Justice’s Son
A profile of Ben Jealous, the president and CEO of the NAACP:
“‘Governor,’ said Jealous. ‘You know the death penalty is used exclusively on poor people.’
“‘Yes.’
“‘You know it’s used disproportionately against blacks and Latinos.’
“‘Yes.’
“‘Well, Governor, this is what I want you to do: imagine the person you most worry about in trying to explain why you abolished the death penalty. I want you to imagine telling that person this: “Every time a prosecutor seeks the death penalty, it pulls hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions, out of our state treasury. Dollars that therefore cannot be used for anything else. And in our state, like any state, there are places where 30, 40, 50, sometimes 60 percent of the homicides go unsolved every year. I’ve thought long and hard about it, and decided that we as a state would be safer if we spent that money on homicide units rather than killing the killers we’ve already caught and put in cages. So I’ve abolished the death penalty, and I’ve asked the counties to send their savings to the homicide units and get the uncaught killers off the street.”‘”