 Texas Hill Country Chapter |
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Why Not a Death Penalty in Texas?Society is like a dense fabric, made of many intertwined threads. Murder is like a violent tear in the fabric. The death penalty is like trying to repair the tear by cutting away at the fabric when we should take care to weave the many split threads back into the fabric. Reweaving the threads would be like addressing the problem from a place of compassion rather than anger. The death penalty is motivated by anger. The death penalty has no deterrent effect, as shown in study after study. It is revenge. Of course we've all felt the need to take revenge under pressing circumstances. We feel the offender deserves to face consequences. And so we understand that the families of murder victims will have that same feeling. But it does not follow that we have to act from that feeling. Especially the State does not have to act from such feelings. To do so only does more harm as anger when acted on almost inevitably perpetuates itself. What was the offender feeling when he (usually it is he) committed the offence? There is a good chance it was anger and the conviction that the victim deserves what he or she got. What does the family of the offender feel after the execution? Probably anger and the sense that they did not deserve what they got. This is especially the case when the justice system is broken, when minority groups, the poor and even the innocent receive the death penalty disproportionately. What the rest of us learn from the execution? That violence is a legitimate response to anger. The death penalty is a matter of hacking off a part of the social fabric and hoping the threads will find their way back into the fabric. Compassion requires the strength not to turn away from the offender's circumstances. Offenders in capital cases are molded by abuse as children, by mental illness, by a society that teaches violence as a means of resolving conflict, by mental retardation, by poverty, by stress, by alcholism or drug abuse which is itself conditioned by many of these same factors. Many states recognize certain of these as mitigating circumstances in imposing death sentences, particularly mental illness or youth. This is compassion, understanding and forgivingness. There are always such conditions. There is no crime, or any action, without conditions. Understanding the conditions leading to a capital offence and correcting those conditions are our jobs as a society. We all must take responsibility for this. Reducing the conditions leading to violent crime will reduce violent crime. Correcting the circumstances leading to offence is weaving the threads of the social fabric to repair the tear. In summary, the death penalty perpetuates the problem it allegedly tries to solve. The death penalty is soft on crime by ignoring the root conditions of crime. The death penalt denies the responsibility we all share for healing those conditions. Death Penalty VigilsAs part of the Abolish the Death Penalty Vigils sponsored by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty a group often sits on days of a scheduled executions for silent meditation, bearing witness from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the Lavaca side of the Governor's mansion in central Austin. Bring something to sit on, including a blanket or zabuton (we sit on the pavement, but in the shade, somewhat protected from the rain). Depending on weather you may want to bring water, a hat, and/or rain gear.
Days on which we will be meeting will also be announced on the BPF Hillcountry Listserv or you can check with John. I Killed a Man I killed a man today, I killed a man today, I killed a man today, I killed a man today, I killed a man today, I killed a man today. I killed a man today. copyright 2001 Links
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