Around the time Dead Men Walking was released, a friend of mine from church, Dorothy Moote (side note: she is a famed microbiologist who, with her husband Lloyd, authored an extensive and fascinating account of London’s Great Plague), and I had a conversation regarding the justice system. I had been a vocal supporter of Amnesty International, and was in the process of a letter writing campaign regarding the conditions at Angola Prison in Louisiana (which, coincendtally enough, Dead Man Walking is set). Dorothy mentioned that she and the prison ministry committee at church were in the process of organizing a conference where Sister Helen Prejean would be the keynote speaker. I immediately jumped on board to help plan this event.
The death penalty was a hot button topic in New Jersey at that time, due to two high profile sentences. One was the horrific rape and murder of 7 year old Megan Kanka, whose death inspired Megan’s Law. The other was the brutal murder of Kristin Huggins. Both perpetrators were convicted and sentenced to death. There was no reasonable doubt in these cases, both young women were bright shining lights extinguished long before their times in the most shocking of manners. Both Jesse Timmedaquas and Ambrose Harris were career criminals, and obviously never were rehabilitated following numerous convictions. If anyone was deserving of the death penalty, it was those two.
Yet, I felt torn by their sentences. I was looking at it from a Christian perspective. In addition to advocating for social justice (some may call it agitating) I also was adamantly pro-life. I had been challenged by someone to define pro-life, and I said it was stopping abortion because it was murdering a baby. They then questioned me further-what about euthanasia in the elderly? How about the death penalty? Aren’t those lives too-isn’t the death penalty abortion of an adult?
It really made me rethink my position, because one of the anti-abortion arguments is you may be killing the person who might just grow up and cure cancer or win the Nobel peace prize. You never mention the fact that you might also be aborting a child who might grow up to be a Ted Bundy like serial killer. You just never know, and you can’t pick and choose which baby will be which-all deserve a chance, no matter what. I began to think of the death penalty as state sanctioned post term abortion, which sounds harsh.
Studies have shown that the death penalty does not deter people from committing crime. There are folks that are just plain evil, and no threat of punishment is going to change that.
What you can change is the fact that many of these folks grew up in the shadows. A lot witnessed violence in their own homes; many were outwardly rejected by both family and society. Not everyone who has a traumatic childhood grows up to be a killer, but that kind of background makes it more likely. If you are poor, black and southern, you are more likely to be sentenced to death than any other socio-economic group. We live in one of the richest countries on the planet, yet we have more children living below the poverty line now than at any other time in the last generation. I am not espousing a political solution; I am a Christian and Jesus’ great message was to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we see someone hurting, it is our Christian duty to do something to make it right.
Jesus also preached forgiveness. He said for us to turn the other cheek. Never once were we told to FORGET what happened, only to forgive. It frees us, not keeps us bound. That amazing gift of grace and mercy allows us to live our lives.
In recent weeks, there has been a national discussion and debate over the Georgian execution of Troy Davis. For the last several years, his supporters appealed his case because of the lack of physical evidence and recanted eyewitness testimony. It wasn’t a question of setting him free; it was a request of reopening and re-examining a case beyond a reasonable doubt before killing a potentially innocent person (much like the person he was convicted of murdering). It costs more money per capita to keep a prisoner on death row that it does for a life sentence.
I am of the mindset that we don’t need the mercy seat, just mercy.
Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity. Margaret D. Nadauld
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