Death Penalty Thoughts

I have been reading about a brewing national discussion about the death penalty. I am sure the penalty is here to stay, but this topic will always crop up for debate.

I've always held a pretty strong position against the death penalty. I figure now is as good a time as any to explain why.

Three considerations led me to my position. First, I do not feel that anything is accomplished by the killing of a person and do not believe it deters as proponents say. Second, it is abundantly clear today, with the help of DNA evidence, that many innocent people have been executed. Finally, because I do not believe that intentional killing is morally right out of vengeance, I do not consent to it being done in my name (via representative government).

While in law school, we heard a speech by a man who was on death row for 17 years before he was exonerated by his final available appeal. He now tours the nation telling his story and I very much regret that I do not remember his name. His discussion about coming to terms with his seemingly-inevitable death for a crime he did not commit really hit me.

When released, he was given the clothes he came in with and enough cab fare to get him to wherever he could go. While it is true that a life sentence may have led to his eventual release as well, his description of being a "dead man walking" was chilling.

Our speaker did not change my thinking, but his story reinforced my reasons for believing as I do.

WHAT RESULT?

I have heard the arguments about deterrence, and I just don't buy its usefulness or its substance. I heard once that our nation is the only democratic country that sanctions the death penalty. Yet, we are also among the leaders in violent crimes committed.

When it comes to murder, I struggle to imagine anyone determined enough to commit murder will really weigh possible execution in his or her mind. For very violent crimes, I'm unconvinced that consequences are ever factored into the thought process. Maybe that's a consideration I will never understand because I've never killed before. Still, I struggle to conclude the thought even enters the brain.

Once committed, however, the act of execution literally solves nothing. As to the thought that families take comfort in the execution of the criminal; that thought makes me shudder.

Such accommodation of vengeance only encourages people to indulge in anger.

Execution also makes impossible the eventual rehabilitation of a person, thus precluding any possible unforeseen good to come from a horrible situation. I realize rehabilitation is often not possible, but it is also not impossible.

ARE WE SURE?

The fact that hundreds of innocent people have been executed stands by itself. Humans are too fallible to be so certain as to inflict so final a punishment. If we believe in protecting the innocent, then we should never execute. Simply stated, that's the only way to insure no innocents are murdered by us all. Which leads me to...

UNDIGNIFIED

A politician once said that the death penalty is "beneath the dignity of our elected government." It is therefore also beneath the dignity of us all.

Representative government acts on behalf of us all. Therefore, in essence, the lethal injection is given by all of our hands.

The phrase "thou shalt not kill" has been amended in the minds of generations in innumerable ways. Self defense. Justified war. Protection of family. The applicability of any of those have been debated passionately. However, I do not consider vengeance, punishment or retribution to be among those debatable excuses for the taking of life.

For what it's worth, I do not wish anyone to execute a criminal on my behalf. By doing so with the sanction of law, that happens anyway. And, I don't have to like that.