Does killing alleged criminals really make sense to you? Is it even ethical? Is it even moral?

I'm a rare bread of cat. I still read newspapers. Recently, Will Weissert, in an article about candidates for President in the Detroit News, wrote: 

In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, (Donald) Trump called for those “caught selling drug to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.” More recently, he’s promised to execute drug and human smugglers. 

That planted the seed for this post. 

I’m one of those rare individuals to have witnessed an execution. I became friends with a young man on death row in Texas, early in my work with prisoners. He asked me to be his spiritual advisor at the time of his execution. But, before I go on, let me ask you. Did you see or hear this story in the news last week? I’m quoting here from the Associated Press. 

Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech on Wednesday after medical team members repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection. Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., was wheeled into the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution on a gurney at 10 a.m. Three medical team members tried eight times to establish an IV…in some cases, they couldn’t access the vein, and in others they could but had concerns about vein quality. They attempted sites in his arms, legs, hands and feet. 

One more news quote, then I’ll get back to my story. This from the Texas Tribune: 

Texas executed Ivan Cantu Wednesday for the murder of his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée. Prior to the state's first execution of the year, post-trial evidence raising questions about Cantu’s guilt had persuaded jurors from his original trial to ask Texas courts to reconsider his case. 

There was no reconsideration. 

Now for the rest of my story. Anthony Nealy claimed wrongful conviction. The piece of film that convicted him in Texas was from a web cam, which showed a Black man wearing a gold chain committing the crime. The problem: Anthony was allergic to gold and could never wear gold jewelry! He was convicted anyway. In his execution experience, it took medical techs about 2 hours before they could find a vein. 

As you form your opinions on this barbaric policy, consider these facts: 

The Innocence Project: Since 1973, at least 190 people have been exonerated from death row in the U.S. A 2014 study estimated that at least 4% of those sentenced to death are innocent. 

ACLU: The color of a defendant and victim’s skin plays a crucial and unacceptable role in deciding who receives the death penalty in America. People of color have accounted for a disproportionate 43 % of total executions since 1976 and 55 % of those currently awaiting execution. 

The USA is in stellar company, all right, with its capital punishment policy: North Korea, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Yemen. 

“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, ‘Do we deserve to kill?’”

― Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

 

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