fuck america

From the ECONOMIST

Capital punishment in America
Justice, delayed and denied
A harrowing report from South Carolina

Feb 18th 2012 | from the print edition

Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong. By Raymond Bonner. Knopf; 298 pages; $26.95. To be published in Britain in March; £17.99.

WHAT sort of town was Greenwood, South Carolina in the early 1980s? It was the kind of place where a prominent white man could get away with shooting and killing a black man who walked across his property at night. When the local chief prosecutor, William T. Jones, brought the case before a grand jury, he was not looking for an indictment. Surely anyone would have behaved the same way under the circumstances, he argued. Surely, he told the jurors, they too would have picked up a shotgun. The grand jury did not indict.

A few months later Jones persuaded the same grand jury to indict Edward Lee Elmore, a 23-year-old black man, for the murder of Dorothy Edwards, a 75-year-old white woman. She was found inside her bedroom closet, bruised and repeatedly stabbed. Mr Elmore was sentenced to death less than 90 days later. This grim case is the subject of “Anatomy of Injustice”, a gripping and enraging book from Raymond Bonner, a veteran investigative journalist at the New York Times. Mr Elmore would spend 27 years on death row, despite strong circumstantial evidence suggesting that he did not commit the crime. His capital sentence was ultimately overturned thanks to the tireless efforts of Diana Holt, his lawyer and the book’s hero, who spent more than a decade seeking justice on his behalf.
In this section

Mentally disabled and barely literate, Mr Elmore was 14 years old when he dropped out of school. He could add and subtract using his fingers, but he could not tell the time, he did not know the seasons and he could not understand directions. He became a neighbourhood handyman, and he cleaned Edwards’s gutters and washed her windows two weeks before she was killed. He was arrested because his fingerprint was found at her house.

At his trial, Mr Elmore was given two lawyers. One was known as the “bourbon cowboy”. He was twice arrested for drunk driving, and his breath smelled of alcohol in court. The other lawyer referred to his client as a “redheaded nigger”. They had Mr Elmore testify, a rarity in murder trials, and they called no other witnesses. The judge dismissed four potential jurors because of their opposition to capital punishment. (This judge later served on South Carolina’s Supreme Court, and landed in some hot water by professing to find racist jokes inoffensive and funny.) It took the jury less than three hours to convict Mr Elmore, and an additional 50 minutes to sentence him to death.

But Mr Elmore did not die in jail. After the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that states could not execute the mentally disabled, his sentence was commuted to life in prison, where he still sits. Opponents of capital punishment may be familiar with arguments about its expense, unjust application and inefficacy as a deterrent. But it is another thing entirely to read about patently biased judges, policemen who lie under oath (and may well have planted evidence) and bloodthirsty prosecutors.

In telling Mr Elmore’s story, Mr Bonner deftly weaves in a brief history of American capital punishment and its discontents. Following a brief moratorium in 1972, when the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty’s application violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, it was reinstated in 38 states from 1976. By 2010, 1,226 more executions had taken place, 1,010 of them in the South. Most of these executed inmates have been black; a vast majority of the victims in capital cases were white. But Mr Bonner’s book is not a treatise against the death penalty. Rather, it is a dismal look at what happens in America’s justice system when justice is absent.

i need to freaking grow up.
(and no, i am not referring to my pink, lite up phone and love of uglydolls and tofu heads and tendency to name plants and watch arthur. all those things will neva eva change).

the perfect saturday =)

which consisted of:

- yummy brunch at inspiration cafe, a great little socially conscious spot, while catching up with friends, including a special visitor (jessie!)
- a trip to the library
- a lazy walk in beautiful weather, with the bluest sky and lots of sunshine
- a visit to the neighborhood nursery to finally purchase these pretty little ones:

- cooking 된장찌개, which came out perfectly!
- cleaning my room
- watching three super interesting documentaries on pbs
- taking a nap
- catching up with my mom
- the newest edition of 'the economist'

i'm a simple creature :)

open letter to young warriors in chicago

Dear Young Warriors fighting the wrong wars! Killing each other is definitely played out. Being hurt from the lost of a love one was never cool.

Dear Young Warriors fighting the wrong war! I know that feeling, that frustration with life and needing to take it out on someone, any one. But....

We chose the dumbest things to go the hardest for. I remember seeing deaths over 8 ball jackets, Fila sneakers, and name plate chains. Deaths over "he say, she say"!!!!! "I'm from this block or I'm from that block", or "my moms n pops is f*cked up now the whole world gotta pay"!!!

I remember feeling like I was the hardest "n*gga" breathing. And I couldn't wait to prove it. But let's think. What are we really proving?? And proving what to who?? Everybody knows Chicago breeds the strongest of the strong but I just feel, me, being ya brother from another state feels your pain as if I grew up with you in ya very own household.

You have the ability and mindpower to change they way we are looked at. Look who's watching us young warriors, look who's throwing us in jail constantly, look at the ignorance in the world. Look at the racist dogs who love to see us down. Loving to bury us in the ground or in jail where we continue this worthless war on one another.

Young warriors.... We are WASTING more and more time. We gotta get on our jobs and take over the world. Cuz this movie left the theaters years ago, Juice, Menace, Boys n the Hood , Blood n Blood Out, Belly!

When we see each other why do we see hatred? Why were we born in a storm, born soldiers, WARRIORS....and instead of building each other up we are at war with each other.. May the soul of this young person find peace with the almighty. I'm with you young warriors. You're me and I'm you. But trust me! you are fighting the wrong war.

-Nas

happy valentine's day!

most of my friends think valentine's day is pretty silly, a manufactured day in which men are sort of forced into buying gifts and chocolate and flowers for their fair lady. but i surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly, considering i'm pretty childish and cutesy) really, really enjoy this hallmark holiday. at its purest it's a day to celebrate love. and yes, those years when i HAVE had a valentine, i secretly daydreamed about what cute little surprises might be in store for me (i am extremely excitable and easy to please, by the way). this year i found myself looking into the future and imagining what valentine's day might be like when i'm with my husband. i think it will be really nice :) heeheehee.

happy valentine's day, everyone! hoping it's full of lots and lots of LOVE.

lake michigan

today i took a walk along lake michigan for the first time in a long time. i craved solitude to sort through some of the internal dialogue that's been crowding my mind this week. i have a tendency to almost obsessively dwell on things, and issues of love, family, work, faith have been pressing on my heart without rest.......

lake michigan in the winter is beautiful. there are spots along the walkway that have iced over as the waves splash upward and spray the concrete. the waves themselves are dark and fierce, and the sound of them crashing into each other drowned out my thoughts. as i walked and walked and walked while looking out at the endless blue, my mind was blissfully empty. i didn't think about anything, actually, the entire time, despite my intentions of plowing through some major bones. but by the time i reached home my heart felt overwhelmingly at peace. and i realized, once again, the importance of allowing yourself at times to be still, and silent, and engaged solely in the beauty of your surroundings. i'm blessed that for me these surroundings can so easily be a place as beautiful as lake michigan.