Justice or vengeance?

INTERESTED TO SEE the machinery of death, a Catholic delegation followed the prison warden down a dark, low-ceilinged hallway, and silently filed into a small room and stared at the electric chair. It was used in the US state of Kentucky until 1972. The now-obsolete wooden chair had leather restraints on the arms and legs where a man could be strapped. Fr John S. Rausch cautiously seated himself in the chair. “Amazing,” he muttered. “I was moved by the Spirit to take the place of one condemned,” said Fr Rausch. “When I was sitting there, uncomfortable and confused, I thought about the 160-some people Kentucky executed in that chair over the years.”
The chair was kept for historical purposes, according to the warden of the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville. The cellblock that housed the old chair was rarely used. Death row inmates were now segregated on the first floor of a general population cellblock, distinguishable by their bright scarlet outfits. There were 36 of them at the time of that visit, during the summer of 2002. The new death house for Kentucky stood 200 yards away from the main building, containing the more modern equipment for administering execution by lethal injection.
Leaders of the Catholic Church in Kentucky had made their pastoral visit to the penitentiary to observe firsthand the implementation of criminal justice in their state. It followed the release of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 2000 document, “Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice.” Bishops, priests and lay members of the Kentucky conference’s pro-life and social concerns committees met with inmates and celebrated Mass. At the liturgy, Archbishop Thomas Kelly of Louisville assured the prisoners on death row that the Catholic Church is “working on the death penalty issue.”

US position

For many Catholics in the US, Pope John Paul II’s visit of January 1999 appeared to be a turning point on this issue. In calling the abolition of the death penalty an authentically pro-life position, he challenged Catholics to protect not only innocent human life, as in opposing abortion and euthanasia, but also to defend the lives of those who may have done great evil by taking the life of another. To demonstrate this conviction in a dramatic and personal way, he appealed for the life of death row prisoner Darrell Mease, whose execution was postponed in deference to the Pope’s visit. The following January, Illinois Governor George Ryan got a moratorium initiative rolling when he halted executions after the state released 13 death row inmates who were wrongly convicted. Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles stated in June 2000 that, “In this new century, we join with others in taking a prophetic stand to end the death penalty.”
The climate, however, changed post 9/11, and recent polls suggest that around 75 percent of US citizens now support the death penalty. Not only has the public turned in favour of capital punishment, but the US government has also recommended that many more crimes be punishable by the death penalty. This reflects traditional reasons for supporting the death penalty: deterrence and retribution. Some who support capital punishment do so because they judge that the threat of death will prevent people from committing crimes. Others judge that some crimes are so horrible that the only appropriate punishment is death. The US today uses the death penalty in all but 12 states.
Yet, the concept that the death penalty deters crime appears to be flawed. States that do not have the death penalty have an average murder rate that is actually lower than states that have the death penalty. Supporters of capital punishment counter with the argument that the death penalty would be more effective as a deterrent were it not for the many appeals, long delays and limited numbers of those actually executed. Opponents also point out that the average death sentence costs taxpayers $2 million more than a sentence of life without parole. They argue the money could be better spent on projects that help prevent crime.
The moratorium campaign in the US points out that nationally, the death penalty is racially biased. Those who kill white people are four times more likely to get the death penalty than those who kill people of colour. The country’s death rows have always held a disproportionately large population of African Americans, relative to their percentage of the total population. But the race of the victim turns out to be an even more decisive factor in capital sentencing decisions. Almost all death sentences (82 percent) in the US involve white victims. The death penalty is also economically biased. People who can’t afford good legal representation are more likely to get the death penalty than those who can pay for experienced capital punishment attorneys. If you’re wealthy and you kill, you are far more likely get life imprisonment.
In June 2003 the news of plans for an execution chamber at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba hardened international opinion against the way the US was handling about 680 foreign detainees there. The chamber was being considered by the US military as it prepared to bring suspected al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists to trial. A Pentagon spokeswoman stressed at the time that the plans – being put together by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller – had not yet been submitted for a decision by Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld or President George W. Bush. The latter’s support for capital punishment is well known. During his governorship in Texas, there were 152 executions in that state.

The international picture

In 2002 at least 1,526 people were executed in 31 countries, and 3,248 were sentenced to death in 67 countries. The vast majority of executions were carried out in a tiny handful of countries – 81 percent of all known executions were in China (1,060), Iran (113) and the US (71). Yet, more than half of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. According to Amnesty International, more than three countries a year on average have abolished it in law since 1976 or have gone from abolishing it for ordinary crimes to abolishing it for all crimes. Seventy-five countries and territories, including Australia, Germany, and Spain, refuse to impose the death penalty for any crime.
Of the countries that still permit the death penalty, only five use lethal injection, the most common method of execution in the US Seventy-three of those countries use firing squads, 58 hang condemned criminals, six stone them, and three still use beheading (Congo, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates).
China’s frequent application of the death penalty has drawn fire from a host of Western countries. France and Germany regularly raise the issue in talks with Beijing. Australia, Britain and Canada make it part of their human-rights dialogues with China. China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined, for crimes ranging from murder to embezzlement or antiques theft. Experts believe that the number of executions in China is even higher than estimated because the government does not publicise all executions and has deemed the exact count a ‘state secret’. Judges in China hand down death sentences not only for violent crimes such as murder and rape but for offences considered far less egregious elsewhere. Bribe-taking, tax evasion and credit-card fraud on a big scale can all command the death penalty. Public support for the death penalty remains high in China. Ancient proverbs reinforce the need for retribution and for heavy punishment to deter others. “Take a life, owe a life,” one maxim goes. Another advises, “Kill the monkey to scare the chickens.” Executions in China are mostly by gunshot, sometimes to the back of the head at point-blank range. But there is growing demand among many Chinese scholars for the communist regime to rein in capital punishment. They point out that a reduction of the death penalty’s scope is necessary to bring China in line with the U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Eye for eye?

The movement against the death penalty, which began in Europe, has gone global. Its spread indicates an unrelenting global trend away from recourse to capital punishment. The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, hosted by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Rome-based ecclesial movement, is supported by many internationally active human rights associations, such as Amnesty International.
As night fell around the world on 30 November 2003, famous buildings and cathedrals in around 300 cities globally were lit up in solidarity against the death penalty. Among the cities participating in this second World Day Against the Death Penalty were Amsterdam, New York, Berlin, Hiroshima, Santiago, Vienna and Paris. Pope John Paul II added his voice in support earlier the same day at the Vatican. Before bidding farewell to pilgrims gathered to pray the Angelus, the Pope greeted members of the Community of Sant’Egidio. Mario Marazziti, spokesman of Sant’Egidio, commented: “The judicial system is never infallible. The death penalty is an irreversible instrument of justice, and man cannot take what he cannot restore.” The Sant’Egidio campaign is calling for a universal moratorium on executions, an appeal that is already supported by more than five million signatures.

Scripture and tradition
The Bible is often mentioned in debates about the death penalty. Supporters quote the Exodus passage, eye for eye, while opponents appeal to Ezekiel: “As I live, says the Lord God, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man’s conversion, that he may live.” There is an ambivalence about capital punishment in the Scriptures. Clearly, the Hebrew Scriptures allowed the death penalty (for a much longer list of offences than our society would be comfortable with – for example, striking or cursing a parent, adultery, idolatry). Yet, as we see in Ezekiel and many other passages, there is also an attempt to limit violence and to stress mercy. The life and teachings of Jesus (see the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:1-7:29) focus on mercy, reconciliation and redemption. The basic thrust of the Gospels supports opposition to the death penalty. It is important to note that Jesus’ death was itself an application of the death penalty.

“Normal life” for Saudi executioner
Saudi Arabia’s leading executioner, 42-year-old Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi, uses a sword given to him as a gift by the government, Al-Beshi has performed public executions since 1998 and has since trained his son, Musaed, to also become an executioner. He told ‘Arab News’ in June 2003: “An executioner’s life, of course, is not all killing. Sometimes it can be amputation of hands and legs. I use a special sharp knife, not a sword. When I cut off a hand, I cut it from the joint. If it is a leg, the authorities specify where it is to be taken off, so I follow that.” Although the majority of executions are eventually carried out, Al-Beshi must first go to the victim’s family to ask forgiveness for the criminal, who may then be spared the sword. He states: “I always have that hope, until the very last minute, and I pray to God to give the criminal a new lease of life. I always keep that hope alive.” A self-described family man, Al-Beshi says that his profession does not keep him from leading a normal life among family and friends and that he sleeps very well at night. He notes, “They aren’t afraid of me when I come back from an execution. Sometimes they help me clean my sword.”