130 Death Row Inmates Have Been Found Innocent Since 1973: Troy Davis' Execution is Set for Tomorrow

Yes, the Dalai Lama is a wise and compassionate man. I met him when he first came to the United States in 1979 and then again in 1991. What a blessing he's been to our world. Thank you, danitassin.

That's a great idea! I will do that!

Hi Pi,

You are asking the wrong question. The correct question is:

"Does Clarence Thomas know anything?"

You're right. I've heard he is the most conservative of all the judges on the Supreme Court. That doesn't indicate independent analytical thinking or one shred of compassionate reason.

I think he knows enough to keep his pockets fat.

I suspect that is his wife's role! She gets the $500,000 Republican party money. Oh, and doesn't report on taxes.

Unfortunately US is on the same list.

The whole world is wondering what is wrong with America.

Good slogan, very appropriate.

Yes they are.

As I explained to an Aussie recently:

We are descendants of the early colonists made up of adventurers, land speculators, thiefs, murderers, and other assorted criminals, and religious zealots. Its in our DNA!

So we end up as a country who covets land, wealth, and power, and believe that God is always on our side.

Such arrogance. The sun shines on saints and sinners alike.

Agreed

Agreed, but this is an epidemic and is happening everywhere...it is premeditated murder by it's own definition.

This is so sad. I just signed a petiton against the death penalty from Amnesty International. :(.......

So sad. The travesty continues . . .

I wonder if these petitions do any good. But it's the least we can do to make our voices heard. thank you, Leen61.

You're welcome, PIANORAMA. I don't know if they do either, but there's not much else we can do to change the culture of death some states embrace, call them out.

I remember this commercial from when i was a kid.

No more Georgia peaches, no more Georgia pecans. And let the state of Georgia know that this is not acceptable in a civilized society. (Are we civilized?)

That's correct, PIANORAMA. Are we civilized? That's up for debate, unfortunately.

Our judicial system id broken. I will pray with you.

Killing innocent man will not bring closure.

That's absolutely true.

You are so right!

HL was slightly mistaken, I think they are both blind and stupid.

Amen to that.

I second the motion.

Although - I don't believe it's the people of Georgia who are at fault. It's the U.S. Criminal Justice System, and the state of Georgia criminal justice system. Seems as though Clarence Thomas, who is from Georgia, turned down the stay of execution.

Did you see the man on the streaming coverage last night: No more Georgia pecans, no more Georgia peaches!!!

Making sense of insanity.

"A democracy respects and responds to the overwhelming will of its citizens, a plutocracy, in contrast, does not."

S.R. McCobb

I do, too. He has refused his last meal. And he has said he has given his soul to God, that only his body will die. The man exudes innocence, intelligence and humility. Sometimes I think we are living in an age of ignorance, callousness and spiritual emptiness. And yet we are so arrogant over our 'technology" and "science."

Thank you, Keith.

You friend, ARE a human being.

I spent several years of my life working with others in upstate New York and in Boston to restore treaty rights to American Indians and became familiar with the council-based government of the Six Nations. A lot of people don't realize that Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in arranging meetings between chiefs of the Six nations and the Founding Fathers in Albany, NY, in the 1750s. There were some basic principles of freedom that were included in our Bill of Rights which came directly from the Iroquois. I heard Chief Oren Lyons speak on several occasions and will never forget his words: "who will speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, the creatures of the air and the creatures of the water . . ." The songs I wrote about animals and the natural world were inspired by those words. You can hear some of them here: http://www.myspace.com/octavianeptune.

Thank you for this beautiful prayer. If you don't mind, I would like to copy it and keep it in one of my notebooks.

Blessings.

This is wonderful, thank you buckeye. Years ago I came across an essay written by Benjamin called "The Savages of North America." It was a satirical and scathing comparison between American government procedures and that of the Six Nations. In the Longhouse, everyone had a chance to speak, as it was believed that everyone had a piece of the vision. While that person spoke, there was complete silence. After that person finished speaking and sat down, there was more silence in order to hear the "spirit" behind the words. And it also gave that person a chance to stand up and speak further in case he remembered something else to say.
Of course in the American government, even then, it seemed the exact opposite. There was no respect given to whomever was speaking; instead others were shouting argumentatively, interrupting and trying to make their voices heard above the one speaking. People pounded on their podiums and created all sorts of bedlam. The difference in the completely civilized and respectful manner towards each other in the Longhouse and the total chaos in the American Congress was laughable, if it were not so sad - and it remains so to this day.

President Obama could order the DOJ to intercede in the interest of justice, but you would hear such caterwauling rise from the Conservative and the State's Rights groups claiming Mr. Obama is overstepping his authority AND twist it into somehow a Black man protecting a "cop killer".

That would be my guess.

Sad, but true.

It seems now that his only hope is for the district attorney to withdraw the charges. There are several links on this page where one can go sign a petition. Almost one million people have petitioned for clemency/stay of execution. Sometimes I think we should have let all the southern states go their way . . . but of course that wouldn't have helped all those captured in slavery.

I am ashamed of Georgia and I am ashamed of our Supreme Court.

Oh, yeah, that would bring more KKK posters of Obama looking like Hitler than ever. These people are nuts.

The wrong-wingers would undoubtedly do exactly as you say. Their evil knows no bounds what-so-ever

You hit the nail on the head. This is exactly what is at the heart of the wrong-wingers, and the teabaggers. They are literally mentally ill. Their dogma and beliefs are basically, fundamentally self contradicting. Their beliefs are not rational. They are not rational. It's not politically correct to say, but it's the basic truth behind the right-wing phenomena.

I totally agree. It's sad that they have taken control of the Republican Party, which at one time was quite respectable. I believe that Eisenhower was a good President. Reagan, not. It was under his presidency that the great extraction of wealth from the middle class really got underway.

I agree! Much of the blame for their decent to utter evil and madness can be laid at the feet of Reagan and that satanic creature Karl Rove.

Don't forget "snarlface" Cheney!

Speak the truth!

Boy is that ever the truth!

And re: "love to kill and imprison" - not only that but they love to rant self-righteously about it!

Well said! I agree 100% Likewise signed the petition, likewise don't believe it'll do any good. Texas's mad-governor has threatened succession, maybe the rest of us should happily escort them out the door. The rest of the country would look all the better without that particularly mad state attached.

Thanks, great post.

You got that right!!!

Add Georgia, Oklahoma . . .maybe a few other southern states, too.

Oh man, the widow of the killed police officer has a crazy look in her eye . . . I am sorry for her loss, but I am even more sorry that she has such a revengeful, unforgiving attitude, not even caring that an innocent man may die.

That was the same feeling I got, PIANORAMA. The widow's response was so irrational. What kind of closure would that be, given the fact this man may not be the guilty party? Rachel Maddow is covering this story right now!

You are absolutely correct, this is the consequence of living in a plutocracy controlled by Sociopaths.

Los Angeles County is riddled with corruption; I'm sure you've heard how they are evicting people from their homes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw3RiMdS7sE

You nailed it!

The last words of William Jackson Marion. Marion was tried twice in the 1880s for the murder of John Cameron, a good friend. Both times, juries in Nebraska convicted him. On March 25, 1887, a crowd gathered to watch Marion hang and hear any last words.

He said, “Well, gentlemen, I suppose you are all waiting to hear what I have to say. You are waiting patiently to hear me make some confession. You have been waiting some time, some years, some months, some weeks, thinking to get a full confession out of me. No man has anything to show where I have confessed that I have committed any crime. I confess that I am a sinner, the same as any other law-abiding citizen or church member. I’ve made no confession to nobody, and I’ve got no confession to make.”

More than four years later, one man proved Marion’s innocence -- John Cameron himself, who reappeared alive and well. He was astonished: “I didn’t even know Marion was in trouble. I never dreamed of such a thing. There was never any ill feeling between us.”

It still took the state of Nebraska exactly one hundred years to pardon Marion posthumously.

It's exactly that.

So true, danitassin. The more I learn, the more I realize how very little I know.