Guanyin is in de Chinese mythologie en het boeddhisme de godin van het mededogen.
Guanyin wordt vaak voorgesteld met een kindje in haar armen, waardoor ze lijkt op een boeddhistische variant van de Maria met het kindje Jezus in de armen. Ook wordt ze soms voorgesteld met een vaas in de handen, die het water bevat dat mensen uit gevaar redt.
In Japan wordt haar naam als Kannon uitgesproken. Een beeld van Kannon staat opgesteld in de kamer voor de executieruimte in Japan. Het is dus het laatste wat de veroordeelde ziet voor hij sterft. Japan voert de doodstraf nog altijd uit, en geeft hierover zeer weinig informatie vrij. De familie wordt pas na de executie op de hoogte gebracht.
Vanuit de kamer met het beeld van de godin Kannon ziet de veroordeelde de executieplek, die op de grond is gemarkeerd door twee rode vierkanten op de vloer.
both 60cmx 60 cm, acrylic on canvas
7 August 2012: Texas executes Marvin Wilson, 54, who had an iq of 61. State attorneys that Wilson's claim was based on a single test that may have been faulty and that his mental impairment claim wasn't supported by other tests and assessments of him over the years.
18 July 2012: Texas executes Yokamon Hearn, 33, who suffered from a fetal alcohol disorder that should disqualify him from execution.
In 2004, a federal court spared Hearn less than an hour before he could have been taken to the Huntsville death chamber so that it could consider arguments that he was mentally impaired and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. That appeal subsequently was rejected.
24 July 2012: Marcus Druery, 32, was denied motions that deem him unfit for execution on the grounds of mental disorder. Druery’s lawyers say their client is schizophrenic and doesn’t have a rational understanding of why he’s scheduled to die.
The prosecutor did not argue that Druery is mentally ill, but did insist he meets the competency criteria for execution.
23 July 2012: Warren Hill, the death row prisoner in Georgia who has been diagnosed intellectually disabled, was granted a stay of execution, 90 minutes before he was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection. The Georgia supreme court unanimously decided to postpone the execution.
20 February 2013: Warren Hill, an intellectually disabled prisoner, has been spared the death chamber just 30 minutes before he was due to die by lethal injection in Georgia despite a US supreme court ban on executions of people with learning difficulties. This was the second time in seven months that Hill has come close to the death chamber. Warren Hill, 53, had already taken an oral sedative of Ativan to help calm himself for the gurney before he learned of the stay of execution.
Beside the fact that all the above recent cases concern Afro-Americans, and people with mental impairment, capital punishment itself should be abolished. It is inhumane and medieval.
Albert Camus: "Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders."
http://www.deathrow-usa.com/
http://claimyourinnocence.wordpress.com/
Postscript
Warren Hill was executed in January 2015 -
Guardian story January 27 2015
all 42 x 29.7 cm (oil pastel o/p, oil pastel o/p, pencil o/p)
