and the evils of Israeli vengeance. "What kind of Jew is Spielberg anyway?" someone asked..."Isn't he pro-Israel?"

As for me personally, I don't see why being pro-Israel neccessarily means that you are pro-murder. Can't you be in favor of the continued safety of the State of Israel and also opposed to the idea of employing mercenaries to hunt down criminals and kill them? Is it so unbelievable to find state-sponsored killing unsavory?

But, then again, I bristle at the notion that Jews, by definition, have to favor kicking Palestinians off land they have occupied for hundreds of years, treating them like second-class citizens and keeping them in grim camps, doomed to a life of subjugation and cyclical poverty. So I'm just in the minority overall.