after a protracted campaign the tennessee legislature passed a bill in 2003 authorizing a lottery corporation to run what is a legal numbers racket for the state … this legalized gambling as a method to raise scholarships funds to encourage tennessee’s high school graduates to stay in state to attend college…

there is lots that could be said socio-politically regarding this phenomenon but this is not the lottery i find most interesting … nope, it’s the lottery that precedes each execution date set by the tennessee supreme court … a lottery run by the tennessee department of corrections to select media representatives to witness an upcoming execution…

sedley alley currently faces an execution date on may 17th…

now i can understand people buying tickets for powerball, i mean while there are stories of people who have been ruined by winning a big lottery payoff most people would like the opportunity to see how they handle such a burden as becoming an instant multi-millionaire — i mean i could fund a lot of topflight state death penalty abolition campaigns with $150 million doncha’ know…

but who puts their name in a drawing to watch a homicide, to see someone poisoned to death in a highly ritualized “ceremony”, to report to the general public how both sets of victim’s families (murder victim and the executed) react to a theatrical event that makes the premeditated taking of a human life seem so banal???

now i know a reporter, anchor who witnessed robert coe’s execution in april 2000 … scott couch was a weekend anchor and reporter at newschannel5 for years and covered the political beat … but scott was, based on the conversation i had with him about the event, disturbed by the
memory of what he witnessed … i did not know scott beyond our cordial professional relationship but i could tell that he did not care to cover the death penalty anymore…

its as if we seem content to spread the collateral damage of murder to as many people as possible …. from the murder victim’s family members, to the family of the person convicted of the murder, to the people who staff death row and get to know the condemned as a human being, to reporters who reduce the spectacle to a digestible mcmoment on local news broadcasts …

given the options i’ll buy a powerball ticket – at least if i win i’m supporting the education of someone who may one day help turn around this culture of revenge and retribution that we have so masterfully constructed for ourselves…

peace out – <3

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