An Important Lesson About
Pennsylvania's Death Penalty


By: John St. Crox

Recently we got the following insightful email relating to Pennsylvania's barbaric death penalty. The young writer sees America's savagery from a special vantage point. With slight editing, the email follows.

"Hello, I just wanted to say [that] I love this site!

"Thanks for the warning ["A Caution To Travelers, Death Warning"]. You should have told me this five years ago.

"I'm a 21 year old college student from the Netherlands (civilized Europe). Five years ago I had a dream: go to the country known as 'FREEDOM,' the American dream. So I took all my belongings and lived for one year as [an] exchange-student in the States.

"Well, you have to know [that] the [United] States was something [special] to me; like, here is a list of what is shown on Dutch TV:

"The hell with these shows [They give a false impression. In America] I came to a totally different kind of soap! The execution of an Afro-American male, electrocuted.

"I never realized [that] the States had [the] death-penalty. This really got to me! SICK SICK SICK!

"USA always wants to get involved in wars against (take for example) Iraq. USA doesn't like to be compared [to countries like Iraq] and to be [mentioned] in [the same] breath with countries like this. Well, they do [compare] in matters of the death-penalty.

"USA is considered the most powerful country of the world. They should show and behave [in that way]. Iraq, Yemen and all those other uncivilized countries are not the first ones to change it.

"Well, because this is a very heavy topic to me, I support every kind of help on behalf of death-row prisoners. I'm trying to do everything I can to get out the word [about] death-row inmate Jimmy Dennis. He sits in SCI-Greene in Pennsylvania. He is an Afro-American and he is INNOCENT! You can look at his case on this address http://members.tripod.com./~ccadp/jimmydennis.html

"In the Netherlands I'm getting a lot of attention already from newspapers, radio and TV. Now, I'm trying to get this [message] back to Mister Governor Tom Ridge.

"Tankx for reading.

"T.J.Botjes"

 


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