Kane Watch: Only Blacks Can Sentence Other Blacks to Death?

Now Gene hasn't written his column about the Adrial White verdict yet, but you can be sure I wait with baited breath for its appearance. Why, you may wonder. I've got a question for Kane:

On Saturday Gene wrote, "In all of the districts headed by black aldermen, the death penalty referendum was defeated...Clearly, these were voters familiar with crime and violence, but they don't think killing criminals will make things better." But if that's true, then how can it also be true that Adrial White was found guilty not for killing a man over property (which happens to be illegal in Wisconsin), but because, as White's sister put it, "It was an all white jury. You do the math."??

Kane emphatically likes to state that he is against capital punishment in his writing. He's gone so far as to classify the United States as "uncivilized" for partaking in the practice. In the same blog he went on to say that, Tony Blair and others, "have long come to the realization, there's no place for state-sanctioned murder in a truly civilized society. It's a lesson Bush and some Americans are still grappling to understand."

Very interesting. As a "white folk" I would think that with Kane taking such a strong stance against capital punishment, logic would dictate that he must also be against vigilante justice. As such, there is no way Kane can defend Adrial White's on-the-spot death sentence for alleged thief Eric Carbajal. That's some "math" I can do.

Nevertheless, it's my guess that Kane is going to struggle with this predicament. On the one hand, you've got a perfect set-up to blame the white jurors (very tempting), but on the other you've already stated a position that precludes you from defending Adrial White's actions, lest you categorize yourself as uncivilized.

What will he do? I'll guess we'll just have to wait and see....My prediction? He'll probably avoid taking a real position on the issue and just sum the entire situation up with an overly obvious statement. I donno, something like, "Homicide should never be a fact of life."