Tuesday, March 01, 2005
"It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that the Innocent Person should be Condemned."
Ahh... Taxxachusetts, "a large tax place" named after one of the indigenous tribes, the Massachusett, which translates "a large hill place." Home of such amazing Democratic presidential candidate as:
"A card-carrying member of" the American Civil Liberties Union!
It's March 1st 1691 in Massachusetts and Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba have just been charged with witchcraft. Soon over 150 people will be accused, 19 men and women will be executed at the gallows, and 5 people will die in jail. All for panic, superstition and religious zealotry...
More Below the Fold
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Sarah Good was the Salem town Beggar, dispossessed by her father a French innkeeper, who committed suicide. She was known to mutter to herself.
Sarah Osborne was an elderly woman, bedridden. She married first, Thomas Small [Nevins] and second Robert Prince in 1662. When he died in 1674, Prince left his land in trust to his wife with the stipulation that it eventually be given to his two sons James and Joseph. She later married her hired hand, a young Irish immigrant, Alexander Osborne, whose indenture she had purchased. Although eventually the two were married, it would seem that there was prior impropriety. The two managed to gain full control of the Prince estate refusing to acknowledge the paternity of her sons.
Tituba was a Caribbean-born Native American of the Carib tribe and a slave of Samuel Parris. Tituba cared for Samuel's daughter Betty. When Betty began acting strange Tituba made a "witch's cake" (bad idea), by mixing rye and Betty's urine, cooking it (ugh) and feeding it to the dog. This was supposed to cause the dog to name the individual who had possessed Betty. Instead Samual found out and beat her until she confessed to witchcraft.
Tituba in her confession named Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good as co-witches. She was jailed and spared trial, later she would recant her confession. She spent 13 (spooky!) months in jail. Sarah Osborne died in jail awaiting trail. Sarah Good, professed innocence, and was hung June 19, 1692. For my money I would take the hanging over Giles Cory's fate. An eighty-year-old farmer from the southeast end of Salem Giles refused to enter a plea. The judge imposed peine fort et dure (its French for "pressing") to extract a plea.
They piled stones on his chest until he died.
Looking back on it with 20/20 hindsight, seems like some bad choices were made.
Massachusetts is one of 12 states in which the death penalty is illegal. The senate has tried several times to reinstate it unsuccessfully, and the Supreme Court has declared a referendum unconstitutional. So they may have BEEN crazy but they may have learned some lessons on the way.
Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, People's Republic of China (except Hong Kong and Macao), Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq (Suspended in April 2003 after 2003 invasion; reinstated August 2004), Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Republic of China (Taiwan), Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Wow quite a lists... aren't we in good company! All of our friends in the Axis of Evil and more...
78 countries use capital punishment. In 2003, the US came in third in the kill your own citizens legally game, China beat us by a long shot 726, Iran edged us out with 108, we killed 65. The average number of executions per year, world wide 2242.
Though eight countries (Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United States) allow executions for minors (under 18) the US leads by far in the actual execution of juveniles. Twenty-two juvinile executions have occurred since 1976 in seven states. Even China doesn't allow the execution of children. All the countries in the UN except Somalia and the US have signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits capital punishment for children.
LATE BREAKING NEWS!!
The Supreme Court outlaws the use death penalty for convicted killers who committed their crimes before the age of 18. The court ruling, closely divided at 5-to-4, affects 72 people in 20 states. The practice will also be banned for any future crimes.
In January 2000, the Governor of Illinois, George Ryan, was informed that since 1977 12 men had been executed in Illinois and during that period, 13 men on death row were found innocent. He announced a moratorium on executions in Illinois, stating ""Until I can be sure to say with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate." On January 11, 2003 he commuted all of the death sentences in the state:
"Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error: error in determining guilt and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die. What effect was race having? What effect was poverty having?
Because of all these reasons, today I am commuting the sentences of all death row inmates.." --George Ryan
"Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?"
"No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life."
Dukakis looked like a tool in a tank, but he was brave enough to stand up to the stupidity of capital punishment. He was derided for not loving his wife, pathetic.
Kerry opposed the execution of juveniles, supported greater access to DNA testing for death row inmates and argued that studies "reveal serious questions, racial bias, and deep disparities in the way the death penalty is applied." Kerry was a cosponsor of the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 and of the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2003.
"I know something about killing," Kerry says, referencing his service in Vietnam as a swift-boat commander. "I don't like killing. That's just a personal belief I have."
Damn those liberal Taxxachusians! Next thing you know they will want to treat homosexuals as equals... oh wait...
- posted by Anonymous @ Tuesday, March 01, 2005
