I feel compelled to voice a disappointment.
In the recent Republican debate, Texas governor Rick Perry defended the 234 executions he approved since taking office as virtually mistake-proof. It did not help that there were some yahoos in the audience cheering for him when the question was asked, “Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might be innocent?”
His arrogance aside, there are reported to be 5-10% of Death Row inmates in Texas to be classified as “mentally retarded,” a threshold marked by an IQ under 70. Back in 2002, Texas passed legislation banning the execution of mentally retarded inmates. Perry vetoed the bill, saying, “This legislation is not about whether to execute mentally retarded murderers. It’s about who determines whether a defendant is mentally retarded in the Texas justice system.” Which apparently Perry decided that the “who” is him and whoever he appoints to decide. Interestingly, no inmates on Death Row meet his standard of MR, and all will eventually be executed. Mr. Perry is VERY pro-execution…
This is being highlighted at the very same time Troy Davis is denied clemency in Georgia, and will be executed for the murder of a police officer. His conviction was unilaterally witness-won. There was no actual evidence against him (only a pair of boxers retrieved from the dryer at his house was submitted, then rejected by the judge as an unwarranted search). After his conviction in 1991, seven of the nine witnesses recanted some or all of their testimony, alleging police coercion. A new witness was found, that gave sworn affidavits as to Davis’ innocence. It’s is even believed by some that Redd Coles, the witness who pointed police to Davis, is actually the real killer. None of this was strong enough for the US District Court of Southern Georgia, which claimed that the new evidence cast only “minimal doubt on his conviction.” Now, the flip side of this coin is that, in the 22 years since Davis’ conviction, the state of Georgia has gone through several governors, new judges in the District court, and different judges in the appeals court. So any claim of “institutional memory” on the part of people who were not part of the system when Davis was convicted would strain credibility – as does the claim by his attorneys that he didn’t receive a fair trial, and that the jury was predisposed against him. The jury was seven black, five white. I do believe that, if at all possible, doubt about his conviction exists, then it warrants a revisit. But Davis’ execution had been stayed several times already, his case sifted with a fine tooth comb – one of the times by an investigator who’s credibility was considered so unimpeachable that the state Supreme Court refused Davis’ habeas corpus outright, with no consideration of review. Sad as it may be for Davis and his family, he has gotten a pretty thorough tour of the Georgia state judicial system, and has come out of it in the same position as he started.
I dragged all this out to get to my real issue: capital punishment. I don’t understand people’s fascination with it, the far right’s incessant need for it, the far left’s incessant protestation of it, and the drum beat that bears the subject out as a topic of entertainment, from Perry being cheered during the debate to the tantric chanting of “Kill, baby, kill!” at the Republican Convention in 2008, with Sarah Palin leading the guttural cry.
There are secular and religious reasons for abolishing the death penalty. On the secular side, there is the philosophical/psychological: Execution may bring some measure of closure to victims’ families, and I’m all for that – but the loved one is still lost, and nothing changes that. Execution is simply state-implemented vengeance. If I lost a loved one, I would probably want revenge as well – except the revenge wouldn’t be mine, it would be the state’s. I’m not sure that would really do it for me.
Then there’s the notion that in executing the criminal, they are being let off light. I would rather they spend the rest of their life knowing that I fought for their life sentence so they would have a daily reminder that they could have gotten off light with an execution, but their continued misery is thanks to me. I might even go visit them once a year to simply smile at them and leave. The worst among us do not deserve to exit this world early – they deserve far worse than that. And at the same time, they should have the opportunity to make peace with themselves and God.
This brings us around to religion. There are many religious arguments on both sides of the execution debate, and many are taken out of context, which perverts the claim to justice by way of the death penalty.
The Bible contains several explicit endorsements of capital punishment. Most of these occur in the first five books of the Old Testament, called the Pentateuch - most predominantly in Leviticus, whereby Moses dictates God’s laws of holy living to the Israeli priests. These laws pronounce death as the punishment for several offenses against God and humanity. The lex talionis, in the book of Leviticus, lists these offenses in detail. One of the most often quoted texts is “eye for an eye, hand for a hand, foot for a foot…” This, of course is among the most common mantra of death penalty supporters, despite the intended limitation on punishment that the text implies.
On the anti death penalty side, the Bible does imply God’s desire of redemption in sinners, even though the death penalty would be warranted under previously mentioned circumstances. Ezekiel 33:10-11 says, "herefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: "Thus you say, `If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live? Say to them: "As I live," says the Lord God, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?" This begs the question of the purpose of the death penalty, if it strips the convicted of the ability to amend their evil ways.
One of the strongest anti-death penalty arguments in the Bible is in the New Testament book of John, in the form of the adulteress: “Now early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down and taught them. Then the Scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And when they sat her in the midst, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say?" This they said, testing him, that they might have something of which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though he did not hear. So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing alone in the midst. When Jesus has raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." Jesus never rejects Mosaic law in this story, but He clearly implies that people are in no position to judge others’ sins, that we should concern ourselves more with our own sins before condemning anyone else for theirs.
In this manner, the Bible makes for a sticky back and forth on the subject of capital punishment. While capital punishment is endorsed and prescribed in the Old Testament, Jesus in the New Testament clearly advocates ethical expression of love and forgiveness. Even referring to the “eye for an eye” crowd, Jesus says in Matthew 5: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whosoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” One could even make the argument that, as Christians believe the New Testament is the affirmation of the prophesies of the Old Testament, Jesus, while affirming Mosaic law, was continually attempting to enlighten people to move beyond Mosaic law, to a life of forgiveness and redemption that would preclude the need for the death penalty.
I believe the death penalty, if used at all, should be reserved for the most heinous of us. I was amused with the ferocity of the protesters at Troy Davis’ execution. My amusement was not because they were protesting the execution – it was that they weren’t protesting the other execution happening on the same day: that of white supremacist Duane Edward Buck, executed in Texas for the horrific murder of James Byrd, an African American who was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged side to side through the streets of Jasper, Texas for two miles until he was decapitated when his body hit a culvert. This is the case, along with the Matthew Shephard case, that inspired the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. That no one was really protesting Buck’s execution demonstrates why a guy like Davis maybe should not have been executed. His crime (if he indeed committed it), was the result of a fight at a Burger King, not premeditated toward the officer. There appears to have been no malicious intent, other than extremely bad judgment in what had escalated into a high pressure situation – possibly in a state of mind that had begun earlier in the night at a party.
Since the hardest proponents of the pro death penalty argument almost always cite religion as the support of it, I have to ask, in regards to these two cases: What would Jesus do?
