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Life in the Death Belt

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Wed Nov 09, 2005 at 04:11:15 PM EST
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The Denver Film Festival opens tomorrow and runs through November 20. If there's one film I hope people will see it is Fighting For Life in the Death Belt which will have its Colorado premiere on Thursday, November 17 at 6pm at Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli.

The film considers capital punishment in the U.S. through the eyes of Stephen Bright, who has served as the Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights for the past 20 years. Bright is a hero to the criminal defense bar for his unwavering commitment to defending death row inmates in the heart of the "death belt" - the Southern states where 90% of America's executions take place.

The film follows Bright and the Center's 11 lawyers and 10 investigators as they prepare for a capital trial in one case while fighting to save another client from execution. The trailer is here.

Stephen Bright and the directors, Adam Elend and Jeff Marks will be in attendance. So will 23 Denver criminal defense lawyers who are serving on the host committee for the event, including Pamela Mackey, David Lane, Lisa Wayne, David Kaplan, David Wymore, Norm Mueller, Kathleen Lord and me.

There is limited seating and reservations are strongly recommended.

Tickets: At www.denverfilm.org or at the Starz FilmCenter box office, 900 Auraria Parkway. For information, 303-534-1339.

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    Life in the Death Belt | 22 comments (22 topical)
    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:54 PM EST
    Very nice to see the Colorado Public Defenders Office properly represented. While the death penalty is available in Colorado, its virtually inoperative due in large part to the efforts of the PDs! Something of which we should be very proud.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#2)
    by Aaron on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:55 PM EST
    Stephen Bright is awesome. I met him during law school. His speech was inspiring, reminded me why I wanted to represent poor people accused of violating the law, even those accused of capital crimes. Heck, since Kaine won, perhaps I'd still have a future in politics even if I took Bright's lead? All I know is that someone, former defense attorney or not, needs to defeat Lindsey Graham. What's up with denying habeas to people simply because the government suggests that they're terrorists? That's a slippery slope to go down.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#3)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:55 PM EST
    Having gotten back from jury duty an hour ago...I am now more convinced than ever that prejudice...including racial prejudice...plays a huge role in the outcome of jury decisions. From what I just observed, it is so entrenched and pervasive that capital punishment is hopelessly compromised and should be abolished immediately.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:55 PM EST
    My sympathies, Ernesto. That can not have been a good experience.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST
    This issue raises two most basic questions; 1. The death penalty itself, i.e. please explain why allowing your parent's murderer to live out his days playing basketball demonstrates our compassion and benefits the society. 2. If the death penalty is a proper punishment for the ultimate crime, and that punishment is applied unevenly, is the proper course of action to keep ALL murderers alive, or to make sure that the death penalty gets applied more uniformly? The discussion will of course be hampered by the fact that many on the Left are incapable of distinguishing the difference between executing a murderer, and executing an innocent baby.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#6)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST
    Robert Kessler...as I said based on my experience a few hours ago, I am convinced that the system is fundamentally flawed and that justice is not applied equally. And I think that sentencing any person to death in such a situation is the ultimate injustice. I just saw it with my own eyes, and I still don't want to accept it. But it's definitely there.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST
    Ernesto, As I said, the question is thus; If justice is not aplied equally, is the just thing to do, to not apply justice at all, or to work to apply it more evenly. Even if it were true that blacks, for example, were given the death penalty more often than whites under the exact same circumstances, (a proposition that I do not believe has been show to be true, by the way), is the proper course of action to stop sentencing blacks, or to work to more consistently sentence whites? If I am sentenced to death for murder but you aren't, the response shouldn't be "I shouldn't get punished either", but "You should be punished as well".

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST
    Spoken like someone who has chosen not to educate himself on the issue before opining about it.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#9)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST
    If justice is not aplied equally, is the just thing to do, to not apply justice at all, or to work to apply it more evenly.
    Huh? Are you saying that the DP is the only justice?
    Even if it were true that blacks, for example, were given the death penalty more often than whites under the exact same circumstances, (a proposition that I do not believe has been show to be true, by the way), is the proper course of action to stop sentencing blacks, or to work to more consistently sentence whites?
    Texas.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#10)
    by roxtar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST
    And aside from the problems of equitable administration of the DP to those who are actually guilty, there is the small problem of resurrecting those who were wrongly convicted. DNA testing has revealed dozens of such cases. If "an eye for an eye" is to be the rule, who forfeits his life when an innocent man is executed? The prosecutor? The arresting officer? A relative of the victim? One of the jurors, selected at random? While I am not particularly opposed to the idea of the death penalty on moral grounds, I despair that its administration can ever be truly fair, and I see no evidence that it is particularly effective in deterring crime or bringing victims back to life. Mere revenge doesn't justify it for me. If revenge is a valid reason for homicide, do Native Americans (to name one example) have a blood claim against Euro-Americans? Just askin'.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST
    I worked for Stephen Bright at the SCHR as an intern when I was in law school and would love to see this documentary. Any idea of when it might be available in Boston? I checked out the documentary website and it doesn't say. Stephen Bright is an amazing man and the Center does amazing work. I was against the death penalty before I went to work there, albeit with some reservations -- needless to say, after working there and seeing the incredible injustices that permeate the system, I no longer have any reservations about my anti-death penalty views. I just wish that pro-death penalty advocates could spend some time seeing what really goes on in death penalty prosecutions -- from the public pressure to find the perpetrator, which leads to rushed and shoddy (if not sometimes criminal) investigations, to the choice of who to charge with a capital crime, to the rigged appointing of incompetent defense lawyers who are bound to lose the case, to the trials complete with biased judges and juries, to the torturous appeals process, full of traps and loopholes that prevent claims of actual innocence from being heard... And before anyone jumps on these generalizations, let me say that of course there are cases that don't happen that way, and that there are honorable and competent police, prosecutors, lawyers, judges and juries, but I saw enough of the former to persuade anyone that this system is broken, and cannot be fixed...

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#12)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:56 PM EST
    The discussion will of course be hampered by the fact that many on the Left are incapable of distinguishing the difference between executing a murderer, and executing an innocent baby.
    Wow, some fact you got there. I can tell that your posts will be very enlightening and not the same old right-wing Kabuki sh*t.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#13)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:57 PM EST
    Robert Kessler, Incapable of distinguising the difference? How about a condemned inmate is not a fetus living inside of (and thus a PART of) another human being. That can hardly be any more clear.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#14)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:57 PM EST
    I posted on this on the Alabama DP thread, and didn't get many thought provoking responses. Anyway, it would seem that one of the main arguments against the DP is its finality. If the excuted person is actually innocent, you can't un-execute him, of course. And that's a very legitimate point. But, I want the smallest number of innocent people to be killed. Period. Un-executed convicted murderers have and will kill other inmates, guards and civilians (should they escape). So to me the question is, are there more innocents killed by un-executed convicted murderers than innocents are executed? The only info I could find on innocents executed (I found the info a long time ago and have long lost the link for it) suggests that around 23 innocents have been executed via the DP over the decades. Although I can find even less info on innocents killed over the decades by un-executed murderers, I can't believe the number would possibly be less than 23. If so, more innocents would live with the DP than without.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#16)
    by Aaron on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:57 PM EST
    SUO doesn't seem to be using that logic, exactly, because it is difficult to discover why one should execute drunk drivers, etc., based upon future danger. Further, it is much more clear that a person simply CANNOT drink and drive, pollute, etc. when they are in prison. This is versus murderers who are not executed who can still kill fellow prisoners, guards, and such. It is actually refreshing to see SUO have such a pragmatic point of view. It makes me harken back to my philosophy studies during college.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#15)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:58 PM EST
    sarcastic unamned one, using that logic you should execute drunk drivers, attempted murderers, serious environmental polluters, and any number of other parties who WILL, if left alone, kill people at some point.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#17)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:58 PM EST
    sarc-The only problem with your argument is that there is a BIG variable depending on who is deciding that a person will kill and therefore should be killed. Granting that sort of power to a human who often acts in conspriacy with others to get the most money and power and is without morals or ethics would certainly CAUSE THE MOST PEOPLE GETTING KILLED. Your argument falls a bit flat here.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#18)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:59 PM EST
    aaron, thanks for the link. Who know pragmatism was a philosphy? And your comment is essentially just what I was thinking. Squeaky, your point is tangential to mine. We know that innocents are murdered by un-executed murderers. I want the fewest number of innocents murdered. Shouldn't we all? It appears that, absent the DP, more innocents will be murdered than with it.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#19)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:59 PM EST
    Sarc, you may want the least number of people murdered, but I don't want the state being the ones doing the murdering.
    It appears that, absent the DP, more innocents will be murdered than with it.
    You would have to prove that to me. Minnesota has no DP, Texas does. Should be pretty easy to find statistics on prison murders.
    During 2002, there was a higher homicide rate among the U.S. resident population (6 per 100,000) than either in state prisons (4 per 100,000) or in local jails (3 per 100,000). The rate of suicide in the resident population (11 per 100,000) was lower than in state prisons (14 per 100,000) and considerably lower than in local jails, which was 47 per 100,000 (average daily inmate population).
    Courtesy of the Justice Department And here the DOJ claims that both the number of death row inmates declined for the third consecutive year at the end of 2003, but, surprisingly, the suicide rate and murder rate within prisons declined as well. Link Also, on this site we find that TX has 3x the murder rate of Minnesota (6.1 vs 2.2)

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#20)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:59 PM EST
    "but I don't want the state being the ones doing the murdering." I can certainly understand the reasoning behind that position, I'm sure many others agree with it. To me, the identity of the murderer, while important, is less important than the murder itself. Fewer murders is fewer murders. As I said, the only reference I could find regarding the number of innocents executed (murdered by the state) said about 23 innocents have been executed over the decades. While your data does start to address how many murders are committed in prison it doesn't address the number of murders committed by convicted but not-executed murderers. I couldn't find any such data either, but, again, I can't believe that over the decades that number could possibly be less than 23.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#21)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:00 PM EST
    While your data does start to address how many murders are committed in prison it doesn't address the number of murders committed by convicted but not-executed murderers.
    There is no such data, all we can do is look at A:prison murder rates (which go down when executions go down, strong correlation contrary to your stance) and B:states with state sanctioned killing vs. staes without state sanctioned killing. Minnesota beats TX hands down. While I respect your position, I must disagree with your assumptions. I believe more than 23 people have been murdered by the state:Link This article states that a total of 63 people have been released from death row since 1973, after evidence of their innocence resurfaces. If that is 1% of the total number of death row inmates, it is not inconceivable to think that the states have murdered hundreds of men and women. The simple truth Sarc, is that murder rates are lower in states w/o the death penalty.

    Re: Life in the Death Belt (none / 0) (#22)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:00 PM EST
    Hey, found it: The book, In Spite of Innocence, notes that between 1900 and 1992 there have been 416 documented cases of innocent persons who have been convicted of murder or capital rape -- a third of whom were given a death sentence. The authors discovered that in 23 of these cases, the person was executed. So, since this seems like the most direct research we have available, in 92 years 23 innocents have been executed. I cannot believe that convicted but not-executed murderers murdered fewer than 23 innocents during those 92 years.

    Life in the Death Belt | 22 comments (22 topical)