(2014/05/19) Bad in principle and in practice (Death Penalty)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2014
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Edition #828
Bad in principle and in practice
Today we look at what benefits there are in having a death penalty (none) and which elements of it are fundamentally unjust (all)
Ch. 1: Intro - Theme: A Fond Farewell, Elliott Smith
Ch. 2: Act 1: If The Victim Is White, Death Penalty MUCH More Likely - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 03-23-14
Ch. 3: Song 1: Death penalty - Surrogate
Ch. 4: Act 2: If You Support the Death Penalty, You're Probably White - @davidpakmanshow - Air Date: 04-01-14
Ch. 5: Song 2: Fight to Win (feat. Cee Lo Green) - Goodie Mob
Ch. 6: Act 3: Execution In Oklahoma - @MumiaAbuJamal - Air Date: 5-5-14
Ch. 7: Song 3: American way - Little River Band
Ch. 8: Act 4: Texas to try secret lethal drug in execution - Rachel @Maddow - Air Date: 5-12-14
Ch. 9: Song 4: Close these curtains - Yoko Duo
Ch. 10: Act 5: Judgement On The Secret Cocktail - @FAIRmediawatch - Air Date 5-9-14
Ch. 11: Song 5: What are we doing here? - Tom Schreck
Ch. 12: Act 6: Court blocks Texas from killing prisoner - Rachel @maddow - Air Date 5-13-14
Ch. 13: Song 6: Death penalty - Eight Dayz
Ch. 14: Act 7: Shocking Percentage Of Death Row Inmates Are Innocent - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 05-03-14
Ch. 15: Song 7: Can't hide from the truth - The Hot 8 Brass Band
Ch. 16: Act 8: Fixing the death row system via @innocence - Best of the Left Activism
Ch. 17: Song 8: Activism - Shihan
Ch. 18: Act 9: Support for Death Penalty Lowest in 40 Years - @davidpakmanshow - Air Date: 10-31-13
Ch. 19: Song 9: A change is gonna come - Ben Sollee
Ch. 20: Act 10: Rick Perry Killed an Innocent Man - @Thom_Hartmann - Air Date: 03-12-14
Voicemails:
Ch. 21: Historical context of respectability politics - ? from Pittsburgh, PA
Ch. 22: Respectability politics = victim blaming - Sonya from Minnesota
Ch. 23: Jeff from theliberalcurmudgeon.com on how and why to support Best of the Left - Jeff from New York
Leave a message at 202-999-3991
Voicemail Music:
Loud Pipes - Ratatat
Ch. 24: Final comments on the next bonus episode on the concepts of self and free will
Closing Music:
Here We Are - Patrick Park
ACTIVISM:
What Can I Do? from The Innocence Project
Sources/further reading:
"How Oklahoma's GOP Governor Turned a Heinous Killer Into a Death-Penalty Martyr” by Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones
VIDEO: "Execution Chaos: Witness Recounts Botched Killing That Caused Oklahoma Prisoner's Fatal Heart Attack” via Democracy Now!
"Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin defends controversial execution” by Meredith Clark via MSNBC
Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich
Produced by:
Jay! Tomlinson
Thanks for listening!
Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com
Check out the BotL iOS/Android App in the App Stores!
Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft
Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft
Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com
Review the show on iTunes!
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This program is made possible by the members and donors to the show. |
| 0:05.8 | For details, visit the membership tab at bestofoleff.com. |
| 0:08.8 | Now, welcome to the award-winning Best of the Left podcast with Cups Today from the Young |
| 0:12.1 | Turks, the David Pakman show, Mumio Buccimall, the Rachel Maddo show, Counter-Spin, Activism |
| 0:17.1 | from Best of Left, and the Tom Hartman program. |
| 0:19.9 | And a quick warning that we will be discussing the fact that innocent people are put to death |
| 0:23.3 | in this country. |
| 0:24.3 | But if you're white, you can relax because it probably won't happen to you. |
| 0:30.1 | Now, back in 1976, of course, they restarted the death penalty regime. |
| 0:34.2 | And in Florida, they've taken advantage of that to do significant number of executions, |
| 0:40.5 | 84, to be exact. |
| 0:42.7 | And there's one interesting fact about that that might put into question how they adjudicate |
| 0:48.6 | the death penalty and how they carried out. |
| 0:51.4 | Well, turns out that in the state of Florida, no white person has ever been executed |
| 0:56.8 | for killing an African-American. |
| 0:59.2 | Now, okay, you look at that by itself, you might say, look, there's a lot of different |
| 1:02.9 | states. |
| 1:03.9 | It could be just a coincidence that that's how Florida came out and maybe in other states, |
| 1:08.4 | they're leading more in the direction of a lot of white people that killed black people. |
| 1:12.8 | Because there's plenty of that in the country. |
| 1:14.5 | Get executed. |
| 1:15.5 | No. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jay Tomlinson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jay Tomlinson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.