Death Row Inmates for Barack Obama

Obama supporter Dale Leo Bishop executed for his role in the claw hammer murder of a friend.

Ask anyone convicted of a capital offense who their friend is and they will tell you, it's Barack Obama. Just recently in his final words, Dale Leo Bishop who was convicted for his part in the claw hammer murder of Marcus Gentry voiced his support for Barack Obama.

See the below story from the NY Daily News.

Barack Obama has a fan on Death Row in Mississippi

Michael Saul
Daily News Political Correspondent

Thursday, July 24th 2008, 4:45 PM

Obama-mania has reached the last mile - Mississippi's Death Row.

Dale Leo Bishop's final words before his execution Wednesday night included a pitch for the Democratic presidential candidate, the Jackson Clarion Ledger reported.

"For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice," Bishop, 34, said shortly before he was given a lethal injection for his role in a murder.

Obama actually says he supports the death penalty for "the most heinous crimes."

Bishop's very last words - after the endorsement - were: "God bless America. It has been great living here. That's all."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/07/24/2008-07-24_barack_obama_has_a_fan_on_death_row_in_m.html

One has to wonder if he means it has been great living here only recently similar to how Michelle Obama has only recently become proud of her country?

Unfortunately for Bishop and others on death row, Barack has recently made a political flip flop on this issue as well and he is now a supporter for the death penalty, drawing sharp criticism from those opposed to the practice.

What a difference a general election makes.

Hours after the Supreme Court handed down a ruling banning the death penalty for the rape of a child, Democratic candidate Barack Obama found his inner Scalia and declared it a miscarriage of justice.

Informed voters will see Obama's move for what it is: an opportunistic embrace of a sharply right-wing stance to shed the (dubious) stigma of being "the most liberal senator" in the Congress. In a week that saw him backpedal on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and on free trade, his supporters may see this as just another move rightward in his path toward the White House. But this is more than that. This is a reactionary stance that betrays those who would be his natural base of support, not to mention those communities that are actually affected by the death penalty. The fact that Obama was speaking at a press conference in Chicago is especially painful. It is a city that, as we speak, is handing subpoenas to police officers who tortured African American men on the South Side into giving confessions for crimes that they didn't commit -- men who ended up on death row. Obama, famously, was an organizer on the South Side of Chicago in this era. He knows how the death penalty system really works. He's just choosing to ignore it for the sake of cheap political points. How much he will actually gain from his pro-death penalty proclamation is unclear. Is it more than he stands to lose?

It is a sad day when a candidate who so many genuinely saw as bringing "change we can believe in" takes a politically motivated and intellectually dishonest stance in a matter of life and death. Obama risks alienating those who gave him his rise to the top, by betraying the very ideals that attracted them to him in the first place.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/89573/

Ouch Barack! But at least you are in good company, apparently Bishop has flip-flopped on this issue also

From the LA Times

Bishop had asked for the death penalty at his 2000 trial, but later changed his mind and sought a reprieve.

And apparently Bishop doesn't know where he really stands on the issue either since when asked about his buddy Jessie Johnson who actually delivered the fatal blow....

Bishop about Johnson. "He indicated to me he thought Johnson should be where is now - on death row,"

Barack Obama supporters....as flip-floppy as their candidate. Seems like their opportunistic changing of their positions as it suits them is the only "real change we can believe in".