In a "Civilized World"...how is the death penalty still a thing?
I am sure I am going to make people mad by this post, or enemies of people who once were friends. Over the weekend, my oldest son & I watched the movie “Just Mercy” and I was filled with rage! Rage for the racial injustice in our criminal justice system, the disproportional number of black men/women who fill the “death row” units in our judicial system vs white men/women, and and RAGE for the barbaric practice that is Capital Punishment (aka the Death penalty). We literally electrocute & inject painful, lethal cocktails into people to kill them. We, an otherwise “civilized world” does this. Still…….
How is this still a thing? First consider this…..
With what we know about people being falsely imprisoned, how can we still be sentencing and eventually “killing” someone for an accused crime, when regularly people are falsely accused and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. This is an inescapable truth, there are innocent men/women sitting on death row, and innocent men/women who have been put to death for crimes they have not been guilty of committing. If there is JUST 1 who “could” be innocent, how can we justify this practice? (Matthew 18:12-14)
Furthermore…
With this same logic, if someone is convicted of stealing, do we then steal from him/her?
With this same logic, if someone is convicted of rape, do we then rape him/her?
Why is this the “crime” we feel justified in giving the same penalty to the accused that we are actually accusing him/her of doing? Who decided that this was an acceptable practice, and who decided he/she gets to decide if someone lives or dies?
If there is 1 person who is falsely convicted or sentenced or put to death, that is 1 life too many. For those Christians and Catholics out there reading today, what do you think Jesus was meaning in the parable of the lost sheep? (passage above) For those who are lost, what power there could be in helping this “lost sheep” to find redemption and purpose! For those who are devout and reading, remember if you believe in “1 God,” then He (or she?) is the only one to judge, and take or give life.
I respect there are many opinions on this topic, I am curious how people justify killing another to bring peace when someone has lost his/her loved one? It will NEVER bring him/her back. And it will never bring peace. We don’t solve problems in our world but creating more problems/hurt/sorrow/pain for others. LOVE and forgiveness and compassion are the elements necessary to heal our world, not more of the same actions.
We cannot ignore the injustice in our world in terms of who gets harsher sentencing vs others. When you look up the statistics of crime in our county, there are far more white men/women committing crime than blacks, american indians and asian americans combined (crime stats ) yet who is in our judicial system? If you, like me, have watched any “Born in Prison” or “Girls Locked up” or “Toughest Prisons” over these past few months due to COVID….they are OVERWHELMING filled with black men/women and yet, statistically, how is this possible? The numbers do not add up- excepting when we lean into the understanding of the dramatic and unacceptable racial injustices prevalent in our judicial system.
We are a country with DEEP racial injustices and racism. ignoring it does not make it any less true. Many of us, self included, have allowed ignorance, white privilege, and convenience to keep us blind to this heart breaking injustice and inequality in our world. In our backyards. In our communities. Many of us have been in our own bubbles, ignoring this CRIME that is occurring in our cities/states and country, lulled by the selfish security that it isn’t “our problem” and thus completely silent on the atrocities happening around us. But the truth is this….when it happens to “1” it happens to ALL of us! We are one! We are called to fight for those who are voiceless, powerless, marginalized, and forgotten. What religion or spiritual practice teaches anything different than this?
I asked a fellow social worker who works in the prison system what we can do, as allies? The response was this…. WRITE your legislators. WRITE your congressman/women. VOTE in people who value LIFE! All life. Not just the cute “unborn babies they care very little about after they are born” but all humans. That is also an under-discussed truth how so many legislators fight for “Pro-life” but those same legislators consistency cut programs and funding for underserved and impoverished communities in our country. We all deserve dignity. If you want to stand up- for all life…. the world is SCREAMING for you to do so now! Write. Protest. STAND UP!
“You may not be able to do great things, but we can all do small things with great love!” Saint Terasa of Calcutta.
Peace….
