An Unlikely Pair
Last week I linked to an op-ed by Jon Voight with the caveat that I generally don't really care about the opinions of celebrities. Today, I want you to meet one of the few exceptions to my rule: Mike Farrell. I had the honor of meeting Mike at a death penalty protest several years ago and he truly does walk the walk of his values and there's no way to do anything but respect him for that and for the dignity he brings to activism and this important topic. He and his friend Don McCartin contributed this op-ed, originally in the LA Daily News, but here for you from Truthdig:
We are an unlikely pair-not "The Odd Couple," but close. Forty-five years ago, one was a successful lawyer practicing in Orange County, the other an aspiring actor living there because his new wife taught at Laguna Beach High School.
The lawyer had lawsuits to handle, papers to be filed, people to be found, summonses and subpoenas to be served.
The actor, unable to count on work in show business, ran an attorney service that took care of the lawyer's business.
Both former Marines, we thus knew each other, if casually, for years.
Two decades later, the lawyer, then a judge of the Superior Court, had sentenced more men to death than any other in his jurisdiction. He was known as "the hanging judge of Orange County."
The actor had gotten lucky, becoming a member of the cast of "M*A*S*H," one of the nation's most beloved TV shows, and was an ardent and outspoken opponent of the death penalty.
Today, while coming at it from vastly different perspectives, the now-retired "hanging judge" and the actor, who chairs Death Penalty Focus, find themselves working together again, this time to close California's death chamber.
Don McCartin, having sentenced nine men to death and then watched as the system examined, re-examined and finally overturned all of his convictions while executing none of them, now believes the death penalty is a hideously expensive fraud. It tortures the loved ones of murder victims by dragging them through the years of complex appeals required by the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to protect the innocent.
He's aware of the constitutional dilemma created by the tension between the need to protect the rights of the accused in a death case and the desire for some form of justice to be done. But he's outraged that the mother of Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl raped and murdered in 1979, is now required to sit through yet a third trial of the alleged killer almost 30 years later. A sentence of life without parole would have allowed her to go on with her own life so long ago.
Mike Farrell, having seen the harm done by this same system-both to the innocent caught in it, sentenced to death and sometimes executed, as well as to the prosecutors, defense attorneys, investigators, judges, juries, guards, chaplains, killing teams and executioners tainted by it-believes our entire society is harmed by the dehumanization process inherent in state killing.
"When stripping away the remaining shreds of one's humanity and killing him while helpless and defenseless is called `justice' by the leaders of our state and nation, a lesson is taught," says Farrell. "Unfortunately, that lesson is being played out today, not only in our cities, but by young Americans in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and `black sites' run by the CIA across the world, again with the full authority and approval of those who pretend to leadership." Read on...
**OMG moment**
Hilary's statements come back in to play
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/McCain_webad_Praise_for_McCa...
I guess no VP
Our sun is a star. There are up to 400,000,000,000 billion stars in our galaxy. Moreover, there are up to 500,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe.
All Christians believe that man/woman was made "in the image" of the being that created all this. Most believe we are the only place where "life" exists in the universe.
And they're willing to kill more than 1 million people, most entirely innocent, for a war of choice. It's no wonder killing an innocent person on death row doesn't bother them.
'Thou shalt not kill'
I heard that in church once.
since you linked to truthdig, you might find this of interest:
Information Clearing House Publisher Threatened
Mike Whitney � Fly by News August 6, 2008
Two days ago, Tom's wife found three well dressed men in their kitchen. The man who did all the talking, told Tom's wife (I won't give her name) that Tom must "Stop what he is doing on the Internet, NOW!" As crazy as it sounds, he pulled back his lapel and showed her a gun of some kind which she could not identify. Like I said, Tom has been threatened before, but nothing like this. 4 years ago, he was in a parking lot at Long's Drug store in Southern California and when he tried to open his door to get out, a man in a car next to him opened his door at precisely the same time which prevented Tom from getting out. Then, a 40-ish year old man got out of the passenger side of the vehicle and approached Tom saying, "You need to stop what you are doing on the web".
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=9111
Don and Mike, I applaud your courage, your sensitivity, and your vigilance in walking your talk. The world needs more people like you. One thousand thank-yous!!
He was never as good as Trapper John.
Harry R. Sohl @ 2:
Well while I agree with most of your post here...I think it's unfair to lump all Christians in with the bible thumpers.
ysbaddaden @ 6:
He was better than Trapper John, MD, though.
john j @ 1:
"I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House, and Senator Obama has a speech that he gave in 2002."
Obama/Clinton need to do damage control
Clinton knew she was crossing the line by playing GOP rules
She owes Obama big time
Making me wish there was a death penalty here ...
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x2061740809/Three-charged-in-death-o...
there is no such thing as a former marine, they are MARINES.
Semper Fi gentlemen.
Question: Is "life without possibility of Parole" actually true? do we know this? anyone?
I agree about the innocent being punsihed for decades. How sad, indeed, that the system is so screwed up!
execution scheduled tonight in texas
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/46700.html
Interesting how Don Adams, Leslie Nielsen, Mike Farrell, Drew Carey and I'm sure numerous other actors were once in the military (many of them saw combat), while you have so many of our politicians sending the military into harm's way who never even enlisted, let alone fought.
linda @ 4:
How about this idea? John Amato can start a fund here at C&L to raise money for body guards to protect the publisher of Informationclearinghouse.info
Then we can hire a documentary film crew to start following them around.
I'm good for 50 bucks on this one.
I will support the death penalty the day it becomes legally applied to a Glorious Leader of this republic. So long as our leaders remain immune, all are immune. The serial killings of the leaders has always dwarfed those of the denizens of death row. It cannot be called justice till the same punishment standards are applied.
Jon Voight is an unhinged loon.
In other news: You can tell the election is 4 months away. brazen new lies http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080807/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_us_bases After the election there will be excuses as to why the troops had to stay after all and why more surges are necessary.
i wonder how many voters will be fooled again? The wingers for certain.
I used to work in Europe, and I'll never forget one night when I took an Italian friend of mine to dinner. We were having a nice, quiet, pleasant dinner when all of a sudden, out of the blue, she just said, "Why does the U.S. support the death penalty?" She went on and on, just expressing her thorough disgust over it. I have always been against the death penalty, but the passion she displayed in expressing her horror over it was amazing.
Seems those socialist heathens and godless Europeans do get it right on this issue.
Since it can be shown than innocent people are put to death for crimes they did not commit, and since the law cannot insure this never happens, the death penalty should never be imposed, not because the guilty deserve life, but because the innocent do not deserve death.
to me it is fairly simple: does the death penalty reduce crime, and/or does it deter capital crimes.
the answer to this is no.
no, it doesn't.
and if it doesn't deter nor reduce crime, and there are lots of innocent people (majority of whom are minorities) killed, the only reason for the death penalty is vengeance.
it is simply state sanctioned murder.
just noticed and connected something...
mcFOOL keeps wearing those NAVY ballcaps... and has skin disease scraped from the side of his face...
get a brimmed hat, fool.
Samson- @ 21:
I'm with Samson on this.....revenge is NOT an honorable pursuit. Besides, killing is wrong no matter WHO does it.
I am often amazed at conservative Christians who abhor abortion because of the whole "sanctity of life" issue......but have NO problem with the death penalty. I have been known to ask them "Who would Jesus kill......and what methods would He use??"
Samson- @ 21:
Well sure.. if you want to be all simple and rational about it.
Of course, in that case you could also look at how they're doing over in Europe, where they're getting on just fine without the death penalty (or handguns for that matter).
This is entirely irrelevant though. If there's a single defining trait of modern conservative politics in the USA, it's that pragmatism, empiricism, and just about anything that has to do with observing reality, is irrelevant. Republicans no longer observe and try to understand reality. They'd much use ideology to imagine what they think reality is, use propaganda to spread it, and cover-ups to hide any 'inconvenient truths'.
They hate us because of our freedom. Global warming is a myth. Iraq and Al-Quaida were collaborating. The death penalty reduces crime. We'll be welcomed as liberators.
liberalMcTireGaugeO'JusticeNmoderation @ 7:
I would respect Christians if they spent the same energy trying to denounce those bible thumpers as the one they spend denouncing those who lumps'em with said bible thumpers.
If you don't want people to complain about the smoke that is coming out of the fire in your campground, extinguish the fire...
linda @ 4:
He had a gun behind his lapel? That's either the world's smallest gun or 'well dressed' means 'pimp suit.'
ps - Mike Ferrell is a celebrity like your local ABC affiliate's weatherman is.
It's kind of ridiculous to expect normal Christians to run around and do nothing but denounce others of likely separate sects for being "crazy". That's a pretty stupid reason to not respect Christians and certainly just as strong of a generalization as the one Harry Sohl was originally responding to. There are plenty of Christians who stand up and say so-and-so doesn't speak for me.
General Jack D. Ripper @ 19:
Yeah, for such godless people, Europeans sure do take care of their own, don't have people rot in jail, don't execute people, and they seem to have few incidents of people going on rampages.
I always wondered what the oh so godly Americans are praying to, because it sure as hell doesn't seem that Jesus feller.
Tony @ 27:
thanks for proving my point...
With respect, you might want to consider not over-generalizing so much. It'd be greatly appreciated if you'd understand that not all of us self-professed Christians feel this way, and I think you know that.
Insulting all of us by using this sort of language only alienates you from folks who are actually your allies, and it certainly doesn't help in this particular case.
Something to think about.
An Unlikely Pair
The pair McC**t wouldn't flash?
30 QuakerDave
Sowing your oats?
I wonder how many men Bush executed in Texas,with Alberto (La Beaner) Gonzales advice!
Poopsie @ 33:
At least one of the men that GW refused to commute from death to life w/out parole was a man with mental retardation. How's THAT for Christian values???
Oh....did it matter, do you think, that the man was black??
Ruthless People @ 18:
Fixed this for you.
"execution scheduled tonight in texas."
You could post that at any time and rarely be wrong.
Just looking at the people wrongly convicted freed in Dallas County alone is frightening, imagine the whole state...and country...
"Last week I linked to an op-ed by Jon Voight with the caveat that I generally don’t really care about the opinions of celebrities. Today, I want you to meet one of the few exceptions to my rule: Mike Farrell."
Yeah and Billo doesn't care about the opinions of celebrities/ With a few exceptions like Chuck Norris, The Rock, Dennis Miller, etc.
whizzer @ 11:
Once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper Fi.
Executions are not deemed cruel and unusual punishment by U.S. courts, and I happen to agree. There are worst fates than death.
Consequently, I oppose the death penalty. Always have.
QuakerDave
Sowing your oats?
ROTFLOL!!! I've NEVER heard THAT one before!!!
sulphurdunn @ 20:
Can I get an AMEN
Samson- @ 21:
How very Jeffersonian of you. :-)
Nicole, I found it a bit funny that you commented you "generally don't really care about the opinions of celebrities." Yet here you are, basically an anonymous and not particularly well-versed blogger, giving your opinion on things every day!
Glass houses?
Mark @ 44:
No, not at all.
I said in the Jon Voight post that I don't think that celebrities' opinions are any more or any less valid than yours or mine. Just because someone is in a successful movie or has proven themselves in some sport doesn't give them any more insight to give their opinions than you or I do. So their opinions are not particularly swaying to me.
BTW, how do you know how well-versed I am?
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