A man will be executed today.

[Tomconroy]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/us/julius-jones-oklahoma-execution-decision/index.html


State sanctioned murder is a disgrace to this country.

[marble falls]

1. An absolute, dismal, in-equally applied disgrace.

[Celerity]

2. white power feeds off black death

[BlackSkimmer]

4. A white man was executed yesterday.

Did “white power” feed off that too?

[Celerity]

6. nice whataboutism, you damn well know that the American justice system is extraordinarily racist

[BlackSkimmer]

14. Deep breath. I simply asked a question.

My goodness.

[Devil Child]

10. +1 BlackSkimmer n/t

[Celerity]

19. No.

[Polybius]

73. Yes

[Celerity]

74. Nej.

[Polybius]

76. Maybe?

[Celerity]

77. I see nothing 'maybe' about a reply to me that played whataboutism racial games in an attempt to

mitigate and muddy the waters of my original broad statement



I truly fail to see how that would be controversial on a Democratic chat board, especially given the history of the American justice system and also long history of slavery, Jim Crow, and white supremacy in the US animating so much of the zeitgeist, both historically and at the present time.

[Polybius]

78. I mean, one was commuted

The other wasn't.

[Celerity]

79. So? When I posted it there was no commutation, and a single commutation changes nothing

as to the validity of my simple statement.

[The Magistrate]

21. If Recollection Serves, Sir

The fellow yesterday waived all appeals, and had not been recommended for clemency by a review board which seldom recommends it.

[BlackSkimmer]

23. I am not a "sir" and I find your continual schtick of calling people "sir" or "ma'am" while on a

a progressive forum where many here do not identify as sirs or ma’ams to be presumptuous, if not rude.

No idea why you assigned me a masculine title, but you got it wrong.

[Decoy of Fenris]

27. As an aside; Agree with you about the pointlessly gendered schlock.

A LOT of people don't identify as either gender nowadays and find it grievously insulting for others to assume their genders. Just going around calling people whatever you want doesn't fly in modern progressive society.

[BlackSkimmer]

29. It's bugged me for quite awhile. Funnily enough, the guy called me ma'am on another occasion.

Life today must be very difficult for someone who has to have people in neat little labeled boxes.

[Decoy of Fenris]

32. Some older people just can't keep up with the times, and they get left behind.

Like the racists of the 40s and 50s, eventually they'll be forgotten, only realizing that they've been "Obsoleted" on their deathbeds, if that.

And likewise as an aside, I don't believe Magistrate has a single ill-meaning bone in their body, but the times have changed. Gender identity, too, has changed, and the simple "Sir/Ma'am" no longer flies in polite dialogue.

[The Magistrate]

37. I Have Long Found It A Useful Sorting Device, Sir

People who take umbrage over trifles can be left to one side without loss.

[Devil Child]

40. What Does It Mean to Misgender Someone?

What can you do to prevent misgendering?

Stopping your own misgendering behaviors and encouraging others to do so is an easy and effective way to support the trans people in your life.

Here are a few things you can do to prevent misgendering and affirm a person’s identity:

1. Don’t make assumptions.

You might think you know how someone identifies, but you can never know for certain unless you ask.

2. Always ask what words you should use!

You can ask people specifically or ask people who know a given person. Or, you can simply get in the habit of asking everyone their pronouns and terms they use for themselves.

3. Use the right name and pronouns for the trans people in your life.

You should do this all the time, not just when they’re around. This signals the proper way to refer to your trans friends to other people. It also helps you get accustomed to saying the right thing.

4. Avoid using gendered language to speak to or describe people unless you know it’s the language that a particular person prefers.

Examples of gendered language include:

honorifics such as “sir” or “ma’am”
terms like “ladies,” “guys,” or “ladies and gentlemen” to refer to a group of people
typically gendered adjectives such as “handsome” and “beautiful”

Practice using these gender-neutral terms and forms of address instead. You can say things like “my friend” instead of “sir” or “ma’am,” and refer to groups of people as “folks,” “y’all,” or “guests.”

5. Don’t default to gender-neutral language if you know how a person wishes to be addressed.

It can seem like using the singular “they” to describe everyone is a safe bet, and sometimes that’s actually a good way to navigate a situation where you’re uncertain how a person identifies. But, it’s important to respect the wishes of people who have specific gendered language that they want you to use.

6. Avoid using passive language.

Instead ofsaying: “X identifies as a woman” or “Y prefers he/him/his pronouns,” say things like “X is a woman” or “Y’s pronouns are he/him/his.”

At the end of the day, know that it’s fine to make a mistake here or there so long as you don’t make a habit of it. If you do make a mistake, just apologize and move on.

“If you need to correct yourself, do it and move on,” said Louis, a 29-year-old nonbinary person. “Don’t apologize profusely unless that’s what the other person wants. It’s not the trans person’s job to accept your apology or make you feel better for your misgendering them.”

https://www.healthline.com/health/transgender/misgendering

[The Magistrate]

42. That's An Awful Lot Of Words, Sir

[Devil Child]

43. Click profile and read my gender: Non-binary

Keep digging.

[The Magistrate]

45. Fair Enough

I did not look, and ought to have.

Should we interact in future, I will remember.

[BlackSkimmer]

54. Good lord. I was outside raking. Just came in and saw this.

Some just don’t get it, do they?

[Devil Child]

60. No they don't

Not surprising with the double-downs. Raking yards was probably more productive than sharing feedback on being misgendered after being misgendered.

[Decoy of Fenris]

62. Sorry you had to experience that disgrace, DC.

I can likely never experience the discomfort or pain of being purposefully and maliciously misgendered and "Othered", but your existence matters and you are worth more than those who would devalue you could ever hope to be.

o/ Never alone. And to paraphrase a Reddit meme, "Apes together strong". You matter, as do your experiences. Cheers, mate.

[Decoy of Fenris]

41. If you call someone's gender identity "Trifles", then indeed you've been left in the dustbin.

Nowadays, gender identity is no small thing; In the workplace, you will lose your job for not respecting it. In the political arena, you'll be ousted for not considering it. In the social arena, you'll lose friends over it. And in the modern, advanced times of the Internet and mass-messaging, you'll be excoriated and remembered for it if you so much as question it.

Don't call me Sir. Nor Ma'am. Nor anything gendered. You've not earned the respect or the right, and will not until you take the time to consider the people around you compassionately and thoughtfully.

[BlackSkimmer]

50. "Sorting." Really?

That brings to mind all sort of unpleasantness from the last century.

Curious as why you feel the need to “sort” people?
.

[The Magistrate]

57. I Am A Very Strange Man, Sir

I should think that would be obvious....

[The Magistrate]

30. Who Has No Enemies Has No Friends

If I were to look awfully hard for some hours I might find some concern for your opinion of me and my speech or behavior somewhere, but I doubt it, and it would be a waste of effort even if a smidge of such turned up.

[BlackSkimmer]

31. Lol, whatever you tried to say there....

[Devil Child]

34. Getting reactive when called out on assuming ones gender in 2021?

That is one approach.

[FBaggins]

39. The Magistrate has a history of unfailing politeness

I doubt very seriously that a simple "I prefer 'X'" would be met with anything other than an attempt to use that in the future.

Getting one's dander up at a poster being unable to identify your gender on a message board is childish at best. If a poster feels strongly about it, they can certainly list their preferred forms of address in a signature line.

[Devil Child]

44. Read post #42 and get back to me n/t

[FBaggins]

48. Seemed appropriate to the rant

How hard is it to say "I prefer to be called..._____" when someone is clearly trying to be polite?

This is an online forum. We don't submit photos of ourselves. I've been misgendered here many times and never even cared to correct the person. I'm just text on a page.

[BlackSkimmer]

52. The problem is that he presumes to know how to "sort" people. nt

[The Magistrate]

59. One Presumes, Then, You Make No Judgements About People You Interact With, Sir

We are all an undifferentiated blob, and have equal claim to your attention, or provide in all instances essentially identical benefit or lack thereof?

What a world. I have friends, I have enemies, I have family, I have lovers, I have chance encounters, some of which have become any or all of the above. I definitely sort the wheat from the chaff in dealing with humanity --- there's an awful lot of the latter about.


"Rest assured, a walk in the ocean of most souls would scarcely wet your feet."

[FBaggins]

26. Which seldom recommends it?

I think they may actually hold the record for most commutations.

They did over 500 in one day just two years ago.

[The Magistrate]

33. Oklahoma, Sir?

I do not doubt your report, and acknowledge I may have leapt to a conclusion based on geography.

I have no decided opinion on the man's guilt or innocence, from what I have read the evidence is mixed at best.

[FBaggins]

36. Yep

527 Oklahomans to walk free in historic commutation move by Gov. Stitt and Pardon & Parole Board

https://www.city-sentinel.com/criminal_justice/527-oklahomans-to-walk-free-in-historic-commutation-move-by-gov-stitt-and-pardon-parole/article_92dd3ba8-60cd-539f-a815-1ae0eab80d2b.html


I may have leapt to a conclusion based on geography.

I admit that I had the same initial reaction.

I have little doubt of his guilt. DNA testing was done by a lab of his choosing just a couple of years ago. It would take quite an interesting set of conspiracy/coincidences for him not to be the murderer. Not impossible, but well beyond "reasonable doubt" for me.

[The Magistrate]

38. Thank You, Sir

Live and learn.

[Calculating]

16. Stop being racist

As a white person this kind of stuff offends me. Imagine if someone said the opposite on here?

[BlackSkimmer]

20. Yes, imagine.

Besides the fact it just sounds like a sound bite phrase…no idea what its meaning is.

[Hortensis]

22. Agree. Seeing a death as a counter in racial politics,

one racially aligned faction or another supposedly "winning" another victim depending on the race of the person executed, is so screwed. Of course reversing the races doesn't change that a person has died.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Call the governor.

Link to tweet

[BlackSkimmer]

5. And a man was executed yesterday.

Did you post about that as well?

[Tomconroy]

7. Poof.

[BlackSkimmer]

15. Lol, you do understand the concept of a discussion board?

Ah well.

[FBaggins]

8. Shooting a man in the head in front of his sister and two little girls is also a disgrace

A complete disregard for human life makes it hard to feel compassion. If the governor wants to commute the sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole... it wouldn't break my heart. But I doubt that I'll lose sleep if he doesn't.

[MineralMan]

9. Capital Punishment Is an Abomination.

The state should not be killing people, because the state always makes mistakes. Far better to imprison murderers, etc. for the rest of their lives. A prisoner can be released if later found innocent of the crime. A dead person cannot.

End the death penalty!

[spanone]

12. ⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧⇧

[Decoy of Fenris]

17. I'm fine with expanded and enhanced imprisonment in ex. for no capital punishment.

Need to expand the options for life without parole; Child molesters and sexual abusers/rapists, mass murderers, domestic abusers, die-hard druggies, et cet.

Just divert the funds from the defense budget and keep those unstable psychopaths locked up for life with minimal chance of parole, keep them out of society where they belong. If they turn over a new leaf over the course of a few decades, great. If not, nothing lost and society is kept safe from them.

[Devil Child]

11. Rest in Peace to the victim Paul Scott Howell

[BlackSkimmer]

18. Thank you.

Will his “white power” increase with the death of the man who took his life?

[Devil Child]

24. You're welcome BlackSkimmer

Frustrating that the true victim here, Paul Scott Howell, is largely forgotten or minimally discussed.

Regarding your question, I guess we will have to await twitter/social media's judgement.

[BlackSkimmer]

28. Yes, very sad.

And those convinced of his innocence seem to have no suggestions as to who IS guilty.

Funnily enough, I don’t recall any of these posters advocating for this condemned man at anytime previous during the time I’ve been on DU. Curious.

[roody]

13. An innocent man.

[Decoy of Fenris]

35. Care to brief those of us who don't have an understanding of this case?

You say "Innocent" and my first reaction is "If he's innocent, why is he there?" I've tried to do my own homework, but all I can come up with is "His friends say he's innocent" and that holds as much water as a sieve.

Still, you say he's innocent and I trust you, I'm just curious as to the "How did it go wrong". As in, what evidence (Not proof) is there that he was wrongfully convicted, if any?

[FBaggins]

46. He isn't innocent

The two threads of the debate are far too often intertwined. It's one thing to oppose the death penalty, but quite another to constantly assume that those who receive it are actually innocent.

The red bandana that was described by one of the witnesses was found wrapped around the murder weapon and hidden in the ceiling above his bedroom closet. A few years ago he begged for DNA testing to be done on the bandana and it came back (from a lab of his choosing) conclusively matching the defendant. Stories that he was a model citizen and student on a college basketball scholarship are broadly invented. He was convicted of multiple previous felonies and had been involved in at least two prior carjackings and robbery with that same firearm less than a week prior to the murder.

Feel free to oppose the death penalty - particularly on the grounds that killing an innocent person cannot be undone later... but this was no innocent man.

[BlackSkimmer]

56. Thank you.

Well stated.

[The Magistrate]

61. I Agree, Sir

These are two separate things, and ought not be blended.

I have grown leery of execution because human systems are fallible, and there have been sufficient exonerations of persons convicted of murder who received long prison terms to leave little doubt persons have been executed for crimes they were innocent of.

This is far from asserting all persons sentenced to death are innocent, and it is in my view illegitimate to hijack the claim of innocence in support of the general objection to a lawful sentence.

One argument I reject utterly is the 'state should not kill' line. Killing is pretty much what states do --- any government claims a monopoly on legitimate use of violence where its writ runs, it does not govern otherwise.

[obamanut2012]

66. "If he's innocent, why is he there?"

I have no idea if this guy is innocent or not, but your statement reeks of privilege and not being educated on the amount of innocent people in prison, including folks who ahve been executed.

[Decoy of Fenris]

67. That's why I'm asking, not immediately condemning.

Given the statistical chance of there being a 1-5% chance of this random fellow being "Innocent", it's a safe bet to assume that he is NOT innocent. 1/20 odds at best are pretty solid bets, especially given that this particular fellow doesn't seem to be innocent by any stretch of the imagination (outside of pure delusion and conspiracy theories.)

[xmas74]

25. I don't believe in the death penalty

I haven't from a pretty young age. A classmate in elementary school was murdered. Her killer was eventually executed. I still don't believe in using it.

[colsohlibgal]

47. Me Neither

Death is final and more than one innocent person had been executed.

Life in Prison is no picnic and leaves room for some correction of convicting someone not guilty.

The State shouldn’t be in the Murder business.

[xmas74]

53. Yep

And on a financial level it's far more expensive to execute than to maintain life in prison.

And if anyone is interested this was my classmate:

Coleman and Brown committed their first murder when they killed 9-year-old Vernita Wheat from Kenosha, Wisconsin. After Coleman had befriended her mother, Juanita Wheat, he abducted Vernita and took her to Waukegan on May 29, 1984.[3] Vernita's badly decomposed corpse was discovered on June 19 in an abandoned building four blocks from Coleman's grandmother's apartment.[3] It was determined she had been raped, and the cause of death was ligature strangulation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Coleman

[BlackSkimmer]

68. Wow, reading that, makes me more inclined to death as a penalty.

What human scum.

[xmas74]

69. Why?

Keep him alive. Give him no freedom and no protection in Gen Pop. It's cheaper and there are definitely prisoners who'd love nothing more than to get hold of a child killer.

Wisconsin, where Vernita was abducted, has no death penalty. Our most famous serial killer, Jeff Dahmer, received life in prison. As you noticed it didn't last long.

[BlackSkimmer]

70. I'm not a fan of prison violence, rape, or whatever the other prisoners might consider justice. nt

[xmas74]

71. I'm not a fan of any of it

But I also don't want to be part of a death penalty ruling. My current governor in Missouri has enthusiastically expressed his support of it.

I'm in favor of life in prison.

[XanaDUer2]

75. Thank you. Nt

[Sympthsical]

49. I don't think the state should possess this power

We've seen far too many examples of where the state has played loose with the law and evidence to falsely condemn people to death and prison on sometimes the flimsiest of pretexts.

An execution of innocent is a mistake that cannot be undone.

This person may be guilty. Certainly seems that way. But even if he is, the state shouldn't have the ability because of the others who are not.

JMO.

[USALiberal]

51. Many DUers seem to be ok with the DP! Nt

[BumRushDaShow]

63. Death sentence was just commuted to life in prison

Julius Jones is spared execution by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who commutes his sentence to life in prison


By Kim Bellware
Yesterday at 5:47 p.m. EST|Updated today at 1:25 p.m. EST

Okla. Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) commuted the death sentence of Julius Jones on Thursday, intervening just hours before his scheduled execution. Jones, 41, has spent nearly 20 years on death row for the 1999 slaying of a suburban Oklahoma City businessman. Jones, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest at age 19, was recommended for a commutation and later clemency by the state’s Pardon and Parole Board.

Jones’s claims that a former friend committed the murder and implicated him were featured in the 2018 ABC documentary “The Last Defense,” broadening awareness of the case and drawing in high-profile supporters from around the country. The battle over Jones’s execution comes amid scrutiny of Oklahoma death-penalty protocol. The state resumed executions in October after a six-year hiatus following a string of botched lethal injections in 2014 and 2015.

“After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones’ sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” Stitt said in a statement.

Jones, 41, has served nearly 20 years on death row since being convicted in the 1999 slaying of Paul Howell in nearby Edmond, Okla. Jones’s long-standing assertion of innocence has in recent years attracted worldwide attention, drawing in notable supporters such as Kim Kardashian West and members of the National Basketball Association who had ties to Jones from his time as a youth basketball star.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/17/julius-jones-execution-stitt/

[Tomconroy]

65. Thank you Gov. Stitt. A step towards a just society.

[Tomconroy]

64. State sanctioned murder puts us on the same moral plane

as the murderer.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

72. WOW

There was an act of mercy that surprised me