“instinct for retribution”

I’ve lately been thinking about the idea of American exceptionalism and its ramifications. And I am beginning to see that the idea that a nation or state is so righteous that it has the the right to play God contaminates every aspect of our behavior as a society. When more people are murdered in the U.S. by “the state” with premeditation and full forethought than in any other nation on the planet except China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, what does that say about us as a people? This article from The National Post in Canada explores our American fascination with the death penalty.

“Playing God: The fight to kill the death penalty
Americans have a complex relationship with the death penalty, which is rooted in their national identity and yet which is becoming increasingly difficult to support.”
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The national mood is shifting because of scientific evidence suggesting innocent people are on death row, and growing concern that the most common method of execution — lethal injection — is inhumane. The United States is also getting unwanted attention internationally with the kind of company the country is keeping as a death-penalty nation: Only China, Iran and Saudi Arabia conducted more executions in 2005, according to Amnesty International.

Yet the American stance on the death penalty is so rooted in the nation’s history and national identity that it is not about to be dismissed easily.
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Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University Law School in New York, who has written extensively on the death penalty….says the American attitude toward the death penalty is rooted in a long history of independence, aggression and selfdefence: “This is an identity that can’t be shed immediately. This is an identity that we’ve had for centuries now, since our inception.”
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However, there is some hope for us, as the trends continue toward disapproval and abolishment of the death penalty:

…when Gallup asked Americans to choose between the death penalty and life imprisonment with absolutely no possibility of parole last year, more people chose life (48%) than death (47%) — for the first time. The numbers were radically different 20 years previous: In 1986, 55% chose the death penalty, while 35% chose life imprisonment.
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I truly believe that John Russo gets it right:

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The current [New Jersey] death penalty statute was written by John Russo, a former state senator and prosecutor who later sat on the commission that recommended it be repealed. The lone dissenter, Mr. Russo blames New Jersey’s problem on liberal judges who he says disregard the process –not the law itself.

In his dissenting opinion, Mr. Russo acknowledges the death penalty has gone out of fashion. He does not argue the death penalty is a necessary deterrent to crime. Rather, he argues it fulfills the human “instinct for retribution.”

The “instinct for retribution” is an instinct that must be overcome if we are to become a truly civilized human race. Catering to the most base of our instincts is not the way to end pain and suffering, it only perpetuates and multiplies it:

Lethal horror: Florida, yet the cruel, inept executioner

It must have seemed like a scene out of a third-world torture chamber, or a nightmare.

A man was strapped to a gurney, with needles injecting caustic chemicals into the flesh of both arms. Needles meant to be inserted into veins had missed, a mistake that would raise foot-long blisters on the condemned man’s arms. Witnesses say he twisted and appeared to be gasping for air — a reaction that one expert anesthesiologist says might have indicated that the man felt as though he were suffocating.

The sadistic scene played out for more than half an hour, as appalled witnesses, including members of the man’s family, looked on.
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Florida, like most states, uses three chemicals: an anesthetic to render the condemned unconscious, followed by a paralytic and a poison that stops the heart. But a study of 49 lethal injections published two years ago in the leading British medical journal, The Lancet, found that in 43 cases, the level of anesthetic in the dead men’s bloodstreams fell below the amount required to cause unconsciousness. In some cases, the study found, it’s entirely possible that the condemned man was awake and aware — but unable to move — while the caustic chemicals flooded his veins.

There’s no compelling rationale behind this cruel and unusual punishment. States that apply the death penalty see no benefit in lower murder rates. The death penalty is applied so randomly that one Florida Supreme Court justice referred to it as “lightning striking.” And as scientific evidence of innocence frees more people each year from Death Row, the doubt grows about using such an irrevocable means of punishment in such a deeply flawed system.

And, again, does the death penalty alleviate the pain of survivor’s loss or create more pain?

A Tale of Two Mothers

One mother, Carolyn Leming, almost lost a son to execution, convicted of a crime which he didn’t commit. Another mother, Vicki Schieber, had a daughter who was brutally raped and murdered. She did not want prosecutors to seek the death penalty in her daughter’s case, knowing that the appeals process would only drag out her pain as she relived the horror again and again. Schieber supports a repeal of the death penalty so other families don’t experience such prolonged suffering and so that resources, now used for executions, can instead be used to actually help victims. Carolyn Leming is opposed to the death penalty because, in spite of all of his appeals, her son sat on death row for 10 years for something he didn’t do.

The story highlights two painful sides of yet another flaw in the death penalty system: without lengthy appeals, innocent people will be executed (and probably still are);and yet, with lengthy appeals, victim’s family members are constantly reliving the nightmare while state financial resources are drained. The death penalty did not alleviate the pain of these two women but compounded it. In this system, no one benefits.

I hope that some day the U.S. will join the ranks of the truly civilized nations and realize that the death penalty only satisfies the most base and crude instincts within us and serves no other purpose. We must abolish the death penalty.