arkansas is moving forward with its executions after all... thanks to the vote of new supreme court justice neil gorsuch.
today the state killed ledell lee, a man with brain damage and an intellectual disability (information that was concealed from the jury) resulting from severe fetal alcohol syndrome. lee’s court-appointed attorney was an alcoholic who showed up to court drunk multiple times and the presiding judge was carrying on an affair with the prosecutor during the trial. the forensic method which was used to convict ledell twenty-five years ago has since been discredited as nonfactual and unscientific.
ledell took holy communion for his last meal.
there is nothing that remotely resembles justice with regards to the death penalty. the system responsible for putting men on death row is corrupt and reprehensible in the way it both benefits from and contributes directly to the systemic oppression of people of color, the low-income and the mentally ill. rethinking the way we approach justice, reconciliation and healing needs to be a critical priority, and that begins with the abolition of state-sanctioned killing.
