The DISH
Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use
Vol. 14 No. 17…Dedicated to the Dialogue on
Race…April 25, 2011
Poetic Justice
By Robert Johnson
Build prisons
not day-care
Lock 'em up
What do we care?
Hire cops, not counselors
Staff courts, not clinics
Wage warfare
Not welfare
Invest in felons
Ripen 'em like melons
Eat 'em raw, then
Ask for more
More poverty
More crime
More men in prison
More fear in the street
More ex-cons among us
Poetic justice
About
Me: A professor of justice, law and society at American University in
Washington, D.C., Johnson is the author of several social science books dealing
with crime and punishment, including Death
Work: A Study of the Modern Execution Process, winner of the
Outstanding Book Award of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. His latest collection
of poetry is A Zoo Near You, BleakHouse Publishing, 2010. The above poem is
from the collection Poetic Justice: Reflections on the Big House, the Death
House & the
William Moses Kunstler (1919-1995)
William Moses Kunstler has been
called both a "great American hero" and "the most hated lawyer
in 
Mandelbaum
and Monroe Bradford Kunstler, a proctologist, William grew up in a middle-class
Jewish neighborhood in Central Park West on
Fighting for right in defense of
a just cause continued as part of Kunstler's nature in the study of law at
While at Yale, Kunstler became an
avid poet and throughout his career used poetry in his summations. He wrote several
books including the Edgar-award nominated "The Minister and the Choir
Singer." He hosted a radio program called "The Law on Trial" on
WNEW and gained honorable mention from the National Legal Aid Association's
press award in 1957. He also taught classes in trusts and estates at
However, life as an
"armchair liberal" ended abruptly for Kunstler, when he became a
member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He first made headlines
defending William Worthy, a correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American,
whose passport was seized by the State Department for traveling to Communist
China and
Kunstler had enjoyed an ordinary civil practice but now he began his many
forays into the dark murky underworld of race relations, civil rights and
racial discrimination that tested the code to which he had sworn allegiance.
Again at the request of the ACLU, Kunstler rode South to challenge the iron
grip of segregation as "Freedom Riders," young activists who rode
buses to demand service at bus station restaurants and "white only"
restrooms and water fountains, needed an advocate. Standing against
Many of Kunstler's clients were African Americans denied their rights under all
kinds of conditions, which made him very unpopular. He would say of his defense
in such situations, "For more than 20 years, my representation of Black
defendants has been motivated by one of my strongest beliefs: That our society
is racist." He refused to defend right-wingers, on the grounds that:
"I only defend those whose goals I share. I'm not a lawyer for hire. I
only defend those I love."
Representing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, like Fred Shuttlesworth,
who languished in a
Controversial clients, like H.
Rap Brown, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who
faced federal anti-riot charges for his powerful speeches, the Chicago Seven
for demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Convention and the Catonsville Nine,
Catholic activists who burned draft files to protest the Vietnam War,
catapulted Kunstler onto the front pages of newspapers and TV news cast.
Kunstler was director of the ACLU
from 1964 to 1972 and a member of its National Council. He co-founded the
Center for Constitutional Rights in 1966. A changed man by his experiences,
Kunstler's personal life fell apart as his first marriage ended. However, his
new lifestyle brought into his life Margaret Ratner, a young radical attorney,
who he married in 1976. The couple settled in
Kunstler continued to cross the line, moving beyond unpopular civil rights
clients to representing prisoners, such as John Hill, charged in the riot at
Attica prison, Russell Means and Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement
(AIM), who faced charges for
By 1986 Kunstler was off the
charts as a "radical lawyer" winning cases for clients viewed as
indefensible by most. Such cases included Gregory Lee Johnson, who burned an
American flag outside the 1984 Republican National Convention; Larry Davis, a
23-year-old drug dealer accused of the attempted murder of six police officers
in 1986 and Yusef Salaam, one of five teenagers whose convictions were
overturned in the rape and severe beating of a young woman in the1989 Central
Park jogger case.
These cases made Kunstler more
visible and more venerated by blacks, those denied justice, and those who could
not afford high-priced lawyers, while being "vilified" in the press
and as persona non grata by Jews for defending Muslim clerics in the 1990s. He
represented El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian immigrant acquitted of the 1990
murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the controversial founder of the Jewish Defense
League; Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, head of the Egyptian-based Gama'a al-Islamiyah,
accused in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Qubilah Shabazz, daughter of
Malcolm X, accused of plotting to murder Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of
Islam.
The death of William Moses
Kunstler on September 4, 1995 left a void that is yet to be filled. He was
tireless in the pursuit of justice without regard to person or position, and he
symbolized the guiding principle of American jurisprudence, "innocent
until proven guilty." He battled authorities in defense of "justice
for all." And with his passing, justice lost a true advocate and the
defenseless lost an audacious champion.
The Terrible Myth
By William Kunstler
"And that's the terrible
myth of organized society. That everything that's done through the established 
system
is legal. And that word has a powerful psychological impact. It makes people
believe that there is an order to life and an order to a system and that a person
that goes through this order and is convicted has gotten all that is due him.
And therefore society can turn its conscience off and look to other things and
other times.
And that's the terrible thing
about these past trials is that they have this aura of legitimacy -- this aura
of legality. I suspect that better men than the world has known and more of
them have gone to their death through a legal system than through all the
illegalities in the history of man. Six million people in
This excerpt is from
"Disturbing the Universe" a documentary about the life of William
Kunstler produced by his daughters Emily and Sarah. (Source: www.pbs.org/pov/disturbingtheuniverse/background.php)
Why I Signed Bill to Abolish Death Penalty
By Pat Quinn
Today (3-9-11), I have signed
Senate Bill 3539, which abolishes the death penalty in
For me, this was a difficult
decision, quite literally the choice between life and death. This was not a
decision to be made lightly, or a decision that I came to without deep personal
reflection.
Since the General Assembly passed
this bill, I have met or heard from a wide variety of people on both sides of
the issue. I have talked with prosecutors, judges, elected officials, religious
leaders from around the world, families of murder victims, people on death row
who were exonerated and ordinary citizens who have taken the time to share
their thoughts with me. Their experiences, words and opinions have made a
tremendous impact on my thinking, and I thank everyone who reached out on this
matter.
After their guidance, as well as much thought and reflection, I have concluded
that our system of imposing the death penalty is inherently flawed. The
evidence presented to me by former prosecutors and judges with decades of
experience in the criminal justice system has convinced me that it is
impossible to devise a system that is consistent, that is free of
discrimination on the basis of race, geography or economic circumstance, and
that always gets it right.
As a state, we cannot tolerate the executions of innocent people because such
actions strike at the very legitimacy of a government. Since 1977,
To say that this is unacceptable does not even begin to express the profound
regret and shame we, as a society, must bear for these failures of justice.
Since our experience has shown
that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the
numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory
treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it.
With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case. For
the same reason, I have also decided to commute the sentences of those
currently on death row to natural life imprisonment, without the possibility of
parole or release.
I
have found no credible evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect
on the crime of murder and that the enormous sums expended by the state in
maintaining a death penalty system would be better spent on preventing crime
and assisting victims' families in overcoming their pain and grief.
To those who say that we must
maintain a death penalty for the sake of the victims' families, I say that it
is impossible not to feel the pain of loss that all these families share or to
understand the desire for retribution that many may hold. But, as I heard from
family members who lost loved ones to murder, maintaining a flawed death
penalty system will not bring back their loved ones, will not help them to heal
and will not bring closure to their pain. Nothing can do that. We must instead
devote our resources toward the prevention of crime and the needs of victims'
families, rather than spending more money to preserve a flawed system.
The late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin
observed, "[i]n a complex, sophisticated democracy like ours, means other
than the death penalty are available and can be used to protect society."
In our current criminal justice system, we can impose extremely harsh punishments
when warranted. Judges can impose sentences of life imprisonment without the
possibility of parole. Where necessary and appropriate, the state can
incarcerate convicted criminals in maximum security prisons. These means should
be sufficient to satisfy our need for retribution, justice and protection.
As Governor, I took an oath to
uphold our state's Constitution and faithfully execute our laws. Honoring that
oath often requires making difficult decisions, but I have found none to be as
difficult as the one I made today. I recognize that some may strongly disagree
with this decision, but I firmly believe that we are taking an important step
forward in our history as Illinois joins the 15 other states and many nations
of the world that have abolished the death penalty. (Source: www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=2&RecNum=9265)
Petition to Save Troy
On March 28, 2011, the US Supreme
Court refused to hear the death penalty case of Troy Anthony Davis. It was his
final appeal.
The DISH has joined her effort
and is urging its readers to sign a petition by Color of Change calling on the
Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole to commute
Please add your voice to the cry
for justice and end the possibility of another execution. Write, call or email
the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole or add your name to the petition
by the Color of Change at http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/troy?referring_akid=.950429.FZXcFa&source=facebook.
Public Transit Plan: Taxation
Without Representation
By John Burl Smith
The
Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has submitted (4-15-2011) its "wish
list" of transportation projects for the Metro Atlanta region to the
planning director of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). This was
in response to HB 277 passed by the
The plan, in theory, will work
this way: In each of ten districts, city and county governments will develop
lists of projects for inclusion in the regional plan. Locally, this was the
regional "wish lists" submitted by the ARC that went to GDOT. GDOT
Planning Director Todd Long will evaluate 437 transportation projects using
criteria developed by a so-called Roundtable Committee. He will delete some
projects and add some that were not submitted by a local government. Long will
then present his "unconstrained" list of projects to the Roundtable
by June 1, 2011.
The Roundtable will pare down
Long's unconstrained list to a final "constrained" list that fits
within the $8 billion that is projected to be raised by the penny sales tax.
Even though during this time, the working list will be available for public
comment, it is not clear how the public's interest will be looked after during
all this "horse trading." In October, the Roundtable will send a
final "constrained" list that falls within the projected $8 billion
in sales tax revenue back to GDOT. Voters will have only a yes or no say on the
matter in each region when they vote on the referendum in the summer of 2012.
There are several problems with this bill and the process beyond all the
backroom "horse trading" between the Roundtable and GDOT, if you live
in DeKalb and
Next, when the Metro Atlanta
Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) was created, the ARC led the opposition in the
counties that rejected the one-cent sales tax to fund the public transportation
system. Only DeKalb and 
tax
and have continued to do so since 1971. Adding injury to insult, when the state
legislature under former governor Roy Barnes created the Georgia Regional
Transportation Authority (GRTA), which was supposed to use MARTA in developing
a regional rapid transit network, the surrounding counties were supposed to
begin paying the one-cent MARTA sales tax. However, GRTA dropped the
requirement that surrounding counties pay the MARTA tax after the state of
Georgia gained access to MARTA's dedicated source of revenue (its one-cent
tax), which it used to float bonds to finance bus systems in Clayton and
Gwinnett Counties, where voters have repeatedly refused to pay the one-cent
MARTA sales tax. Tricked again!
This new transportation plan is an "old dog" doing the same old
tricks. It is another attempt to get DeKalb and Fulton residents to pay for
other counties' public transportation improvements. First, there is no rider in
this bill that cancels the MARTA tax or extends it to other counties, equalizing
transportation cost between DeKalb and
This scheme is similar to what is happening with Social Security (SS) and
Medicare. Even though both are based on payroll taxes, the Tea Party and
Republican representatives are portraying them as entitlements paid for by the
government, which has helped to create the current deficit and debt, rather
than the other way around. If the federal government was not using SS funds as
general revenue, the deficit and debt would be even greater. The game here is
to relieve the federal government of its obligation to pay back the trillions
of dollars owed to SS it used as general revenue, while simultaneously the
government will continue to tax certain workers for benefits they will never
receive.
DeKalb and
This is a "no brainer" DeKalb and
Disgruntled says: When it comes to crime
and justice in the United States of America, skin color and socioeconomic
status play 
deciding
roles in how the system metes out rewards and punishment. The rich can and do
get away with rape, robbery and murder. Case in point are the robber barons on
Wall Street that have raped and robbed countless Americans of pensions, home
and hearth while the Justice Department sees nothing wrong. However, if you are
poor and/or black, even when it can be legally proven that the system violated
its own rules, the criminal justice system finds a way to stack the deck
against you. Case in point is the Supreme Court ruling overturning a lower
court decision that awarded former death row inmate John Thompson $14 million
for a wrongful conviction. Because prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence,
Thompson spent fourteen (14) years on death row. In overturning the lower court
decision, the Supreme Court, in a majority opinion written by Justice Clarence
Thomas, a black man, basically said the district attorney cannot be held
accountable for failing to train his staff. Not only can an innocent person be
put to death in this country and it be perfectly legal, now an innocent person
can be wrongfully convicted of a crime due to prosecutorial misconduct and have
no expectation of receiving an award for damages.
Disgruntled feels: Scammed! With a little
over two years in office under his belt, the president is in full campaign
mode. His job approval numbers are in the toilet based on the latest polls. If
Americans were asked the question - are you better off today than two years ago
- I suspect the numbers responding in the negative would be in the high
eighties. As a consequence, his approval rating would sink even deeper into
negative territory, even among his most faithful base, i.e., black voters. On
the economic front, with high unemployment, high home foreclosure rates, and
rising food and fuel prices, there is not a lot for poor and middle income
Americans to like about Mr. Obama's time in office. Ironically, even with the
turmoil in the Middle East and
Disgruntled wants to know: Let's be frank here!
The
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls
Email
www.themonitor.com...Ex-South Texas
police chief sentenced in drug case ...A former South Texas police chief who
pleaded guilty to helping Mexican drug cartels smuggle drugs across the border
has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Hernan Guerra Jr. pleaded guilty in
January to one count of conspiracy with intent to distribute. He was sentenced
Wednesday. The 45-year-old was arrested last summer at the Sullivan City Police
Department. The McAllen Monitor reports that at the sentencing, Guerra told
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane that he is sorry for what he has done. Crane
said federal investigators had tapped Guerra's phone lines. Crane says that in
those recordings, Guerra "seemed to scoff" at the idea of getting
arrested.