Country Figurefit

On A Considerably More Significant Note, That Country’s Continuing Enthusiasm For The Death Sentence Definitely Chills The Blood.

There are times when the U. S. appears an awfully long way from western Europe. Their puzzled television coverage of the soccer World Cup plays like the work of Venusians. Their taste for cherry-flavoured alcohol-free drinks counsels collective derangement.

On a significantly more heavy note, that state’s continuing eagerness for the ultimate penalty certainly chills the blood. I deserve to be more accurate. Capital punishment remains, of course, depressingly popular all around the world. Park yourself in a bar bar or its digital equivalent following any gruesome murder and you will , most likely, hear any quantity of calls to “bring back hanging”.

In Dublin, Dubrovnik and Dortmund, a large slice of superbly reasonable people still searches for the return of that final retribution.

In too many corners of the US nevertheless , popular will drives the particular destruction of condemned voters. On Thursday, Troy Davis, found guilty as charged of murder on very wobbly evidence, was executed by lethal injection in the state of Georgia. “I am innocent,” Davis declared moments before the needle was applied. “I didn’t have a gun.”

It is fair to point out that there are fewer executions in the States than you may think. “Only” 46 inmates were put to death in 2010. Remember that a worrying seventeen of those occurred in Texas and as well as feeling a bit more uncertain about the advance of Governor Rick Perry you’ll admit that the state’s authorities aren’t exactly syringe-crazy. Still, it is not a very cheerful lot for the projected 3,250 sitting sweatily on death row.

Few front-line US legislators have made any heavy effort to oppose the ultimate penalty. Returning to our opening point about the foreignness of America, it is worth pointing out that, in 2007, Barack Obama, then a rising force, wrote that he supported the ultimate penalty in cases “so despicable, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its shock by meting out the final punishment”.

EU readers could not withstanding the numerous lawyerly qualifications be forgiven for rubbing their eyes rabidly and looking around to check they’d not been carried to Opposite Land.

At this stage in his career, Obama was being touted as the fresh face of latt-drinking liberal America. Yet he was supporting a policy that, in western Europe, only parties of the far right include in their manifestos. Welcome to the skinhead fringe, Barack.

The gruesome truth is that no US presidential applicant stands a chance if he doesn’t support capital punishment. It comes as barely a surprise to hear that, at a debate, Perry, a major contender for the Republican designation, attracted applause when commenting on Texas’s exaggerated taste for killing its own voters. It is more sobering to remember Bill Clinton’s noticeable flight back to Arkansas to look at the execution of a psychologically impaired black man in the 1992 campaign.

Here’s the point. You might disagree that the main line American politician’s disposition toward the death sentence demonstrates that nations firm respect for democracy. In a land that commonly elects sheriffs, judges and ( beats me ) comptrollers, it might require significant bravery some people might say audacity to defy the voters on such a big issue. Of course , a Gallup poll revealed that only twenty-nine per cent of Americans oppose the death sentence.

And yet. The parliamentary democracies of western Europe have, over the years, stubbornly, bravely refused to yield to popular pressure on this matter. Of course, membership of the Council of Europe proscribes individual states from bringing back the death sentence. But there are always votes in stringing up wise guys. Even a futile declaration of intention would appeal to a wide portion of the voters.

Consider a ridiculous try experimenting with popular democracy in the UK. The coalition govt promoted the setting up of a site that would permit visitors to establish “e-petitions”. Any adequately popular campaign could, in theory, generate a debate in the House of Commons. Well, you can see where this is heading. Within days, thousands had voted for a discussion on bringing back capital punishment. A 2010 YouGov survey advised that only 37 % of UK voters would oppose the reinstitution of the death sentence.

Yet there is among MPs, no heavy support for a change in the law. In spite of contemporary comments by retired judge Richard Johnson, who called for a return to executions, the situation remains much the same in this fine country.

For once, it behoves us those of us from the bleeding-heart tendency, anyway to tip our hats to the officeholders. They aren’t all yellow bellies. They don’t always give in to the noisiest, angriest voices. The proven fact that they refused to reach for the rope does not necessarily mean they are not listening. It only recommends they actually have some moral fibre. Are you listening, Mr Obama?, as reported tagza.com.
JENNIFER NICOLE LEE AT THE WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL NETWORK IN 176 COUNTRIES