Me, I'm a pretty reasonable guy. I can negotiate and compromise, because I understand that my desire to change a situation is built upon dissatisfaction with things as they are, and while I may have a conception of the best possible way that things should be, some movement towards that goal is better to me than ideological purity and immediate total victory.
Except for the death penalty.
Two men were executed earlier this week, one in Georgia, the other in Texas. The inmate in Georgia, Troy Davis, drew international attention prior to his execution because of questions surrounding his guilt in the killing of an off-duty police officer. The inmate in Texas, Lawrence Brewer, drew an AP reporter who dutifully transcribed his last words, 'I have no final statement,' and received that publicity because of the headlines the crime for which he was convicted generated. Mr. Brewer, you see, was one of the three Klansmen who chained a black man to the bumper of their pickup truck and dragged him until his raw corpse was scattered along miles of roadbank.
With all due respect to the many activists who unsuccessfully tried to prevent Mr. Davis' execution, the protests should have centered around Mr. Brewer.
No one supports the execution of innocents. However, we have an appeals process, trials by jury, lengthy sentencing hearings, layer upon layer of protection against the lethal injection of a person who does not deserve to die. What about that word, 'deserve,' though? Later on in Chapter 21 of The Book of Exodus, The LORD commands that a guy who owns an ox that has a history of swinging its head around should be put to death along with the ox should the beast gore some innocent. The Romans rather famously and unsuccessfully attempted to quell a rebellion in Judea by employing capital punishment against the ringleader. The Breaking Wheel, pictured above, was popular in France for use against those who badmouthed the aristocracy until people began questioning its brutality. That led the French royalty to develop the more humane guillotine, which gentility was tested on them. Until very recently, the United States permitted execution of rapists and the mentally retarded. Not so very recently, but recently enough, it was considered permissible to drag a black man from the back of your truck by a chain tied around his neck. Obviously, human standards of what the phrase 'deserve to die' permits have changed over time.
Which brings me to Mr. Brewer. Not to mince words, but he was a piece of shit. Very, very few people are going to miss his presence on this earth. There might even be some solace available to the family of his victim, given the knowledge that they no longer have to share oxygen with their loved one's mutilator. The problem with meting out Mr. Brewer's richly deserved punishment is that it leads to more dubious situations like that of Mr. Davis. As long as we insist on killing the worst human beings our society produces, the option will continue to exist that we execute someone who is not guilty.
Rather than protest the questionable cases, I'd like to see more people protest the executions of slam-dunk confessed killers. Organize marches with placards bearing the blank eyes of a sociopath and talk openly about how this man disgusts you but you don't want him to be killed in your name.
Just consider this. If we allow that 99.99% of the convicts who have been put to death in the United States since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 were guilty, and frankly, given the potential for error in any system that is wholly dependent on humans for its operation, 99.99 is a generous percentage to allow, then we've killed 13 innocent people.
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