The View from the Hermitage, Day 324

My normal early morning read-through of news sources got sidelined when I came across an article in The Guardian about Virginia's being on the brink of becoming the first southern, formerly Confederate state to abolish the death penalty and the 23rd state nationwide. I learned more about the history and practice of capital punishment in Virginia from an English newspaper as opposed to a home-grown one. Or perhaps it's easier for a foreign source to lay bare the bad side of the death penalty Virginia style. As might be expected given historic settlement patterns, the first execution in what is now the United States occurred in Jamestown in 1608. Again perhaps because of history, Virginia has carried out more executions than any other state, 1,390. There is a definite racial bias in Virginia's capital punishment history. Between 1800 and 1920, Virginia executed 625 black people and only 58 white people. Again looking historically, formerly Confederate states account for 80 percent of all executions. 

Besides all the above issues, what other evidence is there in favor of abolishing the death penalty? Try that 4 percent of all capital prosecutions are estimated to end in wrongful convictions. A sentence of life with no chance of parole can, if found to be mistaken, be reversed. The wrongfully convicted person can at least get some of their life back. The wrongfully executed person has no life to reclaim. 

Some bad news on the coronavirus front is that the monoclonal antibodies that have been used to treat the original covid-19 appear not to work against the variants. The study has yet to be peer-reviewed, so we can hope the researchers got it wrong, but I'm betting they didn't. If I were into writing science fiction, I could imagine an intelligent virus that consciously mutates to block treatments and/or vaccines. The US, while leading the world in many of the bad aspects of the virus, is woefully behind in terms of tracking viral mutations. We have shared the genetic sequence of only 0.3 percent of our covid-19 cases, not 3 percent, but 0.3 percent. That puts us 30th in the world behind such countries as Portugal, Latvia, and Sierra Leone. I wonder if Sierra Leone was one of the blank-hole countries Xpot was ranting about in a past life. 

Speaking of Xpot, the outline of his defense was provided to the Senate today. The principal argument is that he cannot be tried because he is no longer in office despite the fact that some other people have been. A secondary argument is that because he firmly believed he lost the election due to electoral fraud, his comments at the pre-riot rally were merely expressions of that belief and perfectly okay under the first amendment. I know what the outcome of the trial will be, but it will be interesting to see how those arguments fly and if Xpot has the nerve to appear as a witness.

The Super Bowl is this weekend. Back when The Sons lived in, the traditional Super Bowl dinner was chili or nachos. The Sons won't be here this year, but I can still make chili, this time using my Instant Pot. I also discovered a type of pie named after The Professor's favorite cookie, oatmeal raisin. The recommended crust is flaky cream cheese pie dough. This will be very interesting. I shall report the outcome of both resolutions on Monday.