Race and Execution

I just read that the 22nd Iranian of the year has been executed in that country. I live in Texas, a state that executes a lot of convicted criminals compared to other states in the United States, so I was curious to compare the pace of executions in Texas and Iran.

The fourth person of the year was executed in Texas Feb. 15. He was the eighth American to face the death penalty so far this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

At least Texas has had fewer executions than Iran this year. Last year too, apparently. Iran executed 81 people and Texas executed only 19 in 2005.

But if we look at the rate of executions compared to population, is it lower in Texas than in Iran?

Iran’s population is 68 million according to a 2005 estimate by the CIA, making that country the 20th in size in the world. (If Texas were a country, it would rank 51st between Thailand and Romania.)

The population of Texas is about 22.5 million by U.S. Census Department estimates for 2004. This is about one third that of Iran’s.

Texas had executed about one fifth as many people as Iran by the end of February 2006, so I guess the state is still not matching Iran’s rate.

As for last year, however, Iran and Texas executed about the same percentage of their populations. (The percentages are so small that it's hard to write about them, but as far as I can tell, they are barely different.)

I don’t have easy access to data on the ethnic breakdown of Iranian society or the backgrounds of those who have been executed there, but I do have such information about Texas, and it reveals inequalities among the races in the application of the death penalty in the state.

Of the 359 people who have been executed in Texas since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1982, 51 percent were white, 34 percent black and 15 percent Hispanic, according to records of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The balance of the population of Texas doesn’t stack up to match the balance of offenders who have been executed. The population of Texas is 71 percent white and 11.5 percent black according to Texas Quick Facts from the U.S. Census. Making the comparison between number of Hispanic people in the population and number executed is hard. The census asks people about their ethnic origin, but doesn’t consider Hispanic a racial category. So, of the various races reported on the census, 32 percent of the people report Hispanic origins.

There is also solid research that indicates the race of the victim plays a large role in whether the offender will be sentenced to death nationwide in the United States. Looking at all crimes that resulted in the execution of the defendant in the United States since 1976, 80 percent of the victims were white, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

About 42 percent of those awaiting execution in the prisons of the United States are black, according to an NAACP report issued in 2005.

Activists who oppose capital punishment use this information to argue that the death penalty is imposed unfairly and should be abolished. I agree with them. I oppose the killing that the state carries out in my (and your) name. But we could abolish the death penalty and not deal with the underlying problem of racial inequality these data reveal.

Why doesn’t the United States government give as much attention to dealing with the inequalities within our borders as it does mandating that other countries deal with theirs?

Ebadi: Don't use Human Rights to Justify Attacks

SAN ANTONIO – People in the West must stop equating the mistakes of individuals with Islam, Iranian activist Shirin Ebadi who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 told an audience of about 1000 people in the Laurie Auditorium at Trinity University Wednesday.

Today, a lot of governments have been hiding behind an incorrect interpretation of Islam to justify mistaken actions that violate human rights, Ebadi said, but this is not the only interpretation of Islam that has currency in the Middle East. She spoke about what she called non-governmental or dynamic Islam, that of intellectuals and any Muslims who respect democracy.

“The original Islam is based on democracy and everybody’s participation in this process,” Ebadi said through an interpreter.

“This Islam,” Ebadi said, “is under attack from two fronts, one is those who are trying to justify their crimes and the other who tries to justify their wars.”

Attacking from the one side are interpreters of Islam who present killing and terrorism as a fundamental element of the religion. From the other, are those in the West who associate discriminatory and violent practices with Islam, claiming that Islamic civilization is just different from Western civilization. In addition to the political leaders who make policy, Ebadi put intellectuals who advocate the theory of the “clash of civilizations” clearly in this camp.

Ebadi said that people throughout history have used peaceful philosophies and religions, like Islam, Christianity and Marxism, to justify violations of human rights. She said that no one blames Christianity for the mistakes made in Bosnia or Judaism for Israeli breaches of international law and U.N. regulations.

She stressed the need to find common ground among cultures and religions rather than seeking to exacerbate the differences.

“Democracy and human rights is the common need of all cultures and human societies,” said Ebadi. “Let’s talk about the common ground, not what divides us. Don’t justify war. No one is going to be happy because of war.”

“Human rights cannot be dropped on people with cluster bombs,” Ebadi said.

For Ebadi, human rights must be the framework for any government. The rules of human rights essentially protect people’s right to speak freely and live without fear of poverty, violence and dictatorship.

“If you compare it to Syria and Iraq under Saddam Hussein,” Ebadi said, “sure Iran is a better country, but it doesn’t have a developed democracy.”

Ebadi pointed to women’s rights and the rights of minorities as particular areas of concern in Iran. She finds no justification in Islam for discrimination against women and said that regimes that do discriminate are hiding behind Islam for their own purposes, as are the outside observers who maintain that such discrimination is in accord with Islam.

Iranian women are more educated than Iranian men, a statement the audience applauded, but still the government maintains many discriminatory rules and regulations, she said. On the one hand, 13 women hold seats in the Iranian parliament and one is a vice president. On the other, women are barred from running for president, it takes testimony from two women to equal that of one man in court and a woman must have written permission from her father or husband to travel.

“Just imagine if the vice president wants to make a trip overseas to visit the U.N. she has to beg her husband for written permission,” Ebadi said. “Just imagine if there is no agreement between the man and the woman in the night. Iran’s seat at the U.N. remains empty.”

Ebadi does not see the close association of church and state as a problem for the development of democracy. Separation of church and state is not necessary for governmental legitimacy, she said. “Only democracy and human rights combined have legitimacy, Ebadi said. “When they are combined there is no need for separation of church and state.”

“If there is a society in which the people are really yearning to unite church and state,” she said, “what are you going to do with them? Are you going to impose your will on them?” she asked the audience.

While some countries may not have as developed democracies as others, Ebadi said that human rights must never be used as a justification for attacking a country.

“Democracy is not a gift,” Ebadi said. It can’t be exported from one country to another. Instead, democracy develops when people are yearning for it.