Sonny Burton didn’t kill anybody, but Alabama is set to execute him
The state of Alabama knows that Charles “Sonny” Burton didn’t kill anyone. He wasn’t there when his accomplice in a robbery pulled the trigger. But unless Governor Kay Ivey or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, Burton will be executed on March 12th via nitrogen gas. NBC News’ Dan Slepian spoke to him from death row, and a juror who thinks she made a grave mistake. He reports on the legal doctrine called “Felony Murder” that locks up thousands.
Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/Aa9_Nouv8TYKfFcOMC2DUaQ
Shared from Apple News
Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 
Hi Scottie. I’ve never understood the death penalty in how it is administered currently. I will say I understand that there should be a consequence to crime, that an accountability has to be made, but I will say that there has to be a rationality to it as well.
In my opinion, if we are to do the death penalty, it should be immediate. I cannot imagine the stress and torture of living under a “Sword of Damocles”. Moments of extremity or in this case a very poor decision with a tragic outcome are over in moments, most times, but to punish that with decades of the knowledge that there will come a time when one’s life is taken away and there isn’t a damn thing he can do about it is absolute torture. It can only drive a person to insanity if he were to think on it at all.
There are some who will say that it deters crime. It does not. There will be others who say that it brings justice for the family, but only at the cost of torturing another family – and I would question if it really does bring anything like closure or peace to the family member. It would seem to be a very stressful and tearing existence for the victims family as well.
In the end, it is cruel in every aspect, expensive in the extreme and no-where near the goal of “swift justice”. I don’t have answers, but I do note that many states do not have the death penalty and somehow the world has not ended there.
hugs.
LikeLiked by 3 people
https://open.substack.com/pub/deathpenaltyaction/p/dpa-dispatch-its-all-hands-on-deck?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
We’ve been working very hard on this for a few years, at least, now. Please give thoughtful consideration to any little thing you might find to do to help. We are not successful as many times as we’d like to be, but sometimes, we are. Thank you for whatever you can do.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Ali. Thank you for the link. This paragraph said it all to me. Executing Sonny is not justice. It is punishment layered on top of disability. It is the deliberate choice to ignore a human being’s medical vulnerability and proceed anyway. There is no reason to execute him, none that will bring healing, none that will make anyone safer, none that can justify what it means to strap a disabled man down and end his life in the name of the public. I signed the petition and signed up for the news letter. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. Thank you so much. Some days, abolition is a lonely slog, feeling as if few people even know that their states are killing convicts in the citizens’s names when most times, even the victim’s survivors don’t want that. Every little bit helps with this, truly. Every tiny little bit helps!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Randy. You said everything far better than I could. The fact is the cruelty is the point for those that push these prison systems, conditions, and laws. It is the old debunked eye for an eye of the bible but into laws which leaves everyone blind. I have posted before about other countries prison systems where the inmates were treated with respect using their names such as Mr XXX, giving rehabilitation, giving education, and the reasons for the person committing the crime and that was worked on to prevent the person from doing it again. Norway is the best model of this. Thier resivistim rate is near zero. In fact some prisoners who have private rooms and are given reponcibles will often tell the people in charge if they feel they are not ready to be released from control and supervision. This is because their prison system is not punitive which the US model is, the Norway model is rehabilitation and getting the person ready to move back into society with no stigma. I strongly suggest is anyone wants to know how to really handle crime and people who committe them to look up the Norway model. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
John Oliver did a show on “Felony Murder”, with examples.
One example had a person who borrowed a car and then did a crime… The person whose car was borrowed was at home minding their own business but was charged under Felony Murder for something he knew nothing about.
Maddening and stupid.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi MDavis. Thank you for letting me know about the John Oliver segment. I have opened it in a tab to watch later. The US system is designed to be dehumanizing and as punitive as possible, making the prisoner as humiliated and fearful as possible. I just explained to Randy above the Norway system which I so admire. When they sent their people here they were horrified with what our prison system was like. It has only gotten worse due to for profit prisons, which are simply state paid slavery and mistreatment of a captured helpless people. Completely dehumanizing. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your Welcome.
The system is also designed to keep feeding the prisons. Those for-profit prisons aren’t going to pay for themselves, you know.
Er, wait… Nevermind.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sorry I wanted to add one more thought. If we have to lock people up for the safety of the rest of us we can and must try to do it humanely. Not cheaply or cruelly thinking these people are disposible and worthless. Look at what this country is willing to spend on our military but not on the people locked up and vulnerable to the ravages of the most cruel and the most profit seeking people. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person