Vol. 72/No. 42      October 27, 2008

Davis, an African American, was sentenced to death in 1991 for the shooting of a white cop. Since then, extensive evidence has emerged showing the police pressured witnesses to identify Davis as the killer in order to frame him up. But he was denied the right to a new trial at every turn.

The United States is one of the five countries that carried out 88 percent of executions around the world in 2007. According to the Department of Justice, there were 3,228 prisoners on death row at the end of 2006. Of these, 42 percent were Black, although Blacks make up less than 13 percent of the population. One in 99 U.S. adults is in prison today, the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Beyond the workers and farmers put to death by court order, a far higher number are executed on the streets by cops who rarely—if ever—do a day of time in jail.

It is no accident that the number of prisoners on death row has risen sharply in the last three decades, as the employers’ assault on workers’ wages, job conditions, benefits, and unions has accelerated. The bosses’ offensive is meeting growing resistance from working people. The rulers wield the death penalty to try to instill fear and submission in us, and to sap our combativity and self-confidence.

The capitalists’ use of the death penalty is part of a broader package of anti-working-class measures—from stepped-up immigration raids and deportations, to loosening restrictions on spying against political organizations, to the deployment of federal troops on U.S. soil—that are justified by the government with claims they are needed to prevent “terrorism.” They have been adopted with the bipartisan support of Democrats and Republicans, including the law adopted under the William Clinton administration, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which places severe restrictions on the ability of death-row prisoners to get their cases reviewed. That law blocked Troy Davis from getting a new trial when witnesses began to retract their court testimony.

We urge our readers to join with the many others demanding: Stop the execution of Troy Davis! Abolish the death penalty!
 
 
Related articles:
High court denies Troy Davis appeal, protests planned  
 
 
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