When I was still a teenager, I became a pacifist, and I have remained so for nearly 70 years now. It was perhaps only a little later, and for some of the same reasons, that I became an opponent of the death penalty, and I ask you to consider that position as you read this post.
The
above meme was included in a blog post
I made in December 2013. That article, which you can access here, is the only time I have dealt
directly with the matter of the death penalty since I started this blog over 15
years ago. But this is an important matter that needs further consideration.
Support for the death penalty is at an all-time low among USAmericans, but still, according
to a late 2024 Gallup poll, 53% of Americans say that they
support the death penalty. And in spite of decreasing public support, in 2024, the number of executions was the most since 2015 (with 2018 the same).
Of
the 25 executions in 2024, 48% were non-White. Fifteen of those 25 were from
only four states: Alabama (6), Texas (5), Oklahoma and Missouri (4). The
average age of those executed was 52, but their average age at the time of
offense was 27 (including four teenagers)—a 25-year gap!
Consider
these prominent people’s opposition
to the death penalty:
**
Most prominent is Pope Francis, who changed the wording in the Catechism of
the Catholic Church in 2018. It now reads,
… the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.
*
Far earlier, Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and the author of Dead Man
Walking (1993), became a tireless advocate of abolishing the death penalty since first accompanying Elmo Patrick “Pat” Sonnier (b. 1950) to his
execution by electrocution at Louisiana
State Penitentiary on April 5, 1984.
From
1993 to 1995, Prejean served as the National Chairperson of the National Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty, which was founded in 1976.*1
*
Recently, I learned that John Grisham, the noted novelist, is also an opponent
of the death penalty. Last October, I read the three novellas in his 2022 book Sparring
Partners. The second, “Strawberry Moon,” is a touching story of a woman who
became pen pals with a man facing execution.
Grisham’s
main concern, it seems, has been the execution of people who were apparently
innocent, and his latest book is Framed: Astonishing True Stories of
Wrongful Conviction.*2
* Former President Biden also opposes(d) the
death penalty. In 2021, his Administration placed a moratorium on federal
executions, and on December 23, 2024, he commuted the sentences of 37
individuals on the federal death row to sentences of life in prison without the
possibility of parole.*3
From
1972 to July 2020, there were only three federal executions. And even though there
had been no federal executions since January 2021, during the last six months
that Trump was in office as the 45th President, there were thirteen federal
prisoners executed, including the first woman in 67 years.
On
inauguration day in 2025, the 47th President rescinded Biden’s
moratorium on federal executions. It is widely recognized that conservative
White evangelicals favor the death penalty far more than do
moderate/progressive Christians, so perhaps Pres. Trump was primarily pandering
to his base.
If
you would like to know more about why I oppose the death penalty, please read the last part of Chapter 9 in my book Fed
Up with Fundamentalism (2007, 2020), even though the discussion there is
also too brief.
Or,
please email me or post your questions/comments on the blogsite. I look forward
to dialoguing with several of you on this important issue.
_____
*1 At the invitation of Jesuits in
Japan, Sister Prejean (b. 1939) visited Japan four times. In 2002, when she came
to Fukuoka, June and I had the privilege of hearing her speak and then chatting
with her. Last Sunday, we watched the 1995 movie Dead Man Walking and
were impressed again by Sister Prejean. In the film, she was portrayed by Susan
Sarandon, who won the 1996 Academy Award for Best Actress for that performance.
*2 Grisham, who celebrated his 70th
birthday on February 8, was interviewed for an article in AARP Bulletin
in October 2024. Twelve years ago, he was interviewed by Bill Moyers regarding
Grisham’s first nonfiction novel, The Innocent Man. That
interview, titled “John Grisham on Wrongful Death Penalty Convictions,” can be accessed here.
*3 Death penalties are usually carried
out by state governments, but the federal government imposes and carries out a small
minority of the death sentences in the U.S.
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Here is part of a longer email from Thinking Friend Jamea Crum, who lives in Springfield, Mo.:
ReplyDelete"I have always been against the death penalty, but I don’t remember making that decision. It has always been a part of me. How could I as a nurse believe it is right?"
Thanks, Jamea, for your comments. I hadn't thought about nurses and the death penalty, but here is what I just now found by my Google inquiry:
Delete"The American Nurses Association has taken an official position opposing the death penalty for the first time in its organization’s history. [This was written in 2017.]
"The organization has objected to nurses participating in the execution of prisoners since 1983, but a revised position statement issued Tuesday now extends the position to capital punishment as a practice.
“'The American Nurses Association (ANA) opposes both capital punishment and nurse participation in capital punishment,' the statement reads. 'Participation in executions, either directly or indirectly, is viewed as contrary to the fundamental goals and ethical traditions of the nursing profession.'”
And just now Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago sent these comments:
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy, for your comments and opposition to the death penalty. It is hard to justify the death penalty in a country with a flawed judicial system, and so some innocent people have been executed. The reasons you cite are even better reasons to oppose it.
"Currently, there are 23 states where the death penalty has been banned; 23 where it is still legal; and four where it has been paused. Internationally, it is banned by both Canada and Mexico, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and all EU countries.
"We saw Dead Man Walking shortly after it was released. It is an excellent movie."
Thanks, Eric, for your comments and the additional information you shared. -- I'm not sure when we first saw "Dead Man Walking," for we were living in Japan and there is a lag between when movies are released and when they are available in Japan as English movies, understandably, always have Japanese subtitles added. But even though we had seen it before, we were surprised that we remembered so little of it (other than the general theme) when we watched it again last Sunday. Perhaps you (and others) would also be impressed by watching it again 30 years after seeing it the first time.
DeleteHere are comments received from a local Thinking Friend:
ReplyDelete"Good morning, Leroy. A significant post. One of my objections to executions is that they are done by the state, which means the citizens, that is to say, you and me. I would like to hear what the executioner says out loud."
Dennis Boatright, another local Thinking Friend, sent the following email a few minutes ago:
ReplyDelete"We debated this in Sunday School and I said while I thought too many people were incorrectly tried and sentenced to death, I thought the death penalty had value as a bargaining chip for incenting murderers to disclose where their victims were buried. It could have been when we were reading your book, so over 15 years ago. Having learned more since then, I no longer support the death penalty. I am especially opposed here in Missouri where it is improperly executed (pun intended). In Missouri, it is not just the death penalty. There are other sentences that are excessively long or the convicted are now known to be innocent, but our governors and attorney generals will not accept they were wrong."