In the U.S., Veterans Come Home From War Only To See Relatives Executed By the State

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet at 1:16 PM on October 27, 2009.

Editor's note: Reginald Blanton was executed on Tuesday, Oct. 27th, pronounced dead at 6:21pm.

28-year-old Reginald Blanton is scheduled to die tonight in Texas, despite the very real possibility that he is innocent. This morning, his brother, Andre Bios, appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss his brother's impending execution.

Bios is an Iraq vet; he served in the 1991 Gulf War. Speaking to Amy Goodman and Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Bios described the cruel irony of having devoted himself to supposedly defending democratic ideals on behalf of his country, only to have his brother sentenced to die at the hands of the state:

Amy Goodman: Andre, you’re about to visit your brother. Are you going to be, if in fact he is executed, one of the witnesses to the execution?

Andre Bios: Yes, I am. It was one of the things that I did not want to do, but he has been requesting over and over again for me to be there ...

And the reason why I didn’t want to witness what was getting ready to happen to my brother is because it’s like a slap in my face from my own country, you know? His constitutional rights were violated, but yet I can go overseas and fight in another country to uphold peace, liberty, for them to have, but I can’t uphold peace, liberty and equality for my own brother.

Years ago, I had the opportunity to work alongside Monique Matthews, also a veteran, and the sister of Ryan Matthews, an African American teenager who was sentenced to death in Louisiana for a crime that he didn't commit. Ryan was exonerated in 2004, but I can still remember the sense of betrayal in his sister's voice as she described the hypocrisy -- and the racism that led to his wrongful conviction.

"I feel cheated, I feel played," she said in 2003, while her brother languished on death row. "An unbelievable injustice has occurred in our lives. The system has neglected to do its job by failing my family, and my brother and I can’t believe that this actually happened in the land of opportunity"

I remember one day in the court, we were trying to bring some peace to Ryan and just make him laugh a little bit. And there was this detective standing off to the side, and he said, "Yeah, they’re all over there laughing now, let’s see how they’re going to laugh when the verdict comes back." That merciless judge and jury -- they had no consideration and no mercy for my brother’s life. But then again, how dare I expect mercy from a state where David Duke, former grand wizard of the KKK, came extremely close to becoming governor of the state of Louisiana.

I had served in the United States Army during most of my brother’s life adolescent life ... Serving my country made me feel that I was equal to all races and opened my mind. So upon my return I expected the world to accept me as I had accepted it. Jefferson Parish reminded me that African Americans were indeed different when being prosecuted. They made me realize that ignorance and racism is still alive and well in the South.

In another Southern state, Martina Correia, the courageous sister of Troy Anthony Davis, an innocent man on Georgia's death row, has been fighting for his life for almost 20 years. Correia, a cancer survivor, is also an army veteran. She served as a nurse in Operation Desert Storm, tending to the wounded. Now, the state is trying to kill her brother.

There is something sick about a country that repays people who served in its military by murdering their family members -- particularly those who are innocent of any crime -- and particularly when those same veterans know better than to delude themselves that killing civilians is okay. Says Andre Bios:

I went to the first war, which was Desert Storm, Desert Shield, came back, and it really changed my life, because when we went over there, it wasn’t what everybody thought it was going to be. You know ... I would tell my brother, when I came back, it’s like if somebody was to come into your backyard and tell you, “You need to stop this, or else,” you’re going to stand your ground, and you’re going to fight for what you believe in. And that’s what they were doing over there, you know? And when I started noticing this, it changed my life. I was going to make the military as a career and decided not to, because the life of people that we was taking away.

Reginald comes from a background of family members that are all military. His father was a master chief petty officer in the Navy, retired. He passed away in 2006 with a massive heart attack, knowing that Texas was going to execute his baby son.

Watch the full interview here.

Go here to watch a powerful video of Anna Terrell, Reginald Blanton's mother, speaking at a rally in Austin, TX this past weekend.

Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and World Special Coverage.