Lenten Evening of Prayer - The Death Penalty
Sr. Margaret Gannon, IHMIHM Center, Scranton, PA
March 09, 2005
There are many good reasons for us to oppose the death penalty.
RACE
One reason to oppose the death penalty is the great injustice that results from the impact of racism on the administration of the death penalty. Racism helps to determine who gets arrested, who gets defended adequately, and who is condemned to death by execution. 45.6% of death row inmates are white, 41.8% are African American, even though only 12% of our population is African American.
What accounts for these numbers?
Maybe the fact that there are 1,794 white District Attorneys in the US, and there are 22 African American DAs has something to do with it.
The race of the victim seems to be a crucial factor.
Since 1976, in interracial murders the numbers are striking: when there was a black defendant and a white victim, 192 offenders were executed; when the defendant was white and the victim was black: 12 executions.
The US General Accounting Office analyzed a number of studies on the impact of race and they state that 82% of the studies indicate that the race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of receiving a death sentence. Those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks.
Sister Helen Prejean writes: "When people of color are killed in the inner city, when homeless people are killed, when the 'nobodies' are killed, DAs do not seek to avenge their deaths. Black, Hispanic or poor families who have a loved one murdered not only do not expect the DA's office to pursue the death penalty--which, of course, is both costly and time consuming--but are surprised when the case is prosecuted at all."
Supreme Court Justice William Brennan reflected on the situation: "It is tempting to pretend that minorities on death row share a fate in no way connected to our own, that our treatment of them sounds no echoes beyond the chambers in which they die. Such an illusion is ultimately corrosive, for the reverberations of injustice are not so easily confined."
SO RACISM COMPROMISES THE PURPORTED JUSTICE OF THE DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM.
BUT THAT'S NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON WE SHOULD OPPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY.
POOR DEFENSE
Another reason we need to oppose the death penalty is that the accused are so badly defended, that the death penalty system is so full of mistakes that it is, in the words of James Leibman, "collapsing under its own weight." The US Senate Committee on the Judiciary asked Dr. Leibman to evaluate the incidence of error in the death penalty process. The report, which is entitled A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995," revealed that the overall rate of prejudicial error was 68%, the courts found reversible error in 7 out of 10 of the thousands of capital sentences fully reviewed. According to the study the main causes of the reversals are two: incompetent defense lawyers, and the suppression of evidence by the police or prosecutors.
Leibman comments that this is a system "in which lives and public order are at stake. Yet for decades it has made more mistakes than we would tolerate in far less important activities."
SUCH A POORLY OPERATING SYSTEM IS FRIGHTENING AND DISTURBING, BUT THAT'S NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON WE SHOULD OPPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY.
COSTLINESS AND INEFFECTIVENESS OF THE DEATH PENALTY SYSTEM
Of the 5,760 persons on death row between 1973 and 1995, 313 were executed. 82% of the retrials conducted resulted in the cancellation of the death penalty. What of the cost in personal and family anguish involved in the process? What of the cost to society in funds and personnel in so faulty a procedure? Studies in state after state indicate that death penalty is vastly more expensive that life sentences. What of the continuing distress of the victim's family as the process drags on for decades? People claim that the death penalty is a deterrent against other crimes. But how can such an ineffective, tedious procedure be a truly persuasive deterrent? If the death penalty were not an option, and we chose to protect our society through prison terms, how much pain would all the parties involved be spared?
BUT THAT'S NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON WE SHOULD OPPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY.
THE COMPANY WE KEEP AS A DEATH PENALTY COUNTRY
118 nations have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.
As a death penalty country we remain in the company of such nations as China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Congo. In 2003, 84% of all the world's executions were in four countries: China, Iran, Vietnam, and the United States. Until 2002, until the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional, we were executing persons with mental limitations; from 1976 to 2002 the United States executed 35 persons with IQ under 70. Under just last week, when the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, we were executing persons convicted of crimes they committed as children. We were one of 8 nations to do so; and we executed a greater number of child criminals than all the other 7 combined.
WE WANT TO BE PROUD OF OUR NATION AND ITS SENSE OF COMPASSION, BUT THAT'S NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON WE SHOULD OPPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY.
Why should we oppose the death penalty? Because "Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even have courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
This is not about the innocent, not about the falsely accused or poorly defended, not about the excusable because of the circumstances of their lives. This is about the guilty. We need to oppose the death penalty imposed on the manifestly, inexcusably guilty. This is about us, for whom, 'while we were still sinners," Christ died. We need to oppose the death penalty because Christ had the courage to die, not for the just but for us sinners. We need to oppose the death penalty because the God of life and love calls us to share the gift of compassion, because we are the recipients of that compassion, and Christ places it in our hands so that we may extend it to others. As Megan McKenna says, "we go home together or we don't go at all.
Flannery O'Connor wrote: "There is something in us . .. that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered a chance to be restored. We look for this motion and rightly so, but what we forget is the cost of it." Let us offer that redemptive act and be ready to pay the cost.
I invite you pay the cost, to show your opposition to the death penalty by signing and filing the Declaration of Life.
A Declaration of Life
I, the undersigned, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do hereby in the presence of witnesses make this Declaration of Life,
I believe that the killing of one human being by another is morally wrong.
I believe it is morally wrong for any state or other governmental entity to take the life of a human being for any reason
I believe that capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime and serves only the purpose of revenge.
THEREFORE, I hereby declare that should I die as a result of a violent crime, I request that the person or persons found guilty of homicide for my killing not be subject to or put in jeopardy of the death penalty under any circumstances, no matter how heinous their crime or how much I may have suffered. The death penalty would only increase my suffering.
I request that the Prosecutor or District Attorney having the jurisdiction of the person or persons alleged to have committed my homicide not file or prosecute an action for capital punishment as a result of my homicide.
I request that this Declaration be made admissible in any trial of any person charged with my homicide, and read and delivered to the jury. I also request the Court to allow this Declaration to be admissible as a statement of the victim at the sentencing of the person or persons charged and convicted of my homicide; and, to pass sentence in accordance with my wishes.
I request that the Governor or other executive officer(s) grant pardon, clemency or take whatever action is necessary to stay and prohibit the carrying out of the execution of any person or persons found guilty of my homicide.
This Declaration is not meant to be, and should not be taken as, a statement that the person or persons who have committed my homicide should go unpunished.
I request that my family and friends take whatever actions are necessary to carry out the intent and purpose of this Declaration; and, I further request them to take no action contrary to this Declaration.
I request that, should I die under the circumstances as set forth in the Declaration and the death penalty is requested, my family, friends and personal representative deliver copies of this Declaration as follows: to the Prosecutor or District Attorney having jurisdiction over the person or persons charged with my homicide; to the Attorney representing the person or persons charged with my homicide; to the judge presiding over the case involving my homicide; for recording, to the Recorder of the County in which my homicide took place and to the recorder of the County in which the person or persons charged with my homicide are to be tried; to all newspapers, radio and television stations of general circulation in the County in which my homicide took place and the County in which the person or persons charged with my homicide are to be tried; and, to any other person, persons or entities my family, friends or personal representative deem appropriate in order to carry out my wishes as set forth herein.
I affirm under the pains and penalties for perjury that the above Declaration of Life is true.
WITNESS
_________________________
_________________________ printed name
DECLARANT
_________________________
_________________________
printed name
_________________________
Social Security Number
STATE OF ____________________)
COUNTY OF __________________)
Before me, a Notary Public in and for said county and state, personally appeared the Declarant and acknowledged the execution of the foregoing instrument this_______________day of ______________ 20___.
WITNESS my hand and notarial seal.
__________________________
NOTARY PUBLIC
__________________________
Printed Name
My commission expires: ___________________ County of Residence:______________________
Please send a copy of this notarized form to: Cherish Life Circle, Convent of Mercy, 273 Willoughby Ave.,
Brooklyn, NY 11205
