Crime for Crime

Crime for Crime by Ani Difranco -  The Dead Man Walking concert in honor of the film Dead Man Walking - March 1998


Back stage interview with Ani Difranco at the Dead Man Walking concert in honor of the film Dead Man Walking - March 1998


Crime for Crime - Ani Difranco

the big day has come
the bell is sounding
i run my hands through my hair one last time
outside the prison walls 
the town is gathering
people are trading crime for crime

everyone needs to see the prisoner
they need to make it even easier
they see me as a symbol, and not a human being
that way they can kill me
say it's not murder, it's a metaphor
we are killing off our own failure 
and starting clean

standing in the gallows
everyone turned my way
i hear a voice ask me 
if i've got any last words to say
and i'm looking out over the field of familiar eyes
somewhere in a woman's arms a baby cries

i think guilt and innocence 
they are a matter of degree
what might be justice to you 
might not be justice to me
i went too far, i'm sorry
i guess now i'm going home
so let any amongst you cast the first stone
now we've got all these complicated machines
so no one person ever has to have blood on their hands
we've got complex organizations
and if everyone just does their job
no one person has to understand

you might be the wrong color
you might be too poor
justice isn't something just anyone can afford
you might not pull the trigger 
you might be out in the car
and you might get a lethal injection
'cause we take a metaphor that far

the big day has come
the bell is sounding
i run my hands through my hair one last time
outside the prison walls 
the town has gathered
people are trading crime for crime
people are trading crime for crime
people are still trading crime for crime

From the album Not a Pretty Girl (1995)

 To learn more about Ani Difranco visit her official website here.

 To learn more about the death penalty and what you can do to join the fight 

against it visit any of these websites.

 The Southern Center for Human Rights 

 Amnesty International 

Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Death Penalty Information Center