Nathan Woods sentenced to death for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Updated: Aug 12, 2020
The state of Alabama convicted Nathan Woods of capital murder of three police officers. Due to Alabama's felony murder rule that if someone kills another during a crime, the accomplice is as guilty as the killer. Nathan Woods was a drug dealer, who was present at the home raided by police. It was believed that the deceased officers were receiving payments from Birmingham drug dealers, including the owner of the home that Wood's was present in.
When officers showed up to the home, the "shooter" claimed that he was startled from seeing guns drawn at him after being awakened from a nap. The shooter testified that he instinctively shot the officers by mistake . It was substantiated that woods begged not to be peppered spray during this ordeal.
It was stated that prosecutors did not have sufficient evidence to justify any means of Woods murdering the officers, so they submitted song lyrics uncovered Woods had wrote. These were the lyrics to Dr. Dre's song "High Powered", not his personal feelings or song writing. This created the persona to justify to the jury that Woods could be capable of thinking and committing acts of murder.
Despite the 100,000 plus petitioners to grant clemency, this 16 year old incident became full circle for Woods when he was lethally injected on March 5, 2020 at 9:01.Woods simply was convicted of murder because of being "guilty by association". Being an African American male in America is difficult enough, but when a jury believes that you deserve to sentenced to death, we must look at beliefs and values of those who make those decisions.
I believe the discourse that took place with the state, judicial, and law enforcement department of Alabama will continue to oppress the people as long as hate and ignorance with its leaders.
Why do we continue to act as "God" and sentence humans to lethal injection or cruel punishments for certain convictions? Are we to believe that all ethnic groups are sentenced fairly and equally from their crimes?
What happened with Nathan Woods was an opportunity to take away a precious life ( all life is precious) because of a skin color. There is no other reasonable explanation why this death sentenced was carried out, regardless of the support to overturn it. This was clearly an example of the genocide African Americans have been experienced since day one.
What do you think?