"The worst of the worst" is a lie

One of the many common refrains we face in the death penalty abolition movement is that the death penalty is reserved for “the worst of the worst.” A punishment fit for a crime, so to speak. I'll admit as a teenager and in the early formation of my worldview, this statement proved to be a formidable obstacle. To the best of my knowledge, we only get one shot at life. My philosophy is that we should exhaust every opportunity to rehabilitate a human, even in the face of their betrayal of that philosophy. However, I always thought to myself, if the government is consistently giving the death penalty to people convicted of committing the most unspeakable acts known in our society, then how can I expect to appeal to the better nature of my fellow Kentuckians?

To me, it seemed nearly impossible to prune this racist, archaic practice from our nation. As I dove headfirst into the history of the death penalty, hoping some nugget of wisdom would unearth itself, I was rewarded with a sea to search. I grabbed my sieve and began panning for treasure. What I found was worth my weight but certainly wasn’t what you’d consider gold. I found a horrible history and a dark almost unspoken understanding amongst us. That truth was, even by the loose standards implied in “the worst of the worst” idiom, the usage of the death penalty in our society far outpaces its promise and, worse, maybe even operates openly against it.

History is littered with stories of extrajudicial lynchings. Stories like Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith (the lynching that inspired “Strange Fruit”), Henry Smith, and Fred Alexander rang through my consciousness for years. We should have completely eradicated this practice and its pageantry from public life; instead, we integrated these practices into our judicial system. Those in power claimed to believe this would take the edge off the violent racial animus that colored the height of the lynching era, but documented lynchings persisted until at least 1981 and many potential cases of lynchings spilled into the 21st century. All while the pageantry, lack of evidence, and racial resentment were injected directly into the system. 

Over the past month, those relics of our racist past have come into much sharper relief than usual. Over the past two months, we've seen seven executions. Five of those were held in the span of seven days—the first time this has happened in more than 20 years. Even more egregious, perhaps, is the nature of the executions. Freddie "Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah" Owens, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, and Emmanuel Littlejohn all held strong claims of innocence. In addition, these men had several advocates from prosecutors, victim's families, and even, in one case, a separate perpetrator admitting to the crime. In all three of these men’s cases, pleas from organizers, prosecutors, victims' families, and even celebs were brushed aside as the machinations of the system slowly churned on, rolling directly over them. 

The spectacle, bloodlust, and racial animus are still there. The types of crimes that constitute an execution are almost verbatim to the “offenses” from the lynching era. It all remains with a veneer that has calcified over the years. We know intrinsically and viscerally that the death penalty does not make us safer. 

In Kentucky, the situation is similar and very precarious. While our AG Russell Coleman was recently rebuffed in his quest to restart executions, he will continue to pursue this goal vigorously. We are not without our own innocence cases, and we could very well find ourselves in a position to watch those folks meet the same fate as Freddie Owens, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, and Emmanuel Littlejohn. We must honor these brothers’ memories and atone for their unjust executions by fighting to ensure this fate will not befall another person. 

We plan to do that here at KCADP by educating folks on the danger of returning to executions in Kentucky and pressuring those in power to do the right thing while the time is ripe. We hope you will join us.