Death Penalty |
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This article originally appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of "Life Times," a newsletter published by the Archdiocese of Detroit. To access the original copy of the newsletter click here. "If the state had its way, I'd be dead today." This stark declaration of life rang through the Northwestern University auditorium 29 times, with the solemn regularity of a bell toll. The words were spoken by women and men who had spent years on death row before having their convictions overturned. They were part of a three day conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty, organized in 1998 by Northwestern University law professor Lawrence Marshall. He designed the gathering to send the message that no matter what logical arguments one might espouse in favor of the death penalty in theory, the danger of executing the innocent is so great that the death penalty should be abolished. The message got through to then Gov. George Ryan of Illinois who heard and saw the tragic possibilities of state sanctioned killing of the innocent. In January, 2000 he realized that the system "has proved itself to be wildly inaccurate, unjust, unable to separate the innocent men from the guilty and, at times, a very racist system." He declared a moratorium on executions. His decision came after the exoneration of the thirteenth death row prisoner found to have been wrongfully convicted in Illinois since 1977. During the same period twelve other prisoners had been executed. He pardoned four death row prisoners and commuted the sentences of all 167 other death row inmates to life in prison. He got the message. Early in 1998 the media introduced the American public to Texas death row inmate, Karla Faye Tucker. There was no doubt about the heinous murder that she had committed. She took full responsibility and was sorry. At age eleven, Karla was given drugs by her addicted mother and she was lost in the drug world even as she and her partner killed their victims. The horror of what she had done weighed on her. After her incarceration, she had a deep experience of the merciful love and acceptance of God. It was a new beginning for her, visible in her gentle care for those around her. She had finally become herself while on death row. The execution of "America's favorite inmate," as the National Catholic Reporter called Karla, raised many questions. She had put a human face on the tragic reality of the death penalty. Here was a young woman obviously touched by grace, who took responsibility for her crime. Even the brother of one of the victims pleaded on her behalf. How could justice be served by her death? Would society be safer once Karla Fay Tucker was dead? Absurd! Her victims would not return. There is no balancing off. Surely the lives of her victims are not honored by her execution. Who are the people on death row? Who has the right to take a life? What does it do to us as a society? In 1997 the American Bar Association, after struggling with these issues of who are the ones given the death penalty and why, called the administration of the death penalty a "haphazard maze of unfair practices and policies with no internal consistency." The Association asked for a moratorium on executions unless greater fairness and due process prevail. (AP News Report Feb. 3, 1997 Ref 5202) They saw the need for 1) adequate counsel for the accused, 2) elimination of racial discrimination, and 3) the end of executions of youth and mentally impaired defendants. This was another important message: persons on death row are not the "worst of the worst" as much as the "poorest of the poor." It is not only the manner in which the death penalty is administered that is wrong; it is wrong at the core. Killing is not just a punishment for killing. We do not burn down the houses of arsonists or rape those who rape. We Christians believe in the God-given dignity and sanctity of all human life. No matter what judicial ritual is in place to legalize state-sanctioned killing, it is a usurping of the power of God over life. Pope John Paul II has noted that a "sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal for a consensus to end the death penalty which is both cruel and unnecessary." (Homily Jan. 27, 1999, St. Louis Missouri) The Declaration of Independence names certain inalienable rights including the right to life. Morton Winston of Amnesty International reasons: essentially the death penalty is inconsistent with our belief in human rights. It violates the individual s right to life. Those who oppose believe that a person has forfeited this right because of their crime. The state does not grant the right, so it cannot have the authority to say that a person forfeits the right. "If we believe that governments should not be able to deprive us of our freedom of thought, speech, worship, and association, why should we believe that they should have the power to deprive us of our right to life?" (Amnesty Action, Fall, 1996, p. 11) The death penalty is the ultimate act of frustration of a society doing the very thing they despise the offender for doing. It is an act of revenge and ought to be acknowledged for what it is. Feelings of fear and retaliation are very understandable in the aftermath of a tragedy, but to institutionalize them in the law demeans the sacredness of life. One who understands this well is the daughter of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Bernice A King: "Having lost my father and grandmother to gun violence, I well understand the deep hurt and anger felt by the loved ones who have been murdered. Yet I cannot accept the judgment that their killers deserve to be executed. This merely perpetuates the tragic, unending cycle of violence that destroys our hope for a decent society." (Sermons, Homilies, & Reflections on the Death Penalty, American Friends Service Committee, P. 33.) It is what happens to our societal soul that is at stake. We have all seen the spectacle of celebration vigils at the time of execution. They are a revelation that our sense of the priceless value of life is diminished, our thirst for retaliation is deepened, our hope for reconciliation and restoration has died as well. Is there a way out of this legal bind? When the sentencing option of life imprisonment without parole is offered as an alternative to the death penalty, polls have shown a preference for life imprisonment rather than execution. Presently there are 34 states which have the death penalty and have provided for life sentences without the possibility of parole. The alternative assures that offenders will never be free again and that executions are not necessary. Lawyer and novelist Scott Turow whose novels probe the limits of the law, offers a significant insight: "The legal process will never fully heal us. The law neither finds the truth nor dispenses justice with the reliability it is obliged to claim. The law's sharp-edged rules never cut through the murk of moral ambiguity, nor do they fully comprehend or address the complexities of human motivation and intention. And just punishment alone does not render the world as one we want to live in. In the face of the cruelties we visit upon one another, murder being the gravest wrong among them, a sense of meaning and connection must come from outside the law." (Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty by Scott Turow. Macmillan. Source: The UK Guardian) Where do we turn for a sense of meaning and connection? Our Christian faith offers wisdom regarding questions of restoration, the sacredness of life and the limits of the law. Biblically, justice is about restoring right relationship, about the shalom that results from healing and reconciliation. "Justice" in the death penalty comes from the distorted view that condones retaliation and institutionalized violence. It says that we're going to kill you to prove that killing people is wrong. The state's taking a life only accelerates the cycle of violence. In the words of the United States Catholic Conference, "the death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking life." (United States Catholic Conference, March 25, 1999) Jesus was asked for his support of the death penalty as the righteous ones brought him a woman who was taken in adultery. His reply? "Let one who is without sin cast the first stone." Jesus saw the woman with eyes other than those of the condemning crowd. He saw beyond the label of adulteress to the heart of the person and her inner struggles, suffering, and humiliation. Challenging the death penalty is about what is in our hearts. It's about real people and love and loss and terrible acts of violence. It's about the heart of our faith that reveals in Jesus that life can come on the other side of tragic death. Life can come in through the door of compassion and forgiveness - life for the victim as well as for the offender. Capital punishment says that this person who murdered is beyond forgiveness. These victims are beyond forgiving. Essentially it is saying that this situation's beyond the power of the Resurrection, beyond the recreative power of God. Bud Welch whose daughter was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing discovered this gift of God's forgiveness. He said, "In my worst moments, I want to see him die, but I want to be better than that. Forgiveness is the way you redeem your own humanity and faith, the way you allow yourself to move beyond your own agony, the way you take the stones off your own heart." "For many," says Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, "the language of forgiveness and reconciliation sounds like a foreign language in our culture which has sanctified vengeance." Yet the Gospel must have its say and our hearts must be open in a new way to struggle with these issues and to choose life so that we and our children may live. This is the challenge of our faith.
Kate O'Brien, IHM is a Spiritual Care Coordinator for Mercy Memorial Hospice in Monroe, Michigan. For fifteen years she served as prison chaplain in the Federal Correctional Institution in Lexington, Kentucky, and the Women's Unit in Gatesville, Texas where she ministered to women on death row. She continues to be an advocate against the death penalty. |
