The
different shades of death
By DW Hamilton
Starting with the execution of
Captain George Kendall by firing
squad, December 1607 (some sources
say 1608) in Jamestown , the death
penalty has almost always been a
feature of the American criminal
justice system, first in the
colonies, and after independence,
in the entire United States. The
number of executions in the US
per-year peaked with 199 in 1935.
From 1967 to 1977, The US Supreme
Court found the death penalty to
be cruel and unusual punishment,
often administered in an arbitrary
and capricious way, and a
moratorium on state executions was
put into effect. Various court
battles overturned that verdict,
so now the number of officially
sanctioned deaths in the States is
trending upward once again – to 58
in the year 2004. Of the 50
states in the U.S., 38 allow the
death penalty, and with rare
exception, execution is prescribed
only for Aggravated Murder in the
First Degree.
How
does the average American feel
about the death penalty? As usual,
with any complex question, where
Americans weigh in individually is
across the board. A certain
percentage of us would prefer
nobody be killed by the
state. After all, 12 states in
the U.S. do not allow executions
at all, while of course, there are
people within those states who
would welcome the death penalty’s
return.
We do
feel that if death is to be doled
out, it should be done very
carefully. The idea that an
innocent may be condemned to die
is repugnant, so increased
reliance on DNA testing has
overturned some convictions, while
sealing the fate of others. The
idea that the DNA test is only as
accurate as the personnel in the
institutions handling DNA evidence
has also reversed a number of
executions in the last decade. We
would like to feel with certainty
that whomever we condemn to death
actually deserved it.
As
black and white as the subject of
institutionally created death may
seem, Americans can discern many
shades of gray in its regard.
There is a deep black-black, an
acceptance of capital punishment,
abortion, euthanasia, and military
casualties. Basically, this is a
“live and let die” approach, most
likely produced on the supposition
that being condemned to die will
never occur directly to our self
or a family member. Then we have a
dark gray, where only three of the
four are morally acceptable (these
can evidently be chosen à la
carte, i.e., “Pro-Choice” in
regard to abortion, while opposing
the death penalty, for instance).
Then the gray grows lighter, as
the types of “official death” one
finds acceptable grow fewer and
fewer. In the pure white field,
we have those who oppose state
sanctioned death in all its forms,
be it war casualties, aborted
fetuses, convicted first-degree
murderers or pulling the plug on
somebody like Terry Schiavo.
Internationally, America’s policy
in regard to the death penalty is
the opposite of Europe’s. By not
opposing the death penalty in our
borders, we find ourselves in the
company of nations, such as
Afghanistan,
China (People's Republic), Cuba,
Japan,
Singapore, Thailand, and the
United Arab Emirates, just to name
a few among many. This may seem
an odd list upon which to be
included, but it is nice that
there is at least one thing the
US, the Palestinian Authority,
Iran, and North Korea can agree
upon.
©
2006 All content property of European Weekly unless where otherwise
accredited
