The 'Other' Execution Tonight—Man Who Dragged James Byrd, Jr. To His Death

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/163536/other-execution-tonight%E2%80%94man-who-dragged-james-byrd-jr-his-death

If you are inclined to question capital punishment, it is not hard to protest the scheduled execution tonight of Troy Davis in Georgia. His case contains much doubt about his guilt, and the racial aspect (black man as victim of white-dominated justice system in the former Confederacy) is undeniable. What really tests a principled position against the death penalty are cases like Lawrence Brewer.

That's why I was happy to receive, just a few minutes ago, an email from the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Of course, it calls for last-minute action to save Davis. But it also includes this key section:

"We should also note the odd juxtaposition of the two executions scheduled for exactly the same time this evening. At 7pm EDT in Georgia, racism plays a part in the execution of Troy Davis. At 6pm CDT in Texas, Lawrence Brewer is to be executed for his participation in the infamous racist hate crime dragging murder of James Byrd in Jasper, TX in 1998. Please join NCADP in opposing the executions of both men. We stand against all executions without reservation."

The Brewer case certainly tests one principles (as did, for example, the McVeigh case). There is the matter of the brutality of the crime. Not only was it racist in origin but evidence suggests Byrd was alive for most of the ordeal, losing body parts as he was dragged and ultimately decapitated. Then there is the fact that Brewer (and at least one of his colleagues, also on death row) was a white supremacist.

[bluestateguy]

1. Troy Davis is who we need to be concerned about right now

and that's where my attention will remain focused.

[ChandlerJr]

9. Like that situational ethics deal, right? n/t

[donheld]

50. Like one we know is guilty, and one we don't.

That makes a huge difference.

[roguevalley]

44. both need saving. either that or we are nothing but asshats just like

the others.

[MarianJack]

2. I Have a Cousin Who Is...

...a proud racist and a contemptable human being who uses that hateful "N" word with impunity (except around me). This horse's patoot thought that the murder of James Byrd was a good thing.

Personally, I agree with the OP that some death penalty cases are going to test your principles. I have no coubt that little ricky perry will see this execution as a chance to show "dem colered folks" that he really isn't a bigot at all. Yeh, right.

PEACE!

[tblue]

3. I remain 100% opposed to the death penalty for anybody.

Life at hard labor for Byrd's murderers is fine with me.

[yardwork]

5. Agreed.

[Swede]

16. Agree 100%.

nt

[RandomKoolzip]

21. +1. State-sanctioned murder is still murder.

[malaise]

23. Ditto n/t

[patrice]

24. Strongly agreed!

[Dennis Donovan]

30. agreed!

[Parker CA]

35. +1.

[smokey nj]

37. I remain opposed to it as well.

[geardaddy]

40. Agree 100%

[Hell Hath No Fury]

42. +1

That man has no business being out amongst civilized people -- life without parole is the suitable punishment.

[LynneSin]

53. We can't protests Davis' execution while cheering on Brewers

And although I am pretty sure Davis did not kill that cop and I'm pretty sure that Brewer did drag James Byrd to his death - I still find no reason to protest the death penalty in case while supporting it in another.

[aikoaiko]

4. I'm fine with Brewer dieing expeditiously.

Heinous crime, certainty of agency, and no compelling mitigating circumstance.

His execution is justice served.

Troy Davis, not so much.

[Richardo]

15. My only regret is that they're not going to chain him to a pickup truck and drag him to death

[itsallhappening]

18. The Taliban needs you!

[Richardo]

31. Don't need them - I'd hook him up and put it in 'Drive' myself.

[RZM]

43. Wouldn't that constitute 'cruel and unusual punishment?'

I'm fine with this guy dying by the hand of the state tonight. But I'm glad they aren't doing it in such a heinous fashion. By tomorrow he will no longer be on this earth. Isn't that enough?

[NOMOREDRUGWAR]

45. hint

your home rhymes with treeperville.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Richardo]

33. I don't know what that means.

[Logical]

27. Wow.....fail!

[aikoaiko]

39. And what part do you think is failing. Do you wish to execute Troy Davis?

Was the crime not heinous?

Are we not certain of who did it?

Are they any compelling mitigating circumstances?

Are you simply opposed to any application of the death penalty?

[Hippo_Tron]

49. Were you there, did you see it yourself?

If not, how can you be 100% certain that he's guilty?

[aikoaiko]

55. One reason, because he said he was there and has no regrets.

Although he said he was just getting a ride with friends.

[hlthe2b]

6. Brewer should rot in jail for the rest of his miserable life...

I have no problem being consistent in my opposition to death penalty, though clearly there are relative degrees of revulsion that I share with respect to those condemned and a Lawrence Brewer is among the worst.

[Raine]

7. Should be interesting to see what Perry does when a racist is up. nt

[WillyT]

8. Recommend !!!

:kick: & Rec !!!

[KG]

10. no test of principles for me - no death penalty.

not for davis, byrd, mcveigh.

[Botany]

11. I am against the D.P. because it costs too much, takes too

.... long, and the people who get it (the D.P.) tend to be poor and in some case have poor legal
consul but I will not shed a tear for Lawrence Brewer and I hope that the "tie down team" @ the
state pen is made up of African Americans.



"I have no regrets," Brewer said during his interview. "I'd do it all over again to tell you the truth."

Read more: http://www.kfdm.com/articles/brewer-44865-byrd-scheduled.html#ixzz1YbG7j3wc

[northoftheborder]

13. I have grave doubts about the constitutionality of the death penalty....

.....because of the weaknesses in our justice system. But in a case like Brewer's, there has been no doubt that he did this terrible awful crime, and he deserves to die now, in my opinion.

[Botany]

14. The real facts are gut wrenching.

Summary of incident
Brewer was convicted in the murder of a black male occurring on 06/07/98. The offense involved Brewer and two co-defendants torturing and killing a
49-year old handicapped black male during the nighttime hours, in rural Jasper County, Texas. The victim was observed in the back of a pickup truck
occupied by Brewer and his co-defendants. This was the last occasion the victim was seen alive by persons other than Brewer and his co-defendants.
Brewer and his co-defendants drove to an isolated spot on a logging road where they beat and tormented the victim, then tied him to a logging chain,
which was hooked to the pickup truck. Brewer and his co-defendants then dragged the victim to his death, leaving his decapitated and dismembered
body to be found the following day by citizens and law enforcement officials. It was argued in court that Brewer and his co-defendants engaged in this
criminal act, in part, due to their racially separatist affiliation with the Confederate Knights of America and the Ku Klux Klan. Brewer and one co-defendant
were documented members of the Confederate Knights of America and a large number of Ku Klux Klan and other racial separatist organization paraphernalia
was discovered in a residence occupied by the three.

[frazzled]

12. I oppose the death penalty with no exceptions

Therefore I oppose the execution of Lawrence Brewer. He is a horrible individual who, with no doubt, committed a pernicious and horrific crime. He is a man filled with hate and rancor. But the state is an institution, not a human endowed with (sometimes failed, sometimes noble) beliefs and emotions. When the institution of the state kills (whether the accused is guilty or not) it is not justice. It is revenge. Revenge is for humans, not for governments.

[Township75]

17. I wonder if the Tea Party splits on their feelings about the 2 executions like people do here.

Maybe they are more principled.

[RZM]

19. I highly doubt it

I'm sure most are all about executing both of them. Executing Byrd's killers is actually marginally beneficial to Republicans when it comes to race and hate crimes issues, because it can be used as evidence that they are more than happy to execute racist whites.

[Township75]

20. I doubt it too. Maybe that is why they are a much more potent in politics then anything you

would find here.

[crazyjoe]

32. Ouch.....

[Zax2me]

46. Probably. There are split feelings between the two HERE.

opposite sides.

[patrice]

22. Life-without-parole is an affiirmation of American values.Loss of Freedom is the Ultimate Punishment

Every affirmation of the value of life in the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Pledge of Allegiance bespeaks values that are intrinsic to human life itself, no qualifications, no conditions, no ifs, ands, nor buts, human life. Period.

People who are against Life-without-parole on the grounds that it is too expensive have made money the measure of life, they are, thus, antithetical to American values.

People who are against Life-without-parole on the grounds of revenge, punishment, or a life for a life, have made their own judgements about culpability and guilt the measure of all human life. Aside from the religious point that this position is blasphemous, an authentic guilt standard would recognize the myriad ways in which the "innocent" participate in whatever harm is at issue, for how can anyone say that the burden of the responsibility belongs to the guilty, if, as much as possible, other factors affecting the harmful situation have not been mitigated? Yes, I know some of those other factors are judged "in-significant", too small to matter, but, IF GUILT IS THE STANDARD, what guilt do we assess to those who COULD do small things, acts that are EASILY accomplished, what guilt do we assess for easy behaviors, behaviors that COULD collectively mitigate harmful situations, and yet these easy actions are rejected, we refuse our responsibility for how we might affect, how we might save, those who already are weakened by carrying burdens much much heavier than our own.

Maybe thinking about "the butterfly effect" will help explain what I'm trying to describe here. Imagine a world in which everyone lives mindfully, a world in which each individual freely accepts the responsibilities for how who they are, everything they do, how they do it, when they act, everything, which is living the unique totality of their identity and how it affects the world and all life in it, is an active part of their awareness. Is it possible that if people lived this way, someone like Lawrence Brewer would be a different sort of person?

I cannot say absolutely that Lawrence Brewer would be different, only that with more people living the being that each of us uniquely is with more awareness, there is more probability that Lawrence Brewer would have had different opportunities and, therefore, would have made different choices. Maybe that would have added up to a different night on that country road in Texas, maybe it would have not, but if personal responsibility is in fact so important that we'd actually consider doing something as horrible as the Death Penalty because of its importance, perhaps we'd ought to make that value authentic by living it honestly ourselves.

I know some will say, "Well, that's just NOT the way things are." True, so what this adds up to in the case of Lawrence Brewer is that our own responsibilities to LIFE require that he receive Life-without-parole and I personally think it would be useful and good for LB to have dignified work, the benefits of which would go into a victims' fund. Restorative Justice such as this could also be accompanied by some means of offering LB opportunities to grow & to develop his own awareness of the responsibilities that give authentic value to not only his own life, but also (and perhaps there could even be special focus in such Restorative programs on this) to that of the uniquely valuable person known as James Byrd. In a sense, a program like this could be James Byrd giving Lawrence Brewer his life back and thus re-creating the Justice that Lawrence Brewer destroyed.

Sat nam!

[MicaelS]

41. I could support "Life-without-parole" as long as

Certain criminals were incarcerated for Life in Solitary Confinement with no possibility of Parole, EVER. I don't want certain criminals, murderers for instance, in the general population where they could murder a guard or another inmate who might be in prison for a non-violent drug crime, or an economic crime like writing bad checks. And I think attempting rehabilitation of certain criminals is waste of time and money.

You want to end all executions in this country, then get a Constitutional Amendment passed, or persuade SCOTUS to declare in Unconstitutional.

A better alternative to putting and end to it might be to REQUIRE the President to sign EVERY death warrant.

[patrice]

25. BTW, I'm not sure about this comparison, since Troy Davis is innocent. nt

[crazyjoe]

28. You have no way of knowing that. You may believe it, hope for it, and that's

fine.
I personally hope he is guilty, only because it appears the state of Georgia is going to kill him regardless of the support for a new trial. And I would hate to see an innocent man murdered by the state.

[EFerrari]

52. There are only 2 witnesses who haven't recanted.

One is Red Coles, the man who probably is guilty.

There was more than reasonable doubt. There was a three level parking garage area of doubt in this case.

[crazyjoe]

57. I understand, he should have been givin a new trial. But lets be

honest here, 7 witnesses changed their story? either they lied in the first place, or they are lieing now. Either way, givin the the publicity of this case, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some witness intimidation here. Hell, I may have recanted too if my life or the life of my family was threatened.
I doubt the policed forced 9 people to lie about a murder case, I seriously doubt it. one or two, maybe, but nine? no way! What i don't doubt, is those witnesses were threatened to change their story. Troy davis didn't exactly pal around with choir boys.
Before you jump all over me, I'm not saying troy was guilty, and i do think he should have got a new trial.
All this is my opinion, but I gotta go with what makes more sense. So like I said, to say he is innocent is something the poster can't know, that's all I was saying.

[EFerrari]

58. Oh, no, I won't jump all over you.

That's a good question. Why did so many recant? Well, the truth seems to be that most of those folks had rap sheets in the first place, which made them vulnerable. Then, as the years roll on, more people come forward and give conflicting testimony.

The thing is, Davis was not a boy scout, that's true. But he couldn't force, from his cell, all those people and all the information that has come out to go his way. He wasn't in a gang, he didn't have troops to back him up or defend him. But the truth dribbled out some as the years have gone by, no thanks to the system.

This Redd Coles character, the one who first went to the police and fingered Davis, confessed to the crime and then threatened the lady he mouthed off to, she had to leave Savannah. There are layers and layers of things like that in this case. And none of them make Davis more guilty but only less.

What we have here is a case that was decided solely on eye witness testimony that subsequently evaporated.

That doesn't exonerate Davis but it makes killing him an act of extreme irresponsibility.

And let's face it, Troy Davis was not important to a single person with any power to set this case right. So he's dead, what do they care? The LEO community is pacified, the state got paid for housing him, the Supreme Court pretended that they gave a damn for about a minute. Troy Davis was disposable, just as most of us are.

[RZM]

38. Is that really the argument?

I thought that the argument was that the evidence presented at trial and subsequent changes witnesses have made to their stories mean that the standard of 'guilt beyond a reasonable doubt' has not been met and he should get a new trial. That's not the same as saying he didn't do it. There's no way for you or I to know if he did it or not.

I have no legal training, so I really can't say whether or not he deserves a new trial under the standards of the law. My personal opinion is that he probably does, but given my lack of knowledge about the law, how much does an armchair opinion like mine really matter?

I think part of this is just semantics and perception. 'Free Troy Davis' and 'He's innocent' are a lot snappier than 'Given the nature of the evidence presented at trial and the subsequent recanting of witness testimony, I deem it prudent that the execution of Troy Davis be halted so that he may be given a new trial.'

[Pithlet]

29. We allow this to happen, we get cases like Troy Davis.

As long as we have the DP "for the 100% guilty cases", we also get the Troy Davis cases. They happen because of politics. Can't have one without the other with our justice system. It's not worth it.

[bullwinkle428]

34. I'd rather see this bastard (Brewer) spend the rest of his natural life

behind bars, thinking about what he did to put himself in the position he now finds himself in.

[Abq_Sarah]

51. From media reports

He knows what he did, he's proud of what he did and given the opportunity, he'd do it all again.

[ScreamingMeemie]

54. From media reports...James Byrd's son was against the execution.

What then??

[Chan790]

36. I oppose capital punishment.

Execute neither, give Troy his new trial and give Brewer a pickaxe, a big rock and the 115'F summer heat of W.TX.

Brewer might not regret what he did, but he'd regret not being executed for 10+ hours a day every day until the day he drops dead.

If in a full review of facts and evidence in a new trial, Davis is found guilty...there's plenty of long sunny summer days and rocks in GA too.

[WildEyedLiberal]

47. This asshole isa good example of why I'm not wholesale anti-DP

If we saved it for special shitstains like him instead of executing every poor black guy accused of capital murder, then the system might be justifiable.

[cabot]

48. He should have been kept alive

and forced to live with his crime every day of his life. Now, he's free. Life in prison without parole should have been his sentence. Maybe he could have changed the type of person he was and realized the gravity of his crime.

[aikoaiko]

56. Or, if kept in prison, the Brotherhood would have treated him like a rock star.

One can never underestimate the joy the depraved find in depravity.

:shrug:

[sabrina 1]

59. I am against it, I don't care who it is.

We do not accomplish anything by becoming what we claim to abhor.