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Illinois Abolishes Death Penalty: Steve Earle’s Over Yonder

Today, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill passed by the state legislature abolishing the death penalty in the state. He also commuted the death sentences of the fifteen Illinois inmates on death row to life in prison. The law takes effect July 1 and will make Illinois the sixteenth state without the death penalty. Illinois also joins other states that have abolished the death penalty in the last several years, including New Mexico and New Jersey. Connecticut, Maryland, and Montana currently are considering abolishing the death penalty.

Gov. Quinn explained: “”Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it. . . . With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case.”

Gov. Quinn showed courage in signing the bill, as it is usually easier for politicians to maintain the status quo. Too often politicians use death penalty support as a political issue to play on people’s natural emotions to want murderers killed like in the movies. But in thinking about the death penalty as a criminal justice issue, Gov. Quinn recognized that the death penalty causes too many problems that a logical society should not tolerate. Plus, because maintaining the death penalty is more costly than life in prison, Gov. Quinn reasoned that “the enormous sums expended by the state in maintaining a death penalty system would be better spent on preventing crime and assisting victims’ families in overcoming pain and grief.” More needs to be done to prevent crime and help those victims harmed by crime, and the death penalty is merely a distraction from the real issues.

Chimesfreedom previously discussed two of Steve Earle’s death penalty songs, so now is a good time to discuss another one. “Over Yonder (Jonathan’s Song)” is from his outstanding album, Transcendental Blues. While “Ellis Unit One” is in the voice of a prison guard, “Over Yonder” is like “Billy Austin,” in the voice of a death row inmate. Unlike “Billy Austin,” though, “Over Yonder” is about a real person, and it shows in the song.

Steve Earle catalogs many of the problems with the death penalty in his earlier “Billy Austin,” such as the racial and economic discrimination inherent in the punishment. But in “Over Yonder,” perhaps because he was writing about a real person, Earle tries to convey what a human being would feel like preparing to be executed.

Give my radio to Johnson
Thibodeaux can have my fan
Send my Bible home to Mama
Call her every now and then.

The real subject of the song, Jonathan Nobles, corresponded with Steve Earle for ten years, and the two met and spent several days together talking in the visiting area at Ellis Unit One before Nobles was executed on October 7, 1998 in Texas. Nobles was convicted of killing two women while he was under the influence of drugs in 1986. When he first went to death row, he was a trouble-maker. But as time passed, Nobles became a Catholic and worked to turn his life around. He fasted on his last day and requested Holy Communion for his last meal.

When Earle visited Nobles, they spent a lot of time talking about issues where they shared common ground, such as love of music, their times spent behind bars, their use of drugs, and their recovery from addiction. Steve Earle later wrote an essay about their time together and witnessing Nobles being killed by lethal injection. In Earle’s essay, he concluded that because Nobles had changed so much, society could have learned about rehabilitation from Nobles, which is especially important considering the large number of people in U.S. prisons.

In the song, Earle does not condemn those who executed Nobles, he just tells the story. And he does not argue the inmate is innocent, he just reminds us that he is human.

The world’ll turn around without me
The sun’ll come up in the east
Shinin’ down on all of them that hate me
I hope my goin’ brings ’em peace.

I am going over yonder
Where no ghost can follow me
There’s another place beyond here
Where I’ll be free I believe.

Just as importantly, Earle reminds us that we are human. Because, as has been noted, the death penalty is more about who we are as a society than about the handful of people executed. Gov. Quinn today chose for the state of Illinois to be a little more wiser and more humane.

Bonus Illinois Death Penalty Information: The Chicago Tribune recently did a study of the state’s capital punishment system. The paper found “at least 46 inmates sent to death row in cases where prosecutors used jailhouse informants to convict or condemn the defendants. The investigation also found at least 33 death row inmates had been represented at trial by an attorney who had been disbarred or suspended; at least 35 African-American inmates on death row who had been convicted or condemned by an all-white jury; and about half of the nearly 300 capital cases had been reversed for a new trial or sentencing hearing.”

Will Gov. Quinn Sign the Death Penalty Bill?

“Nebraska” and the Death Penalty

Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”

The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen

The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”

The Killing of “Two Good Men”

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Will Gov. Quinn Sign the Death Penalty Bill?

Yesterday, the Illinois Legislature passed a bill to abolish the death penalty in that state. In order for the bill to become law, the governor must sign it. The bill now sits on Governor Pat Quinn’s desk, and he has said that he does not yet know what he will do.

Illinois has been a leader in the death penalty debate in recent years, so it will be interesting to see if the governor has the courage to accept the role in abolishing the death penalty. After several Illinois death row inmates were found to be innocent in the 1990s, then-Gov. George Ryan ordered a commission to review the criminal justice system and he ultimately commuted the sentences of everyone on Illinois’s death row. The results from the commission, and studies by other states inspired by Illinois, in effect, found that there are so many flaws in the criminal justice system, that we can never be sure that we will not execute an innocent person.

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia do not have the death penalty, and there has been a strong worldwide trend for decades to get rid of the death penalty. Yet, when we hear about a violent crime, like the recent tragic shootings in Arizona, our first reaction is to reach for the lethal injection needle. That quest for revenge is normal and human, but it is also normal and human to act out of rational thought instead of anger. And rational thought and experience tell us that the death penalty is more expensive than life in prison, ineffective, racist, inaccurate, and discriminates against the poor.

Steve Earle touches on several of these themes in his excellent song, “Billy Austin.” The stark tale is narrated by a death row inmate who is part Native American. He does not claim to be innocent, and he describes committing a murder during a filling station robbery. The song then addresses the trial, referencing the poor representation often given to those charged with capital crimes. Earle seems to be telling us that the death penalty is not given based on the worst crimes, it is given based on what happens in a courtroom.

But my trial was over quickly
And then the long hard wait began
Court appointed lawyer
Couldn’t look me in the eye
He just stood up and closed his briefcase
When they sentenced me to die

The narrator then describes the wait on death row, touching on the racism in the system.

I ain’t about to tell you
That I don’t deserve to die
But there’s twenty-seven men here
Mostly black, brown and poor
Most of em are guilty
Who are you to say for sure?

And the song ends with another question.

Could you take that long walk with me
Knowing hell is waitin’ there
Could you pull that switch yourself sir
With a sure and steady hand
Could you still tell yourself
That you’re better than I am.

And those are the questions that face Gov. Quinn. If he does not sign the bill, he will be the one pulling the switch on everyone executed in Illinois from this day forward. And that is a heavy responsibility to bear. Because the death penalty ultimately is not about the person being killed, it is about who we are.

Bonus Governors’ Dilemmas in Other States: In the past week, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen granted clemency to men on death row. Meanwhile, also in the last week, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter granted a posthumous pardon to Joe Arridy, who was executed in 1936, because evidence now shows Arridy was innocent.

Bonus Discussion of Another Steve Earle Song on the Death Penalty: Justice Stevens and Steve Earle’s “Ellis Unit One.”

Illinois Abolishes Death Penalty: Steve Earle’s Over Yonder

“Nebraska” and the Death Penalty

Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”

The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen

The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”

The Killing of “Two Good Men”

(Related Posts)

Steve Earle’s “Ellis Unit One” & Justice Stevens

Not long after he retired, former United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was in the news for writing a book review, followed by an appearance on 60 Minutes. The attention on Justice Stevens and his changing views on capital punishment remind me of Steve Earle’s haunting song, “Ellis Unit One.”

In several appearances after he retired, Justice Stevens described how he changed his mind about the death penalty. Over time, he came to conclude, as the New York Times summarized, that the Supreme Court has “created a system of capital punishment that is shot through with racism, skewed toward conviction, infected with politics and tinged with hysteria.”

Justice Stevens was on the Supreme Court in 1976 when the Court, in effect, established the modern death penalty. In 1972, the Court held that the nation’s death penalty laws violated the constitution, but in 1976 the Court upheld new death penalty laws. In those cases and in cases throughout the decades, Justice Stevens voted to uphold the constitutionality of the death penalty. But in his final few years on the Supreme Court, he came to conclude that the death penalty system was unfair and constituted a pointless taking of life that does not serve society.

At the time, Justice Stevens joined two other U.S. Supreme Court Justices who voted to uphold the death penalty in 1976 but by the end of their careers had changed their minds: Justices Harry Blackmun and Justice Lewis Powell. More often than one might guess, over time, some who advocated for and implemented the nation’s death penalty — judges, prosecutors, police officers, wardens, legislators, executioners — eventually conclude that the punishment is unfair, racist, useless, risks executing innocent defendants, and that society would be better off replacing the death penalty with life in prison.

The news about Justice Stevens reminded me of a song that tells one of these stories, Steve Earle’s “Ellis Unit One,” which appeared on the soundtrack for the 1995 movie Dead Man Walking and is one of the most moving songs ever written about the death penalty. The song is told from the perspective of a prison guard. The guard describes getting transferred to death row at Ellis Unit One, the Texas prison unit that housed condemned prisoners at the time the song was written.

The narrator does not say what he thinks about the death penalty. Steve Earle’s genius here is to understand that the description is enough.

Well, I’ve seen ‘em fight like lions, boys
I’ve seen ’em go like lambs
And I’ve helped to drag ‘em when they could not stand.
And I’ve heard their mamas cryin’ when they heard that big door slam
And I’ve seen the victim’s family holdin’ hands.

Many of the judges who have condemned people to death may have had dreams similar to the one described in “Ellis Unit One”: “Last night I dreamed that I woke up with straps across my chest / And something cold and black pullin’ through my lungs.” Having such a heavy responsibility may haunt one’s dreams, even if the judge is confident in the choice made. Similar dreadful dreams may have led Justices Stevens, Blackmun, and Powell to renounce their earlier decisions.

When we read about a horrible crime and have the normal initial human reaction to want the perpetrator killed, we often ignore the death penalty system’s toll on the many people it touches, including the guards, the wardens, the judges, the lawyers, the families of the victim, and the families of the condemned. Whether or not we agree with Justice Stevens, one must acknowledge the costs caused by the continuing use of capital punishment. While Justice Stevens’s change of heart reveals the legal and practical issues surrounding the death penalty, Steve Earle’s poetic song exposes some of the human toll.

Bonus Song Information: The reference to “the Walls” in the song is to the nickname for the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas, about twelve miles away from Ellis Unit. It is where the Texas inmates are executed.

Bonus Alternate Versions Information: In addition to the soundtrack version of the song, Earle has another outstanding version that is a demo with The Fairfield Four providing background singing. The Fairfield Four version appeared on the EP Johnny Too Bad and Earle’s collection of random songs from various side projects, Sidetracks. The latter appears to be available as an import, and the former seems hard to find and overpriced for an EP, but you may hear a clip with the Fairfield Four through the “Johnny Too Bad” link. This version is worth seeking out. Finally, a live version of the song is on Steve Earle’s Live At Montreux 2005 album.

One of Cleveland’s favorite son performers, Michael Stanley, also recorded a version of the song. As a former Clevelander I have the required fondness for MSB, but his version is inferior to Earle’s. As his version progresses, he adds instruments and background singers to the point I thought he was going to break into a full-blown uplifting rock song with a last-minute stay of execution. Still, Stanley has good taste in choosing to cover such a great song, and perhaps it merely suffers by comparison to Steve Earle’s excellent versions. And some may prefer Stanley’s voice and his cover. Leave a comment to let me know what version you like.