In tenth grade, my teacher, Mrs. Keyes, determined to teach our class how to debate. The assignment: Prepare for both sides of the argument. You won't know which side you will defend until the day of the debate. Your topic--Capital punishment and the death penalty.
The son of a trial lawyer, I dug in like I had seen my dad prepare for court. I did my research. I marshaled my arguments. And by the time debate day came, I prayed that I would not have to defend capital punishment, because it was clear from everything I could study the death penalty was flawed, arbitrary, racially biased, expensive, unjust to those without resources to defend themselves and immoral. I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I was assigned to the "against" side.
When the debate was over, Mrs. Keyes asked for a class vote. It was an overwhelming rejection of the death penalty. That was nearly 50 years ago. And the situation has not changed, except, thanks to DNA evidence, we are uncovering more wrongful verdicts than we used to. But the system is still broken.
Last week Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced plans for eight executions. The state spent $24,226 to purchase the drugs for the executions, including the sedative midazolam, which has been controversial because of botched and problematic executions.
Christians are sensitive about the death penalty because Jesus was a victim of capital punishment. Jesus once intervened in an execution, stopping the stoning of a guilty women with the eternal challenge, "Let the one who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8:7)
Maybe that's why most American Christians are members of denominations that formally oppose the death penalty -- Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, United Methodists, Presbyterian USA, Lutherans (ELCA), Orthodox Church in America, UCC and Disciples of Christ.
One of the reasons Christians object to the death penalty is our constant hope that every person can become transformed. To execute someone is to cut off time that might be redemptive.
By the time we get around to executing someone, we are usually killing someone very different from the person who committed the crime. Execution happens an average of 18 years after the criminal event.
A priest colleague of mine named Henry led a Bible-theology study group at Mississippi's prison in Parchman for many years. One of the group members was Jimmy Lee, a prisoner on death row. He was a man guilty of two horrible crimes committed years before when he was young. By the time Henry knew him, Jimmy was a gentle, humble person, self-aware, repentant and full of grace. When his time for execution came, Jimmy asked Henry to be his witness. "Love you, man," were his last words as he gazed at Henry. Jimmy Lee was a man guilty of murder, but when he was executed, he was a good person.
Human beings are not perfect. We make mistakes and our human systems make mistakes. Our justice system is imperfect. We sometimes convict and execute people who are not guilty of the crime they are accused of. Since 1973, more than 150 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. The average number of exonerations per year is rising, from three per year (1973-1999) to five exonerations per year (2000-2011).
Last week, Alabama released Montez Spradley from nearly 10 years in jail, 3 1/2 on death row, when his ex-girlfriend finally said she lied at his trial because he had been cheating on her. Earlier when she told law enforcement officials she had lied, they told her that she would lose her children and go to jail if she didn't stick with her original story. The system is broken.
"It was horrible, horrible to be on death row for a crime I didn't do. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I can't make up for the years I've missed, but I'm so glad to be alive so I can be there for my children."
Poor people and minority defendants are much more likely to be convicted. Black defendants are convicted disproportionately. Bad lawyering abounds, especially for the poor. Law enforcement and prosecutors are under pressure to solve the crime and get a conviction. Mitigating evidence gets suppressed or misinterpreted. Some defendants are convicted despite mental illness or emotional-intellectual disabilities. The system is broken.
We kill people who kill people because killing people is wrong. It's a broken system.
Commentary on 09/22/2015