The Christmas tradition tends to evoke further considerations on the events surrounding the Crucifixion – a singular act of infamous power abuse, forever altering humankind.
The state-sponsored execution of Jesus Christ, believed to be the embodiment of innocence, marks the point in history where Christian theology disembarks from Judaism. Now, imagine that Pontius Pilate had been forced to adhere to state policy effectively limiting the severity of punishment reserved for political dissidents. Suppose Christ was merely incarcerated, instead of being tortured and murdered – this seemingly crimeless individual.
This Christmas Season marks the end of a year that may have resurrected the issue of the death penalty. A majority of Americans both count themselves “Christian”, and support the concept of capital punishment.
But soon, the U.S. justice system may find itself joined only by despotic rulers of third-world countries as the rest of the planet’s nations self-described as “civilized” progressively abandon this murderous practice. That “We the People” so readily cling to our government’s ability to wield the death penalty speaks more to Roman “Exceptionalism” than American.
Since 1973, the introduction of new evidence has exonerated 138 people that had been sent to death row to await execution. Not everyone is afforded such fortunate luck.
At a Republican primary debate in September, Texas Governor Rick Perry was asked if he “struggled to sleep at night” in regards to the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Convicted of arson, Willingham was sentenced to die for the house-fire that claimed the lives of his three children. Perry denied clemency, despite questions regarding the expert testimony of a fire investigator. After Willingham’s death, the testimony that condemned him was fully discredited.
Debate moderator Brian Williams then pointed out how Governor Perry’s administration “has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times,” eliciting thunderous applause.
The glaring hypocrisy for social conservatives running for elected office in the Lone Star state resides in their “pro-life” stance on abortion, rivaled only by the intensity of their “pro-death” stance on crime and punishment. Being “pro-life” and “pro-death” simultaneously reveals an amoral double-standard within neoconservative politics.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976 (Gregg v. Georgia), the state of Texas has executed 475 convicts. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has executed three in this same time frame – and no, Texas is not statistically safer than the Keystone State.
More than a dozen states have taken the lead in repealing the death penalty; a list which includes neighboring New Jersey. Nationwide though, the Christian sensibilities of most Americans prove insufficient in garnering enough support for the abolition of capital punishment.
The official stance of the Catholic Church has evolved itself through the centuries, disavowing the use of executions by clergy, and now advising sovereign powers to refrain from imposing death penalties.
According to his Gospel of Life statement issued in 1995, the late Pope John Paul II qualified the use of capital punishment by states only “when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society”. His conclusion was that this level of retribution was no longer an “absolute necessity” given “the steady improvement in the organization of the penal system”.
In 2007, Pope Benedict weighed in on the widely publicized case of Troy Davis after several witnesses recanted testimony. Sending a letter to Georgia’s Governor, Pope Benedict reiterated his “commitment… to uphold the sacredness and dignity of all human life,” asking that the sentence be commuted to “life without parole”. Georgia executed Davis this September, despite the papal plea, as well as a last minute petition campaign of 600,000 signatures.
One month prior to the Davis execution, Damien Echols of the “West Memphis Three” was released from prison, having been sentenced to die for a murder he did not commit, then spending 17 years in a cage. If it was not for crucial advancements in forensic science, Echols, too, would have needlessly died.
The collective American penchant for capital punishment finds the rest of the modern world gradually advancing towards a plane of existence free from state-sanctioned homicide – and by extension, any chance for the condemned not to be able to prove their own innocence.
Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976. The UK hasn’t had an execution since ’64. The UN human rights chief recently called for a universal ban on the death penalty due to its “inappropriately vengeful character”. European nations were required to ban the death penalty in exchange for EU membership. All 27 “member states” are now signatories to this prerequisite for inclusion into the European Union, leaving a continent-wide moratorium of state executions in its wake.
The American judicial process is a work in progress, and striving to uphold “one nation under God” often requires a moral shove into the direction of a more righteous national character – by legal force when necessary. This Christmas, and literally for Christ’s sake, dare to envision our country on the path to a more humanitarian version of its earlier self, incapable of committing an act of sovereign violence against any of its citizens – let alone the wrongfully accused victims of a flawed justice system.
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