Delivering the Death Blow

Hotep,

Every sunrise is a fresh start.  At least that’s how I choose to view it, but I can’t front, some days, I just don’t want to come out of my cell, those days where I feel as though I just can’t win.  Na mean?

Does anybody remember the old school kung fu flix?  The protagonist is always some cat who lives to avoid trouble, but then some drastic chain of events changes his perspective on life, and he eventually becomes the hero that everyone knew he was destined to become.  

At some point in his story, he must endure an unforgivable beat down by his nemesis.  The nemesis leaves him for dead, after delivering what was believed to be a death blow.  Well, at this moment, I feel like that protagonist, left for dead, a cautionary tale, to be.  Feel me?

Ask yourself:  Who is this individual who delivers the death blow to the person, sentenced to die by a jury of his peers?

Jerry Givens, a recovering executioner has come forward since the state sanctioned, premeditated murder of Georgia death row prisoner, Troy Davis.  “I had to transform myself into a person who would take a life.  That transformation might linger for a while.” Jerry’s words, not mine.  Real talk. 

Jerry Givens is a 59 year old man, tortured by his former duties as an executioner in the state of Virginia.  In 17 years, Jerry put 62 men to death and each time, he felt what he calls, “the executioner high.”  A state of mind in which he convinces himself that there will be no moral accountability for the life that was about to be extinguished.

Jerry has thrown the switch that sends thousands of volts through the human anatomy, to carry out a death sentence.  He’s also pulled the lever that releases the fatal cocktail of three drugs that brings about the same results.  For some reason, he finds electrocution more humane.  Real talk.

Allen Ault is the dean of the College of Justice and Safety at Eastern Kentucky University.  He shares a theory about cats like Jerry:  “The executioner is the one who suffers.  The person that carries out the execution itself is stuck with it the rest of his life.  He has to wear that burden.  Who wants that on them?”

This post isn’t about judgment or ridicule.  It’s cold, hard facts about what the death penalty is doing to society, as a whole. You’re not just killing someone who you believe to be the worst of the worst, every time Jerry carried out an execution, a part of him died.

There have been 35 executions in the 15 years I’ve been on North Carolina’s death row.  Jerry’s death toll nearly doubles that in a 17 year span.  Word is bond!

“You take an innocent life – that means I committed murder.” Does that sound like the words of someone convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all 62 condemned men, were indeed guilty of a heinous, atrocious, and cruel act of murder?  I don’t think so.

The blood of Troy Davis – and those who face a similar fate – could be tormenting someone you know, someone who has, or will be delivering the death blow.  Ya heard?  R.I.P. Troy Davis.

One Love,

MannofStat

Copyright © 2012 by Leroy Elwood Mann