Pacing (or walking). The Shire.
Marrow – Ani DiFranco
You Got to Run – Buffy Sainte-Marie & Tanya Tagaq
Cakewalk – Awkwafina
Little David Play on Your Harp – Sweet Honey in the Rock
Taste of Ashes – Laurie Lewis
Tomorrow – Brittany Howard
Crowded Table – The Highwomen
Love Is Light – Yola
These Days – Nico
Aquis Mahasnik Biman – Rasha
Waltzing Matilda – Seona McDowell
Remember My Name – Yuna
Cry for Love – Zendaya
I Am Her – Shea Diamond
Gravelwalk – Eileen Ivers
Hands – Jewel
I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll – Alan Merrill
I’m Here – Cynthia Erivo – The Color Purple (the Playbill 30 Day Song Challenge – thanks Sean)
Tag Archives: Alabama
30 March 2020
In the shadow of execution
On April 3, 2015, Anthony Ray Hinton walked from a prison in Birmingham, a free man. Free after almost thirty years on death row. Thirty years spent in the shadow of execution – for a crime he did not commit.
The Death Penalty Information Center notes that Hinton is the 152nd person sentenced to death to be exonerated since 1973.
The New York Times cites two documented cases in which individuals who were almost certainly innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted were put to death.
The possibility of executing one innocent person should give us considerable pause. It provides a strong argument against capital punishment.
Speaking after Hinton’s release, “Bryan Stevenson, one of Mr. Hinton’s lawyers and the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, said Mr. Hinton’s right to justice had been limited as an impoverished black man.”
The racial and economic inequities in the application of justice in relation to provide additional arguments against capital punishment.
The exoneration of Anthony Ray Hinton and the others prove that the system does work, however long it may take the wheels to grind.
But when the sentence is death and serious inequities exist, the stakes are simply too high.
It is time to end the death penalty.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Capital Punishment, Current Events, Death Penalty
Four on the death penalty
From the United Nations News Centre:
11 October 2011 – The United Nations human rights office today said it is deeply distressed by the recent execution in Saudi Arabia of 10 men, eight of whom were foreign migrant workers, and called on the country to establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
From the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights:
“The death penalty is carried out in ways that violate international norms, such as the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as anti-discrimination standards,” said UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay in an opinion piece on the question of the death penalty.
From Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty (in Alabama):
Alabama has set October 20th 2011 as the execution date for Christopher T. Johnson. Christopher T. Johnson is what might be called a volunteer. At his trial he represented himself and asked the Court to impose the death penalty. The Court complied and in May Mr. Johnson filed a brief on his own behalf requesting that no further appeals should be filed for him.
Johnson has been convicted of killing his six-month old son – Elias Ocean Johnson. Reports are that he has admitted the crime. He has apparently refused to pursue any appeals and has filed court papers saying that he does not want anyone to file appeals on his behalf. My mind reels as I ponder his crime. And yet – his execution will not bring back Elias – his execution will diminish us as does any execution carried out by the state.
From the 190th General Assembly (1978), Presbyterian Church in the United States:
“Capital punishment is an expression of vengeance which contradicts the justice of God on the cross.”
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Capital Punishment, Death Penalty, Human Rights
Stay in Georgia, scheduled in Alabama
A judge in Georgia has ordered a stay of execution for Marcus Ray Johnson who was scheduled to be executed today. Johnson was found guilty of the murder of Angela Sizemore. Two factors appear to have played a role in the stay: “police in Albany presented Johnson’s defence team with a new box of evidence that has never before been examined. Johnson’s lawyers argued the box could change the understanding of the case.” In addition, the judge agreed to allow DNA testing to take place.
I pray for the family and friends of Angela Sizemore. I pray for the judges, attorneys, and others involved in the case. I pray for the Marcus Ray Johnson and his friends and family.
Christopher L. Johnson is scheduled for execution by the state of Alabama on October 20. Johnson has been convicted of killing his six-month old son – Elias Ocean Johnson. Reports are that he has admitted the crime. He has apparently refused to pursue any appeals and has filed court papers saying that he does not want anyone to file appeals on his behalf.
My mind reels as I ponder his crime. And yet – his execution will not bring back Elias – his execution will diminish us as does any execution carried out by the state.
I pray for those who loved (and still love) Elias Ocean Johnson. I pray for Christopher L. Johnson and his family and friends. I pray for the judges, attorneys, and others involved in the case.
May God have mercy on us all.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Capital Punishment, Death Penalty
Along the Graybeard Trail 