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    BAR: The Two Types of Death Penalties Archived Message

    Posted by sashimi on November 29, 2022, 4:02 pm

    Kalonji Changa, 29 November 2022

    (quote)
    On November 28, 2022, the governor of Missouri refused to grant clemency to
    Kevin Johnson and the state Supreme Court denied motions to halt his
    execution. Johnson is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, November 29, 2022.

    A political prisoner is a person targeted or imprisoned because of their
    political actions, affiliations and/or beliefs. A political prisoner is also an
    individual, who while incarcerated, transforms themselves from a social prisoner
    by gaining clarity, embracing and maintaining political struggle.

    Thirty-seven-year-old Kevin "KJ" Johnson is scheduled to be executed by the
    State of Missouri on November 29th; most would not view him as a "political
    prisoner." However, given the poverty, neglect, suffering and abuse that comes
    with being a captive in domestic colonies and urban enclaves within a capitalist
    and imperialist state, from the onset Kevin was undoubtedly a victim of US
    politics and policing.

    On July 5, 2005, 19-year-old Kevin "KJ" Johnson witnessed his 12- year-old
    brother, "Bam Bam" collapse while police conducted a search of their
    grandmother's home. When KJ learned later that day that his brother had died, he
    believed that the death was caused by medical neglect. Hours later, traumatized,
    mentally and psychologically distressed, Kevin spotted Kirkwood Police Sergeant
    William McEntee in the neighborhood. He approached the patrol car and screaming
    "You killed my brother!" Then he shot and killed the officer.

    Inadequately armed with court-appointed attorneys, KJ had two trials. The first
    resulted in a hung jury which rejected the first-degree murder charge. In the
    second trial, an all-white jury found KJ guilty and sentenced him to death for
    killing of a white police officer.

    In the 17 years that Kevin Johnson has served on death row, nearly 20,000 people
    have been killed by police in the United States, over 1,000 this year alone.
    Few officers have been convicted, even fewer have been sentenced to 20 years (or
    more). Currently, there is only one police officer on death row: Antoinette
    Frank, a Black woman. Convicted, along with her drug dealer boyfriend, of the
    robbery of a New Orleans based Vietnamese Restaurant where she worked part time,
    Frank had murdered two members of the family who ran the establishment, and her
    fellow NOPD officer Ronald A. Williams II. The decision by the State of
    Louisiana to push for the death penalty likely had more to do with Frank
    betraying her fellow officer than any claim to deliver actual justice.

    Impunity for police forces that function as colonial enforcers tracks the
    murders of the occupants of this stolen land. Awaiting the outcome of our
    collective efforts to save the life of Kevin John next week from Missouri's
    death row, some of us commemorate the police murder of 92-year-old Kathryn
    Johnston; who was gunned down by Atlanta Police in 2006.

    This police killing became one of the rare occasions in which police were
    prosecuted for murder. People in Atlanta observed and then acted during an era
    where many believed you had to be "doing something" wrong, naively arguing: "The
    police ain't just going to shoot you." That was before cell phone footage
    shifted blame from the victim to the state perpetrator. The 92-year-old
    Ms. Johnston never even had a traffic ticket; yet, she was murdered inside her
    own home by police. In an attempt to exonerate themselves, police planted
    marijuana in Ms. Johnston's basement; and handcuffed Ms. Johnston after they
    gunned her down, leaving the deceased bleeding, handcuffed and lying in a pool
    of her own blood while police tampered with a crime scene. Media vilified
    Johnston as a violent, criminal rogue who shot at the police officers. Media
    rarely mentioned that police ripped her burglar bars off her door and came in
    unannounced with hoodies and Timberland boots without signaling that they were
    officers. Eight years shy of a century, Ms. Kathryn Johnston had her case
    eclipsed from national headlines when four days later, 23-year-old Sean Bell was
    murdered, and two of his friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield were
    seriously wounded, after NYPD fired 50 shots into the vehicle the men were
    driving as they were attempting to leave Bell's bachelor party, a few hours
    before his planned wedding. The Kathryn Johnston case was "closed" when officer
    Jason R. Smith, was sentenced to 10 years, Gregg Junnier, to 6 years, and Arthur
    Tesler, to 5 years in federal prison. The police officers were mandated to
    collectively pay $8,180 in restitution for the costs of Kathryn Johnston's
    funeral and burial. In the Sean Bell case, officers Michael Oliver (who fired 31
    of the 50 shots), Gescard Isnora, and Detective Marc Cooper, were acquitted on
    all counts.
    (/quote)
    -- Cont'd at https://blackagendareport.com/two-types-death-penalties

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