Imposing the Death Penalty - Justice, Injustice, or Revenge

     The lines between justice, injustice, and revenge continue to blur as evidenced in the recent execution of Troy Davis. Despite reasonable doubt in Davis' case, and public outcry from hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. and Europe asking that his life be spared, The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board, Georgia courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court allowed him to be put to death.

Troy Davis (Top two photos)

 The National Action Network under the direction of Reverend Al Sharpton, the NAACP, Amnesty International, and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,  were among supporters advocating on his behalf.

     Davis was accused of killing off duty police officer, Marc MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia in 1989, and faced death four times from 2007 until he was finally executed last month. He was granted a stay of execution in 2007, less than 24 hours before he was to be put to death. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened two hours before his impending death, and a few months later, a federal appeals court stopped the execution.

     No physical evidence linked Davis to the crime. There was no DNA, no fingerprints, and the weapon was never found. Key witnesses who placed Davis at the scene of the crime did not prove reliable. Seven of the nine witnesses recanted their testimonies, and after the trial, others indicated someone else committed the murder. Some witnesses said they were coerced and threatened by the police to identify Davis as the shooter.

Prayer Vigil for Troy Davis prior to his execution.

     New York Times bestselling author, Thomas Cahill chronicles the life of another African-American man who met the same fate in 2004 after spending 11 years on death row in Texas. The biography, A Saint on Death Row, The Story of Dominique Green, reveals the life of a young man from an impoverished and troubled childhood and adolescence, who, at age 16, fell in with the wrong crowd and was involved in a robbery in which the victim was shot and killed. Three other young men were involved in the crime, and their testimony alone, pointed to Green as the shooter. His fingerprints were not on the murder weapon, and in fact, there was no DNA evidence linking him to the crime. He was not identified in the lineup, or by other witnesses as having been the shooter. Green repeatedly ask that a tape from the store's security camera be retrieved, insisting that it would prove his innocence. It was never introduced as evidence.

     As with the Troy Davis case, Dominique's case drew worldwide attention and support, including that of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who visited Dominique on death row.  Life in prison was punishment enough, he said in a press conference after his visit with Green. "Don't dehumanize yourself as a society by carrying out the death penalty," he implored of Americans.

     "I just wonder what affect working in that environment can have on people," Bishop Desmond Tutu said further after his visit to the Texas death row. "It's so destroying--for everyone there."

Thomas Cahill's biography of death row inmate, Dominique Green,

executed in 2004 after eleven years on death row in Texas.

     "Many colleagues turned to drugs and alcohol and some committed suicide," said former warden Ron McAndrew, who oversaw executions on Florida's death row. He testified at a New Hampshire hearing regarding the trauma experienced by prison staff, and admits he is haunted by the men he executed. 

     Capital punishment continues to be a controversial issue, and statistics suggest that it is disproportionately applied in instances where African-Americans and the poor are the accused. According to the organization, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, African-Americans are only 12 percent of the U.S. population, but constitute a significantly large percentage of inmates on death row in the 35 states that impose the capital punishment. In Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Maryland, African-Americans comprise 42 percent of those on death row. In Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Ohio, more than 50 percent of death row inmates are African-Americans. The death penalty has been applied in 80 percent of cases in which the accused is black and the the victim is Caucasian. Conversely, of the 18,000 executions that have occurred in U.S history, 42 involved a white perpetrator and a black victim.

     Over 90 percent of cases of those charged with capital crimes are indigent, and could not pay attorneys who were able and willing to expend efforts to prepare and launch extensive defense of their cases. In many instances, the trial was over in a week, which did not allow adequate time for preparation.

        Violent crime plague's America, and many feel that the death penalty is a deterrent. In 2010, 46 people in America were put to death. The number of executions and public sentiment for the death penalty has steadily declined, but it is still a contentions issue which garners support from 61 percent of Americans, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Three thousand people currently await their fate on death row. 

For additional information and resources about the death penalty: http://www.innocenceproject.org/ (The Innocence Project); http://www.deathpenalty.org/ (Death Penalty Focus); http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ (Death Penalty Information Center); http://www.ncadp.org/ (National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty); http://www.schr.org/; (Southern Center for Human Rights).

Information for this article gathered from the above sources and http://www.msnbc.com/; http://www.naacp.org/;  http://www.ibtimes.com/; http://www.aclu.org/.

Summer 2011 in Baltimore - A Photo Expose

Photos by Titilayo Akanke

The African American Heritage Festival

The Baltimore Summer Opera Workshop

at Morgan State University

     Under the supervision of founder and artistic director, Vincent D. Stinger, and Masetro Julien Benichou, the Baltimore Summer Opera Workshop is a four-week program in which a diverse group of young musicians are trained by outstanding artists from around the country. The program culminates with the production of five operas including Highway One USA by William Grant Still, Little Red Riding Hood by Seymore Barab, Beauty and the Beast by Vittorio Giannini, The Medium by Gian-Carlo Menottie, and Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Pucinni. The photos below are scenes from The Medium and Gianni Schicchi.

     The Medium is a tragic story of a woman, Madam Flora, who deceives people into thinking she has the power to communicate with the dead by conducting seances. She is actually a drunk who, with the help of her daughter, Monica, uses theatrical gimmicks to convince her clients that they are in contact with their loved one in the spirit world. She is also terribly abusive to their mute servant, Toby; and unbeknownst to her mother, Monica and Toby are is in love. Madam Flora's schemes backfire when she "feels a phantom hand clutching her throat" and she begins to hear voices. She tries to convince her patrons that "the whole thing was a sham," but they do not believe her. She becomes more violent, abusive and unstable as she searches for the origin of the mysterious presence that continues to torment her.

Scenes from The Medium on stage at

Morgan State University's Murphy Fine Arts Theatre

     Gianni Schicchi is a tale of greed and deception as the family of a wealthy, dying man connive to receive that have not necessarily been bequeathed to them. Relatives gather at the deathbed of Buosco Donati to "mourn his passing and investigate the details of his will." It turns out that he has left the bulk of his estate to a monastery. However, the will has not been filed with a notary and no one outside the room knows about Donati's death. With the help of Gianni Schicchi, a ruthless businessman in Florence, Italy who has risen from peasantry, the family devises a scheme to create a new will that includes them. Schicchi warns them that if the fraud is ever discovered, they face punishment of having a hand cut off and banishment from Florence. They remove Donati's body and call a notary to the home so that Schicchi, while impersonating Donati, can dictate a new will. In an ultimate betrayal to the family, he stipulates in the new will, that the majority of the estate is should go to his good friend Gianni Schicchi, which of course, in actuality is himself. He had convinced the family that he was going to help them and he actually swindles them.

 

Scenes from Gianni Shicchi on stage at

 Morgan State University's Murphy Fine Arts Theatre

Artscape, Downtown Baltimore

The Light Box

     On exhibit at Artscape, the Light Box is a design and build project completed by students earning their Bachelors of Science in Architecture and Environmental Design in the Morgan State University School of Architecture and Planning, under the direction of Professor Michael Zembrowski. The structure incorporates "passive solar design," and is composed of 85 percent recycled and reclaimed materials obtained from The Loading Dock, a non-profit materials reuse center. For further details log on to: http://www.morgan.edu/ and search School of Architecture and Planning.

 Artscape Parade

Artscape Vendors and Activities

The Baltimore International Festival

Mayor Stephanie Rawlins-Blake gives recognition to the winners of the international soccer tournament

 which was one of the festival activities.

MC, Papa Wabe, Host of "Reggae Roots and Culture"

 (Saturdays 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM, WEAA, 88.9 FM), introduces Third World

Third World, on Stage at The International Festival

Ledisi on stage at the International Festival

International Film - The Source

    

A Look at the

Politics of Water in a Desert Community

     Empowerment of women to facilitate change in a struggling community is the theme of the film, The Source. Co-written by Alain-Michael Blanc and Radu Milhaileanu (also the director), the film is set in a contemporary Arabian village that still adheres to traditional values and culture. The community has no running water, and it is the task of the women to walk through miles of rough terrain to obtain water from their local source, a remote well, and then carry it back in large containers to their village. Even pregnant women are expected to engage in this arduous task. When one of the young women, in the later stages of pregnancy, falls while taking water back for her family, and as a result, has a miscarriage, Leila (played by Leila Bekht), one of the young educated women in the village, calls upon the women to demand a change.

     With assistance from Fatima (actess, Hiam Abass), one of the matriarchs of the village, the women embark upon a "love strike" and decide to withhold sex from their husbands until they take action to make the necessary provisions to have water piped into the village. The men say two years have passed since they applied to the state for running water, but to date, nothing has been done toward it development. Many of the women do not want to get involved in the strike because they say it has been the tradition for women to bring water to the village since the beginning of time. The cries of one of the young women are heard throughout the village when she is beaten nightly by her husband as he attempts to force her to have relations with him. News about the women's demand spread around the country and beyond, and it eventually gains international attention.

 The Source premiered at the Cannes Film Festival

 and is scheduled for international release in November 2011.

    
     A sub-plot revolves around Leila's relationship with the village, her husband, Sami (actor Saleh Bakri) and her former fiancee, a journalist who has returned to his native land under the guise of doing research for a magazine article. However, he has actually returned to the village to find Leila, a matter about which Leila is troubled because her husband knows nothing about her former relationship, and in fact, believes she was a virgin when they married. As the women's strike gains momentum and the community becomes more polarized, the journalist, because of his love for Leila, reluctantly begins to chronicle the story.

     Despite some of Sami's liberal views and apparent rejections of certain traditional values, he as earned a position of high esteem with the elder men and he Shiek because he is a college educated man who has returned home to teach, and he has developed positive relationships with the children of the village. The men have tried to accept Leila as Sami's wife, but her refusal to embrace the traditional role prescribed for women, and her position as the outspoken leader of the women's strike have negatively impacted their views of her. Sami is conflicted because he feels the women are advocating for a just cause and he wants to support his wife, but he does not want to directly oppose the men. Their marriage is further tested once he learns of Leila's former relationship.

    Set against the backdrop of the rugged terrain of the Arabian Desert, The Source has a tighly woven plot revolving around the political, social, and cultural issues impacting a arid community's struggle to acquire water . It compels viewers to examine the affects of poverty in underdeveloped areas of the world and the resulting lack of infrastructure. It brings to the forefront, problems compounded by the growing need for potable water.

     According to the April 2010 issue of National Geographic, entitled Water, Our Thirsty World, "46 percent of people on earth do not have water piped to their homes..." "Women in developing countries walk an average of 3.7 miles to get water.

     In northern Kenya, women may spend as much as five hours a day transporting heavy containers of water on foot. Currently, ten million people in the East African countries Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Somalia are affected by the worst drought the area has experienced in 60 years, though there has  been a steady decrease in rainfall over the past ten years. Crop failures and food shortages have caused many Somalians to seek Sanctuary in the Kenyan refugee camp, Dadaab, where more than 380,000 people are depending on resources intended for 90,000 (CNN World Report, July 8, 2011).

    
     Water, referred to in National Geographic as "the earth's most vital resource," without which no living thing can survive, is becoming increasingly less abundant. "In 15 years, 1.8 billion people will live in regions of severe water scarcity." The way in which water is used on planet earth will have to undergo change because right now, aquifers are being drained more rapidly than they are being replenished.

      For more information about what you can do to help in drought-stricken ares consult: http://www.worldvision.org/. Following are global organizations working to provide clean water in developing countries and drought stricken areas: http://www.waterforpeople.org/; http://www.wateradvocates.org/; http://www.globalwaterchallenge.org/; http://www.globalwaterinitiative.com/; and http://www.psi.org/ (Population Services International, involved in combating waterborne diseases).

    

International Film - Michael - Kidnapping and Pedophilia on the Big Screen

     Written and directed by Markus Schleinzer, Michael is a disturbing drama about a pedophile who has kidnapped ten year old Wolfgang, played by David Rauchenberger, and is holding him as a sex slave. Michael Krall, the protagonist, played by Michael Fueth, has fortified and sound proofed his home, located in a middle class community in Austria, so that the boy, without risk of escaping, is able to leave his room in the basement and go into other areas of the house. To maintain emotional control, Michael feeds the boy the usual propaganda about his family not loving or wanting him anymore.

     Krall does not allow anyone to come to his, and for five months, managaes to keep up the facade at work, and with his family and associates, and even earns a promotion at work. As Wolfgang's contempt for his captor heightens, the story draws to a climax when the boy contrives a daring escape by throwing boiling hot water in Michael's face. However, he is unsuccessful in his effort, and after a struggle, Michael forces him back into the basement.

     Not wanting to call an ambulance to his home, Michael sets out to drive himself to the hospitl. He is killed in a car accident when he veers off a winding road because he has difficulty seeing and navigating the vehicle as a result of damage to his eyes caused by the hot water. The film reaches the denouement with the family having Michaels funeral, going through a brief period of mourning, and finally going to his home to pack his belongings. Michael's brother-in-law (Victor Tremmel) is sorting through clothing in the bedroom while his mother (Christine Kain) inspects other areas of the home. The film ends with her investigating the control planel that opens the door to the basement in which the boy is locked.

     The story, told primarily from the perspective of the pedophile, reveals the bazaar inner workings of a mind that compels the abuser to seek the affection of the victim, and is then frustrated to the point of tears by the constant rejection. There is no overt violence or explicit sexuality in the film, and the plot develops in a manner that clearly establishes a relationship between Michael and Wolfgang before it is revealed that the child is a kidnap and sexual abuse victim.

     From a technical standpoint, the film, which debuted af the Cannes Film Festival and is scheduled for international relelase in November 2011, adheres to a well-developed three-act structure that is easy to follow. Action is subtle and nuanced, but purposeful. Characters, storyline, and dialogue are engaging and convincing. The setting includes various areas of Michael's home, his job, and various activities in which he engages. There are no particular gimmicks, novel uses of technology, special effects, or spectacular cinematographic images. It is simply a well-told story that evokes intense emotion in viewers and sheds light on an issue that continues to plague humankind.

     Michael is clearly a tale seized from current news stories about the horrific experiences of missing and exploited children. A prime example is the recently exposed ordeal of Jaycee Lee Dugard, the young female victim stolen at age 11, and held captive for 18 years by her kidnappers, a married couple. She was forced into a sexual relationship with her captor and gave birth to two children before she finally escaped. The film, Michael, and Dugard's situation bring to the forefront, the issue of pedophilia and exploited children, and perhaps will compel viewers to save a child's life.

     For information or to report cases of children who are possible victims of exploitation, abuse or kidnapping, contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at http://www.missingkid.com/.
Call the 24-hour hotline at 1-800-the Lost (1-800-843-5678).