Archbishop Desmond Tutu Visits Riverside Church

by Alyssa Landers

NEW YORK, Mar. 12—Along with writer and historian Thomas Cahill, noted anti-apartheid activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Archbishop Desmond Tutu paid a visit to the Riverside Church in Manhattan on Wednesday to talk about the death penalty in America.

Both Tutu and Cahill sentiments spoke both about the publication of Cahill’s recent book on the life of Dominique Green entitled A Saint on Death Row, a true life account that tells the story of the injustice of the Texas incarceration system through the life of inmate Dominique Green and about how America’s death penalty policy in the southern states characterizes, according to Tutu, “one of the greatest absurdities.”

Cahill’s book tells the story of Dominique Green, a black Texan who was a victim of an abusive and schizophrenic mother and was later convicted of murder at the age of 18. According to Cahill, Green was a remarkable man who “became a legal expert, writer, and editor” while in prison and constituted one of many of Texas’ “needless, heedless” executions. Cahill also stated that Green’s conviction and subsequent execution were particularly unjust because of the fact that it was carried out despite pleas by the victim’s family against giving him the death penalty, which were ignored by the State of Texas.

Tutu, who was “awed” by Dominique, echoed Cahill’s sentiments, stating that “there clearly was a miscarriage of justice in the case of Dominique Green.”

In his talk, Archbishop Tutu specifically cited his own experience as a South African who lived during the apartheid era, saying that “the United States was a country that we admired immensely” for its achievements in diversity and tolerance. Tutu, a close personal friend of Cahill’s, was urged by him to visit Green while he was an inmate, as Tutu’s book No Future Without Forgiveness was one of the main works that had inspired him.

Although he praised America as being “an inspiration” for other nations in its advancement in terms of racial progress as well as its “generosity,” the Archbishop repeatedly asked why Americans “continue to brutalize yourselves” with violent policies like the death penalty.

David Atwood, the Founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and long-time resident of Texas, was also present. He remarked that although “we have a lot of wonderful people in Texas” the act of execution which is widely practiced in the state is a “horrible act of vengeance that cannot be justified in any civilized society.”

According to Atwood, who witnessed Green’s execution in 2004, Texas has executed 435 people since 1980, and has already executed 12 people in 2009 compared to a total of 7 for all of the other states combined.

Despite these harrowing facts, both Atwood and Archbishop Tutu expressed a sense of hope for the future. Even Thomas Cahill quoted the late Dominique Green, who stated before his execution that he was “not angry but disappointed that I was denied justice.”