Martha's Contemporary
Opposed to Executions
RECEIVED Fri., May 21, 2010
Dear Editor,
Thank you for Mr. King's excellent article [“Point Austin: Let David Live,” News, May 21]. My caveat: My boyfriend's murder in '79 did not change my opposition to executions.
Here's District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg's probable reply: "Three juries [said kill Powell] … I must obey." My reply to her: 1) They weren't "juries of peers," since they excluded folks sharing my beliefs; 2) see Mr. King's intelligent points about accomplice and present-day Powell; and, most importantly, 3) way more than three juries upheld all the following: slavery, women as chattel, African-Americans as three-fifths of a human, apartheid in South Africa, Jews as heretics and/or insects for extermination …. The list of horrors perpetrated, perpetuated, and institutionalized by man far exceeds my ability to type without a total breakdown.
Why must Travis County continue this horror? It is time, Ms. Lehmberg, for us to join the rest of the civilized world and eliminate the death penalty. The question to you, madam, is this: Have you the courage to step up, rescind your request for Powell's execution date, and say enough is enough, regardless of the police brotherhood's lust for revenge?
Thank you for Mr. King's excellent article [“Point Austin: Let David Live,” News, May 21]. My caveat: My boyfriend's murder in '79 did not change my opposition to executions.
Here's District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg's probable reply: "Three juries [said kill Powell] … I must obey." My reply to her: 1) They weren't "juries of peers," since they excluded folks sharing my beliefs; 2) see Mr. King's intelligent points about accomplice and present-day Powell; and, most importantly, 3) way more than three juries upheld all the following: slavery, women as chattel, African-Americans as three-fifths of a human, apartheid in South Africa, Jews as heretics and/or insects for extermination …. The list of horrors perpetrated, perpetuated, and institutionalized by man far exceeds my ability to type without a total breakdown.
Why must Travis County continue this horror? It is time, Ms. Lehmberg, for us to join the rest of the civilized world and eliminate the death penalty. The question to you, madam, is this: Have you the courage to step up, rescind your request for Powell's execution date, and say enough is enough, regardless of the police brotherhood's lust for revenge?
Gratia Winship
