We had a robust debate here on WSO about the death penalty recently, especially as it pertained to the September execution of Troy Davis in Georgia. At the center of the issue was the perceived lack of evidence against Davis (an issue also hotly debated) and the concern that a possibly innocent man was being put to death.
Dewey Bozella was never on death row, but his case is both inspirational and gives you a lot of food for thought. You see, Dewey is making his professional boxing debut at age 52 on Saturday night in Los Angeles after spending 26 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. I can't imagine what it's like to spend half your life in Sing Sing for a murder you didn't commit, but I damn sure wouldn't want to be his opponent on Saturday night.
Bozella is the recipient of the 2011 Arthur Ashe Courage Award, presented to him at the Espy's in July. His story is pretty incredible. He was convicted in 1983 of murdering a 92-year old Poughkeepsie woman in 1977. He got 20 years to life in Sing Sing. He took up boxing in prison to keep the other inmates from harassing him, and he eventually became the Sing Sing prison boxing champion.
But he never murdered the woman. He went before the parole board four times, and his parole was denied each time because he refused to admit to the murder and continued to proclaim his innocence. He even received a second trial in 1990 where the prosecutor offered him a plea deal releasing him from prison with time served if he'd only admit to the murder. He refused, and was convicted again.
Then he got in touch with the Innocence Project and they took his case, eventually discovering that the prosecutor in the original trial had suppressed exculpatory evidence in order to win the conviction, and that another murder with an almost identical M.O. happened after Bozella was in custody, and the fingerprints on that murder matched prints found at the scene of the murder Bozella was accused of committing.
My point in bringing all this up is two-fold. First, Dewey Bozella just has a great story. He managed to survive an unimaginable tragedy and miscarriage of justice, and emerge with his soul intact and the desire to attain a dream. For that I'm in awe of the man, and I wish him the best of luck in his professional boxing career - though I doubt a guy like this has any use for luck.
Second, I think it goes to show how imperfect the justice system in America is. Don't get me wrong; it's still the best in the world. But it could be so much better. Even so, stuff like this is always going to happen, which is one of the main reasons I'm against the death penalty. I truly believe that it's better 100 guilty men go free than one innocent man be put to death. As perfection is unattainable in human affairs, the least we can do is be dead certain (no pun intended) that we've never put an innocent to death.
That's just my five minutes on a soapbox, and I know many of you disagree. I think we can all agree, though, that Dewey Bozella has the heart of a lion and I, for one, am excited to see him fight on Saturday. Win, lose, or draw, there is nothing he'll ever have to face in life that will come close to what he's already conquered.
And for that, the man's a hero.
Side note: The only time I've ever been knocked unconscious in the boxing ring was when I fought a guy who was fresh out of prison on some statutory rape beef. The guy fought like an animal, and I walked into an overhand right that put my lights out (but not before my knees went to jello under me and I threw up a little in my mouth - good times). Dewey's been out for a couple years, but I'm betting he's still bringing a heaping helping of that prison rage into the ring with him. Yikes.
the best in the world? excuse me...
Be prepared for your 2nd KO when I get some vacation time.
LOL. Bring it.
How do you choose your topics to write about?
I chose this one because the Troy Davis debate was such a big deal on the site, and we have a ton of fight fans on the site.
Cool, I hope he wins. The whole concept of our legal system is that it's better for a guilty person to go free, knowing that they can be re-prosecuted, than for an innocent person to be punished. Many times, police complain that the justice system is skewed in favor of criminals, and while this is not the case, it is definitely skewed in favor of the accused......or at least, it's supposed to be.
If someone is guilty of a heinous crime, hang 'em high, but if there's ANY doubt, then what's the rush? Personally, I think that convicts could be put to work and recoup some of the damage they did to society, as well as learning to do something that would enable them to rejoin productive society if / when they get out. Knowing you have to work for free indefinitely is a LOT more scary than just dying.....some criminals aren't afraid of death anyway.
It's just a good idea to have as many people participating in the society as possible and I draw on the stats from the Civil War: the south had 1/3 of it's white manpower tied up controlling slaves, and seriously hamstrung themselves. Yeah, I'm a nice guy so I'm rationalizing this. And I also know that there's a LOT of people who have zero intention of ever going straight, but in the big picture it makes more sense to have as many people being productive as possible.
It's weird because I was thinking the same thing about the death penalty as you: give the aggreived the option of throwing the switch, and have the state take over if they won't / can't. THAT'S JUSTICE. Institutionalizing violence merely causes people to needlessly fear the state which they're supposed to be participating voluntarily in, and repels many of the brighter minds.
ALSO: if the aggreived grant clemency, I do believe that this should be taken into consideration. Since the larger context of WHY some crimes is committed is rarely addressed, this isn't likely to ever happen. But think for a minute how many times you've let someone off the hook and they owed you a favor......in some places, sparing a person that you could rightfully kill gives you domain over their life. I just watched 'The Count of Monte Cristo' again, so this could be coloring my perception.
Double jeopardy....ashley judd taught me that one
Don't want to take the thread off topic as its a very inspirational story....BUT...best legal system in the world?
Whose do you think is better?
Back to the point, incredible guy, I wonder if he had known in 1991 how much longer he would stay inside if he would have still stuck to a not guilty claim - impressive stuff.
Another man was just released after 25 years behind bars in Texas.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/12/ap/business/main20119544.shtml
I can't imagine losing 25 years of my life because of shitty defense lawyers, and ornery prosecution lawyers -- all after losing a loved one.
The death penalty is just an artifact left over from barbaric times in humanity. Of course I also haven't had a loved one raped, murdered, etc.
I would sue the pants off that dude.
Apparently, you get $80,000 per year of imprisonment. Not sure on taxes, etc. I'm sure he'll get more, especially if he can prove malicious intent on behalf of the prosecutors.
Ed, thanks for sharing this story. Invariably, the prosecutor should be thrown in jail for the rest of his life. Prosecutors do this all the time; we should implement third party reviews by consulting firms to make sure every single aspect of the evidence is out during the trial.
I have nothing but respect for Mr. Dewey. He could have gotten out 21 years ago if he just relented to the prosecutors demands, but he stayed tough and stuck to his principles. I hope the people who were arguing that the government, with all its foibles, should be able to kill its own citizens come to this specific topic.
i am not against the death penalty in principle, but unless our system can assure a 0% false positive rate, we just can't have it. thankfully they didn't send him the gas chamber like they have a lot of other innocent men.
Who has a better Justice system than the U.S.? If this is some BS stuff about the death penalty making our system worse I will just ignore it. Asia? Where you can be jailed for life for saying facts about leaders? Europe? Where inmates are treated better than the poor? Africa? Where people are beaten and kept for years without trial? No place is better- there are ways to make it better but politicians can't do anything beneficial....
And before you get to it, if you make abortion illegal you can have those murderers wasting our tax money for the rest of their post-arrest lives. I'll deal with that bad deal.
Ummm, what? Where did this come from? Random thought of the day?
Somewhat...every time I comment on a death penalty article it's brought up that I am pro-life. So I threw out compromise.
It's a false dichotomy to say that all is well in the US because it is shitty elsewhere. Yes we have the First Amendment and habeas corpus, but how does it follow that a deeply flawed death penalty system should be kept as is? Even one man wrongly executed is too many, and I can assure you, if you care to do the research, that it has been a lot more than one.
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