This isn’t exactly the best character witness but I think it is interesting nonetheless.
Before he died Wednesday evening, death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop apologized to his victim’s family, thanked America and urged people to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
“For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice,” Bishop said.
Bishop, 34, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:14 p.m. – the second inmate put to death in Mississippi in two months. Earl Wesley Berry, 49, was executed May 21.
I’m pretty sure that Bishop’s endorsement will not win over many voters in Mississippi, or any place else. But there is something poignant about a man’s last words being about ending the practice of capital punishment.
that Obama was against capital punishment.
Maybe your should read what the inmate said just a little bit closer.
Obama’s “supporters”, however, are not running for the presidency.
so you dismiss his point?
That’s certainly your right.
that there’s more of a chance to end the legalized murder of capital punishment under an Obama administration than a McCain administration?
In that he’s probably correct.
But it’s still damned unlikely with a candidate who either doesn’t oppose it or lacks the balls to SAY he opposes it.
but by far most of his supporters oppose it, and they are the ones getting seeded into government, gaining experience for higher positions later, etc.
We do not elect a man or woman, we elect a gang. This guy may have been a murderer but he wasn’t stupid.
This is actually what scares me the most about the Bush admin. Think of all those jackasses from Liberty U that are now ‘seasoned gvmt employees’ that have ‘experience’ who are now going to go off and work in all sorts of places, and come back in the next R admin, whenever that may be….
He basically legitimized these assholes. That is going to hurt for generations to come.
Just as Alito and Roberts are toxicating the Supreme Court for the next 30 years. Ugh!
.
At least for the time being during his campaign.
The Democratic presidential candidate argued that the high court had gone too far in restricting the powers of the states. If the court had “said we want to constrain the abilities of states to do this to make sure that it’s done in a careful and appropriate way, that would have been one thing. But it basically had a blanket prohibition and I disagree with that decision.”
On the death penalty case, Obama and McCain came down on the same side.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."This sounds like being a little bit pregnant!
I had hoped that the US would finally give up capital punishement – as it also puts it on the same level as Saudi Arabia and Iran.
EU Slams Iran Stoning as Report Shows Spike in Executions | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 24.07.2008
He’s not, but his supporters are working to end the practice. Therefore, vote for Obama to end capitol punishment. Get it? Uh huh….
I consider myself to be an Arch Liberal, but I am conflicted about the death penalty.
I am generally opposed to it in principal, but then, like I walked through the Holocaust museum, and the only thought in my mind was, that we didn’t kill enough of the bastards (Nazi’s that is)…..
This is the one issue where I struggle the most, being honestly conflicted. For almost every other issue, I am sure I am correct, and everyone else is wrong 🙂
Would we call it even at 6 million, eh?
That rationale is a very good reason to oppose the death penalty. Because that is not meting out a penalty, that is exacting vengeance. I can sympathize with your thought, trust me. But no where in the Constitution is anyone empowered to act out of vengeance. And killing someone is killing someone. By knife or lethal injection. In an act of depraved human indifference or the sterility and formality of a government funded execution chamber.
It’s amazing that he had the presence of mind to make this statement given what he was about to face.
Exactly. The death penalty is despicable, primitive. The countries that don’t have it (EU, etc.) are certainly not worse off. So what’s the point of the death penalty? So what’s the point of so much crime?
I’ve long been advocating a system where in capital cases, the judge and jury would be subject to the death penalty if evidence is subsequently unearthed that proves their judgement incorrect. That would put a stop to capital punishment mighty fast….
In 2004, I saw several obituaries along the lines of “in lieu of sending flowers, vote Democratic.”
(Capital punishment is always wrong.)
I wonder if it is really that rare of an experience to have a death row inmate come out against capital punishment?