The capital defender was looking for people to speak to the defence, to give impact statements, so my husband wanted to speak out in favour of him not getting the death penalty. He was one of 13 people who gave impact statements for the defence team. Three dozen did it for the prosecution. Their statements were all highly emotional and draining, because the prosecution wanted to get the sympathy of the jury. When the 13 defence witnesses testified, they said they could see the jury tense up. The result was that one juror voted against the death penalty, so the defendant got life imprisonment without parole. Hes still alive, and where theres life theres hope. But look at what has happened in the last 13 years: warrantless arrests. Drone strikes. The stain on our reputation that is Guantanamo, a place Ive visited and written about. Theres a terrible problem with Islamaphobia; we dont have profiling of white, blue-eyed men in this country, and yet we have extremists in every community. Its in the names of the victims of 9/11 that this bias is maintained. And then there was the campaign by Bush and Blair, which made the grieving process worse – the feeling of our sons life being exploited for prejudice. A family member of 9/11 victim who ended up arguing to keep one of the highjackers from getting the death penalty. -M
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:32:56 +0000