If You Take Away the Death Penalty, There's Justice All Around

„I know of no one, not one normal individual that you will meet, who does not want the murderer of a police officer to be captured, tried and, if convicted, punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, a punishment that does not extend to killing the convicted. And, as has been stated by anti-death penalty advocates ad infinitum, this has little to do with opposition to any »eye for an eye« sentiments. It has to do specifically with the misapplication of the death penalty in terms of race, in terms of the potency of court-appointed counsel and in terms of the admission of DNA evidence in cases where tragically slipshod work by police and prosecutors is undone by modern technology. The embarrassing discovery of which then carries very damaging consequences for those at fault. If you don't believe that there is a good deal of petty politics involved in the life and death arena of capital punishment, think again.

I am not Mike Farrell, a great and tireless advocate against the death penalty whose work with Death Penalty Focus out in California has made him a personal hero of mine. The advocacy work I have undertaken over the past several years has not included an overwhelming amount of commitment to opposing capital punishment. In the past, I joined a number of artists and performers who supported a new trial for Mumia Abu Jamal. That position came with an equivalent amount of condemnation and vitriol similar to the Davis Case. Again, involving a police officer. Not one person I worked with back then said Mumia was innocent. They said hey weren't sure. And, therefore, believed he did not deserve to die.”