Postandcourier.com
Yesterday, the South Carolina Department of Justice announced that they would seek the death penalty for the infamous Charlestom shooter. In the public eye, they seemed as if they yearned to see the day when Dylann Roof would regret the moment he stepped into Emanuel AME church. But, knowing the systematic judicial wrongdoings that the killing of black men and women brings, I don’t believe that justice will easily be served.
Roof is represented by one of the most sought after lawyers,one that most wish to meet in the case that they find themselves eye to eye with an impending death penalty. Knowing the power of white privilege and the strength of recognized lawyers, I don’t think that Roof will go down without a fight.
Personally, I’m intrigued with whether or not the penalty will stand on the table by the end of the trial. I’d like to say that we live in a world where nothing that you say or do, no matter how expensive your lawyers are, can compensate for the fact that you killed nine unarmed and innocent black men and women just because of the color of their skin. I’d like to say that the arguments of freedom of speech and the right to bear arms won’t hold up in court. But we live in a deeply flawed nation with prejudice dripping from the very streets that we walk on, and to say these things would be a lie.
What I’m wondering at this point, is when this social justice attitude that is radiating off of the South Carolina court system joined the party. Where was this attitude when all of the other unarmed black men and women were murdered in the streets. It seems more as if they are making a propaganda gesture than actually seeking justice.
I can understand why some may believe that Dylann Roof is a monster. That those who carefully plan and strategize a racially motivated massacre should not be trusted in our society, much less our prison systems. But I can also understand those who stand firmly against death penalties. Those who don’t believe that the government should be allowed to determine who lives and who dies.
The death penalty has a connotation of old times that we, as a society, are supposed to be far past. When I think of the death penalty, images of popularized lynchings and publicized deaths peek into my subconscious. Perhaps, as we are slowly falling back into the rythym of racial discrimination and hatred that drive several murders, we are not past the 1960’s at all. We are still in the time of protests due to bubbling racial tensions. Perhaps we are not past death penalties and the humane need for everyone to know that justice must be served and this justice may not be found in prison.
Of course, it is the state’s duty to decipher whether or not the death penalty is applicable after the evidence is on the table and the defendants have formulated sorry excuses. The South has always been embodied in the past in a sense and South Carolina is no stranger of falling back on old traditions, and that’s okay because it’s their right to govern their state however they choose. There are few ways to deal with such acts of ignorant, unapologetic hatred and to many, death seems like the ideal solution. But as the dust settles and even the families of the deceased proclaim their forgiveness, it makes me question whether the death penalty should still be put into place. Haven’t enough people died already?
