MIM Notes 211                   June 1, 2000

Protect my ass 

The need for an Innocence Protection Act may seem ironic in a 
legal system based on the concept of innocent until proven guilty. 
However, the Innocence Protection Act only puts a Band-Aid on the 
decapitation of justice and democracy by capitalism. Due to the 
high numbers of innocent prisoners released from death row in 
Illinois, legislation has been passed to cease executions and 
perform DNA tests on death row prisoners to ensure they are not 
guilty of anything more than being poor and members of oppressed 
nations. Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, 85 
people on death row have been found innocent and released. Given 
the state of injustice in the U.$. this can only be a small number 
of those who do not meet the imperialist standards for the death 
penalty. Being that executing innocent people in the name of 
justice is popular country-wide, Senators have introduced the 
Innocence Protection Act. With the number of people being released 
from death row reaching embarrassing levels, this legislation is 
being used to mask the evils of the injustice system. Along with 
the DNA tests to determine the innocence or guilt of a prisoner, 
the Act would also require that competent counsel be provided for 
charged persons, something one might assume as common sense. As 
groundbreaking (Ha!) as the legislation is, oppressed nationals 
are going to be murdered by the fascist prison system and 
injustice system as long as capitalist pigs run the world. 
Suspension of the death penalty buys some time for people to prove 
their innocence, but that will certainly not be a privilege 
available to all death row prisoners. There is something 
fundamentally wrong with a country that needs to specify that 
innocent people should not go to jail and that everyone should get 
decent representation in court. 

Note: Boston Globe: 12 February 2000, p .A04.