A story.

I wanted to start sharing stories and cases of people, stories that might be my own that might not. Rather than just prose on this blog I feel that running media and these cases presented to the few that might actually be reading will enrich the view of what is really going on in this world. It will help fulfill the goal of education that I am trying for and others are trying so desperately for. So here is the first.

This story I'm sure will surprise many people but honestly it shouldn't. You might not know about the story but nonetheless it is not anything new given the state of the world.



Just in his case alone we find claims for existing problems, problems in the legal system in the prison system and in the use of the death penalty. I realize that his case was not in the United States but the discussion allows us to reflect on the state of affairs [which can be returned to after talking a bit more about Mpagi's story]

A very short summation of the background and chronology leading to the time he spent on death row follows. In 1981, at age 27, as you heard from him speak he was arrested for the murder. This was for the murder of George William Wandayaka. The odd event was that at the trial for this it appeared to Mpagi that Wandayaka was present in the back of the room. That was instance one of someone seeing a "dead" man. A couple years later several more sightings were made of Wandayaka in Jinja (in eastern Uganda).

In fact the situation acctually was that the family of Wandayaka had a very long term grudge against the parents and family of Mpagi and this transpired, this staged murder was intended to hurt the family.

So the date is now 1989, 8 years about Mpagi had been arrested and the authorities in Masaka determine that yes Wandayaka is indeed alive and the attorney general is informed. This information is released to the government and the legal system. Despite this Mpagi remains on death row until 2000, another 11 years.

We have a case where evidence was tampered with, where a man is "dead" and someone is sentenced to death that is completely free of guilt or whatever term you wish to use for it and yet he spent every single day under the threat of death. To quote "No one was ever given any notice that they would be executed. Each time, we were taken by complete surprise. We lived in complete fear of any unusual activity from the wardens."Any sort of appeal process would not have been the same as we consider it in the United States. Eventually this stay came to an end because of a nine person presidential committee.

"The death penalty is not a punishment. A punishment is intended to reform. By killing someone you are denying them the chance to reform."

That statement really leads into something else that I want to touch on, I haven't exactly decided if I want to put it all here or if I want to do another entry...

If we look at our own prison systems we find them riddled with extreme, extreme issues. The prison system is no longer a place to rehabilitate it is a big business an a place to hold undesirables if anything. Recidivism rates are extremely high, prisons are teaching criminals how to be better criminals, money is being filtered away from where it needs to be placed at alarming rates and the government is fine with that. The discrepancies in society are blatantly reflected in the prison system and in the next entry I will discuss that.