Recently the world looked on in horror as 22 Rwandans were executed for their roles in
the African nation’s 1994 massacres that killed at least 500,000. Even more
disturbing to the international community was the dancing, clapping, and whooping of the
nearly 10,000 onlookers who turned out for the spectacle. The United States was among the
nations speaking out against the punishment.
That same week the U.N. Human Rights Commission issued a stinging report that called
for the United States to suspend all executions, saying, "A significant degree of
unfairness and arbitrariness in the administration of the death penalty...still
prevails." The report rebukes the United States for executing people for crimes
committed as juveniles and people who are mentally retarded. It also found that race and
economics play a major role in determining the severity of sentences. Religious leaders
and human rights activists who have long called for doing away with capital punishment
hailed the report.
Last year 74 executions were carried out in the United States. Consider this:
- Recently in Virginia the execution of a Paraguayan man was carried out in spite of the
protests of the World Court, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and appeals from
around the world. At the time of his arrest the man had been denied his right to counsel
from his embassy.
- In an Arizona case, a Honduran man who had been denied similar rights was executed
despite appeals from the president of Honduras.
- A Texas state legislator has introduced legislation that would make children as young as
11 death-penalty eligible. In Pontiac, Michigan, a 12-year-old boy is being tried as an
adult for a murder he committed at age 11.
- In Denver, a local radio station called for listeners to drive by the station and honk
if they wanted to "fry" Timothy McVeigh. Twenty-four thousand Coloradans did so.
A Detroit News columnist hoped he’d catch fire in the chair, writing that
"nothing smells better than a well-done mass murderer."
IT WAS THE RECENT highly publicized execution of Karla Faye Tucker, however, that
finally put a sympathetic face to the issue of capital punishment and caused many
Americans, including religious leaders who have been outspoken advocates of the death
penalty, to raise their voices in protest. Tucker’s evidently rehabilitated,
redeemed, and repentant life illustrated to many for the first time that the death penalty
is about nothing more than revenge.
Subsequent executions, including that of another woman, have been met for the most part
with a ringing silence from many of those same religious leaders who were so outspoken
over Tucker’s death. However, for some Christians who traditionally have been
supportive of the death penalty, difficult questions have persisted long after the issue
left the front pages. For instance, the April 6 issue of Christianity Today, the
flagship of mainstream evangelicalism, editorialized against capital punishment for the
first time in its history. The CT editors wrote, "Jesus’ teaching of
non-resistance is difficult to live out on a societal level. Not all evangelicals agree on
how to apply Jesus’ teaching of non-resistance to public policy. But it seems clear
that the gospel demands that in ministry, Christians work more for reconciliation than for
retribution."
In a political climate that seldom plays to the noblest of our inclinations, "get
tough on crime" is a much easier sell than redemption, reconciliation, and
rehabilitation. In fact, 84 percent of Americans favor the death penalty under certain
circumstances, according to a recent Newsweek poll.
Finding justice in the midst of evil can be difficult. Revenge is a much easier emotion
to manage. The Catholic archbishop of Denver said recently, "The only true road to
justice passes through mercy. Justice cannot be served by more violence." It is
increasingly evident that the whole world is watching what we do on this question. Our
moral capacity to speak to human rights issues internationally is compromised when we
cannot quench our own blood thirst right here at home.
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Fennelly, Carol
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Fennelly, Carol
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