Friday, October 30, 2009

"There are no good assassins" by Eric Pabon

It seems the death penalty, a highly volatile topic in the U.S., is constantly in the news. Yesterday, in Santa Ana, California, an Orange County jury sentenced a man to death. Nothing exciting, right? Well, the problem here is, the man in question was trying to convince the jury to sentence him to death because he believes the accommodations are nicer on death row. To convince the jury, he admitted to another two murders. The man’s attorney told the press that his client “figured by the time his appeals run out…[he] won’t want to live anyway.” Essentially, this is state sponsored suicide

The death penalty in America is a funny thing; funny in that it provides justice by negating it. It’s a hole in our legal system that offers up blood thirst and revenge as justice, and is simply reciprocal anger. The old saying rings true; Two wrongs don’t make a right.

But since the founding of America, wrongs have been used to right wrongs. And this runs contrary to what a couple of founders wanted. Thomas Payne, in a 1791 work titled “The Rights Of Man”, writes “[T]each governments humanity. It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind…” And this work, he wrote in defense of the French Revolution. Maintaining his opposition to the death penalty, when the French were set to execute Louis XVI, he went before the French Convention and said “As France has been the first of European nations to abolish royalty, let us also be the first to abolish the punishment of death.”

Now granted, he was rewarded for this enlightened perspective by being sentenced to death, although saved just short of it by James Monroe, his words were wise, he knew that blood thirst, like thirst itself, can never be satiated. Another founder, Dr. Benjamin Rush, explained in a collection of his writings; “The punishment of murder by death, is contrary to reason, and to the order and happiness of society. It lessens the horror of taking away human life, and thereby tends to multiply murders.”

But respect for life seems to be a convoluted matter, the most prevalent defense of the death penalty is that it deters murder. Yet again we find a confusing string of logic. Author Victor Hugo explained that “Blood has to be washed by tears but not by blood.” And the most recent discount of this perspective is a survey of criminologists; 88% of the most respected criminologists in the field said they believed the abolition of the death penalty would have no effect on the murder rate. (Press release June 16, 2009. Death Penalty information center)

Another terrible tragedy of the death penalty is the racial imbalance. According to a report by the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1976, there has been 15 people sentenced to death in cases in which a white defendant murdered a black victim. The opposite situation, black defendant, white victim; 242 executions-almost 16 times that of their racial counterpart. Another fact is that 42% of the inmates on death row are black, and 44% are white. To put that in perspective, 74% of the country’s population is white, while only 14% is black; to that end, the percentage of blacks on death row seems oddly out of proportion.

But if race doesn’t shift perspective, perhaps the thought of accidentally taking an innocent mans life should be enough. According to DPIC, “Since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence.” And since 2000, an average of 5 people every year are exonerated. With the basis of our justice system being that it is better to let ten guilty men go free, then lock up even one innocent man, the death penalty offers us no means of a remedy. If we make a mistake, how can we remedy it?

Often overlooked are the affects of death upon the surviving family members. To think of losing a family member is often the most devastating thought one can have. The death penalty was put into practice in order to bring a sense of closure to the families struck by a seemingly senseless murder, to give a sense of justice. But everybody has a family, even the most sadistic murderers. What justice is then offered to a mother who’s child’s life has been stolen by the government who promised to serve and protect her? What recourse does she have? Where is her closure?

The reality of it is, we can’t give justice to one family, by robbing it from another. The death penalty is simply a savage justice. Oscar Wilde once wrote that “One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.” Or perhaps the Spanish poet, Pablo Neruda put it best in his poem;

"May the bad not kill the good,
Nor the good kill the bad
I am a poet, without any bias,
I say without doubt or hesitation
There are no good assassins."
Pablo Neruda


No comments:

Post a Comment