Despite their devotion to God, the majority of Republicans still support the death penalty. The United States happens to be one of the only countries in the world still practicing this ancient barbaric style of execution. Not to defend the guilty savages that some of these prisoners are, but what disturbs me is that since 1976, twenty five prisoners on Illinois’ death row were found to be innocent due to DNA testing. 13 were released but 12 had already been executed. This is only one state. How many more innocent people died in the death penalty capital of Texas? Want some more disturbing statistics? 75% of all people on death row are non-white and more than 75% of all executions since 1976 took place in southern states. Is slavery still alive in the south? Certainly not in the obvious physical sense, but how about in other ways? Think about it. Lack of education, lack of community support, lack of guidance, lack of government funding, lack of proper criminal defense.
Speaking of Texas, the capital of capital punishment, the state executed 18 people in a span of thirteen years from 1982 to 1995. In just six years from 1995 to 2001, Governor G.W. Bush signed a record 152 executions! And the majority of executions— black and Hispanic. Governor Death also vetoed legislation to provide funding for legal defense for the poor. In a 1999 Talk Magazine interview, Bush went as far as impersonating a mentally retarded woman he executed, “Please don’t kill me,” he pleaded with a grin.
Bush’s executions have also continued over into his presidency, which includes the first televised execution in U.S. history on 6/11/01 and the executions of several Gulf War veterans, one of which had suffered brain damage as a result of exposure to nerve gas. While the crimes of the guilty are unforgivable, Bush has not only stooped to the level of these criminals, but he has also done them a favor by relieving them of their punishments.
If executing people on death row wasn’t enough, Bush used his radicalism as president to start a war and kill thousands. Bush made the claim that God, of course, told him to invade Iraq. He even confessed this to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003. Shaath, now the Palestinian Information Minister, said President Bush said, “I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan,’ and I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq,’ and I did. Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, recalled how Bush told him, “I have a moral and religious obligation.” Isn’t it wonderful to have the grim reaper in the White House?
