there is a debate in political science as to whether individuals can be uniquely responsible for impacting history or whether structural constraints dictate that certain events would have occured regardless of individual political leadership - (the classic discussion regards cuba and whether or not there would have been a revolution against batista with or without fidel castro, personally, to lead it) ...

yesterday afternoon the u.s. supreme court declined to intervene in the case of percy walton, who was scheduled for execution at 9 p.m....

shortly thereafter, virginia gov. tim kaine announced that he is granting a six-month stay of execution for walton so that the facts of his case (and, in particular we presume, his claim of mental illness) might be studied further...

so the question pops up, does the person in the executive seat of the state matter? that is, would kaine's predecessor mark warner have issued the reprieve?

probably not...virginia had carried out 11 executions under warner's signature before he commuted robin lovitt's sentence to life without parole late last year...

and the most well known example of an executive making a difference is former illinois governor ryan's declaration of a moratorium on executions in 2000 and his commutation of over 160 death sentences to life without parole just before he left office in 2003...

so how about tennessee which is a weak executive - strong legislative state ??? governor bredesen is odds on favorite to win re-election this fall and there is experience enough to believe that he may not budge on this issue on his own accord...

so what does this suggest? the tennessee coalition to abolish state killing is pursuing a legislative strategy because that's where the power is - that's "who" can deliver what we want: a moratorium and study for now to give legislators the tools they need to begin backing away from their public "support" of the death penalty... and it's through the process of building a strong, statewide grassroots organization that the initial push on elected officials to re-think this issue will emerge...

after all, if you walk up to a deep and wide ravine you can't just step off the edge and fly to where you see that you want to be ... you have to build a bridge of some sort so that you, and everyone else, can feel safe in journeying to the other side...

peace out - <3