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I read up on the last several men the federal government rushed to put to death this past month.
Sister Helen is 100% right. None of the defendants would have come anywhere near a death penalty had they had money and privilege.
1/
Take the person executed last night: Dustin Higgs.
Higgs, another man and a woman were involved in the murder of two people. The trio had picked the victims up and taken them to a desolate area where they were shot.
2/
The reasons for the shooting were unclear. To make their case, prosecutors offered a deal to Higgs’ two associates: testify that Higgs had orchestrated the killing and they would be charged with lesser offenses.
So, the two did.
3/
The man testified that he had actually been the shooter and had murdered the two women - but had been told to do so by Higgs.
The actual murderer avoided the death penalty. The other associate got a lighter sentence.
4/
I entirely 1,000% believe that prosecutors would have never even pursued the death penalty had Higgs had intimidating counsel.
Epstein got a walk for a boatload of crimes, in part, because prosecutors were intimidated of the fight they’d face.
5/
Sister Helen is 100% right. None of the defendants would have come anywhere near a death penalty had they had money and privilege.
1/
The death penalty is fundamentally a poor person\u2019s issue. Over nearly 40 years of visiting death row facilities across the United States, I have never met a single person with money or resources. Capital punishment means \u201cthose without the capital get the punishment.\u201d
— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) January 16, 2021
Take the person executed last night: Dustin Higgs.
Higgs, another man and a woman were involved in the murder of two people. The trio had picked the victims up and taken them to a desolate area where they were shot.
2/
The reasons for the shooting were unclear. To make their case, prosecutors offered a deal to Higgs’ two associates: testify that Higgs had orchestrated the killing and they would be charged with lesser offenses.
So, the two did.
3/
The man testified that he had actually been the shooter and had murdered the two women - but had been told to do so by Higgs.
The actual murderer avoided the death penalty. The other associate got a lighter sentence.
4/
I entirely 1,000% believe that prosecutors would have never even pursued the death penalty had Higgs had intimidating counsel.
Epstein got a walk for a boatload of crimes, in part, because prosecutors were intimidated of the fight they’d face.
5/
I'm going to knock out that white supremacy & abortion discourse thread for you today, but before I can get to that, we've got to talk about the 'religion' issue.
Some people are reacting to the Capitol and Christianity in the worst possible way - ethically and strategically.
Several people responded to Christian Identity / white supremacist theology thread with calls to eradicate religion.
Let's just get one thing out of the way:
1) that won't ever happen
2) you're assuming religion is the problem (spoiler; it's
Not only do non-religious ideologies prove equally lethal, but in many cases, religious observance - like regular attendance of mosques, for example - is inversely correlated with political violence.
Also: generalizations are always a very bad idea; they lack analytic depth.
I also had people read the Christian Identity thread, and then write to me to ask:
"I heard a politician open his/her remarks with the name of God / Jesus, and it worried me. Is he/she a Nazi?"
Okay, let me stop you RIGHT there.
The answer here is not “every Christian politician is a Christian identity Nazi, and every mention of ‘the words ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’ is the ‘Christian Taliban’” (or whatever Islamophobic term is in current use).
That ain't it.
For a couple of reasons.
Some people are reacting to the Capitol and Christianity in the worst possible way - ethically and strategically.
Several people responded to Christian Identity / white supremacist theology thread with calls to eradicate religion.
Let's just get one thing out of the way:
1) that won't ever happen
2) you're assuming religion is the problem (spoiler; it's
Brief thread on the white supremacist Christian Identity theology you asked in response to this thread.
— The Provost / \u0633\u064a\u062f\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0641\u062a\u0646\u0629 (@MsEntropy) January 15, 2021
Incoming. https://t.co/TM4pDI3jcC
Not only do non-religious ideologies prove equally lethal, but in many cases, religious observance - like regular attendance of mosques, for example - is inversely correlated with political violence.
Also: generalizations are always a very bad idea; they lack analytic depth.
I also had people read the Christian Identity thread, and then write to me to ask:
"I heard a politician open his/her remarks with the name of God / Jesus, and it worried me. Is he/she a Nazi?"
Okay, let me stop you RIGHT there.
The answer here is not “every Christian politician is a Christian identity Nazi, and every mention of ‘the words ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’ is the ‘Christian Taliban’” (or whatever Islamophobic term is in current use).
That ain't it.
For a couple of reasons.