In the state of South Carolina, Friday came to an end. Freddy Owens and injected him with a chemical commonly used to euthanize pets. In the days before his execution, a key witness against him admitted to perjuring himself in court to save himself, saying Owens had nothing to do with the 1999 murder for which he was convicted. But it didn’t matter. Owens, known as Khalil the Black Sun God, was executed.
Missouri officials are preparing for execution. Marcelo Williams on Tuesday. Two of the witnesses against him are known liars, and bloody footprints and hair samples found at the scene did not belong to him or the victim of the fatal 2001 stabbing he was convicted of. DNA samples from the murder weapon were not tested because prosecutors handled the knife without gloves, contaminating the evidence. Missouri’s governor overturned the earlier ruling and ordered the board to investigate the case. But the new governor has disbanded the board and terminated its tenure.
Earlier this month, prosecutors offered to commute Williams’ sentence to life in prison if he pleaded guilty, and the condemned man agreed, despite insisting he had nothing to do with the crime. The court accepted the deal, but it was thrown out on appeal. So, despite the lack of physical evidence linking Williams to the murder, and against the objections of prosecutors and the victim’s family, the execution went ahead.
In Texas they prepare to kill Roberto Roberson next month. Roberson was convicted of murdering her 2-year-old son in 2002 based on the controversial “shaken baby syndrome” hypothesis, widely dismissed as junk science. In the days before the boy’s death, he had a high fever and was prescribed an antihistamine by an emergency doctor, which can cause life-threatening breathing difficulties in young children.
When Roberson brought him back to the emergency room, law enforcement officials did not like his behavior (unresponsive and distant) and concluded that it was evidence of possible guilt. proof of your autism.
The detective who testified against him now realizes this and begs forgiveness so that Roberson will not be executed for a crime he did not commit or that did not even happen because evidence shows the boy suffered from pneumonia and septic shock and died.
But Roberson is still executed for shaking.
Capital punishment and capital punishment, even for true murderers, are vestiges of primitive societies where leaders and their subordinates were ritually executed to atone for perceived evil, appease the gods, and allay fears of social chaos.
So what happens when witnesses, police, prosecutors and judges admit that their testimony or previous conclusions are wrong and that the defendant is innocent, and the death penalty is carried out anyway?
They cross the line between civilization and savagery, criminal justice and black magic, responsibility and ritual human sacrifice. They become false religions, depending on totems like “shaken baby syndrome” and shamanic revelation—for example, the suspect looked guilty. They spread superstitions, such as the magical claim that murder will prevent future crimes. They satisfy our primal need for guilt and punishment and our illusion of moral purification.
What they cannot accept is the illusion that our society is just and kind. The appetite for blame and anger is strong, and it repeatedly attacks our efforts to become a brighter, more humane and modern nation. Outgoing President Biden promised as a candidate to abolish federal death penalties, but he failed to deliver.
Former President Trump, who is seeking reelection, repeated this week She long term requirements to quickly execute drug traffickers.
But even when we kill the guilty, we are unnecessarily cruel. When we kill an innocent person, we make a mockery of ourselves and our supposed devotion to justice.
