It's Time to Stop Playing the Killing Game

Donald McCartin is a retired Superior Court Judge in California. He was named to bench by Governor Jerry Brown in 1978. During his tenure on the bench he became, by his own admission, known as a "hanging judge" for the number of people he sentenced to death row. As he watches another go-around with Jerry Brown as governor, he thinks the time has come, for moral and economic reasons, for the Governor to end the death penalty in California:

I watch today as Gov. Brown wrestles with the massive debt that is suffocating our state and hear him say he doesn't want to "play games." But I cringe when I learn that not playing games amounts to cuts to kindergarten, cuts to universities, cuts to people with special needs — and I hear no mention of the simple cut that would save hundreds of millions of dollars, countless man-hours, unimaginable court time and years of emotional torture for victim's family members waiting for that magical sense of "closure" they've been falsely promised with death sentences that will never be carried out.

There is actually, I've come to realize, no such thing as "closure" when a loved one is taken. What family members must find is reconciliation with the reality of their loss, and that can begin the minute the perpetrator is sent to a prison he will never leave. But to ask them to endure the years of being dragged through the courts in pursuit of the ultimate punishment is a cruel lie.

It's time to stop playing the killing game. Let's use the hundreds of millions of dollars we'll save to protect some of those essential services now threatened with death. Let's stop asking people like me to lie to those victim's family members.

The Company We Keep

Gallup finds support continues to be high in the US for the death penalty:

Bottom Line

The use of the death penalty has been declining worldwide, with most of the known executions now carried out in five countries -- China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Anti-death penalty groups in the U.S. continue to fight the use of the death penalty, particularly when there are high-profile instances of its use, such as this year's execution in Virginia of Teresa Lewis, the first woman to be executed in that state in almost 100 years. Despite this, Gallup's latest update in October shows no diminution in the strong majority level of support for the death penalty in cases of murder within the U.S. (end quote)

Can you guess which one of these countries is known as the Christian one? I can't.

McCollum Proposes Amendment to Ban Death Penalty

From Minnesota Monitor:

Rep. Betty McCollum introduced a Constitutional amendment to ban the death penalty Wednesday in part to coincide with the visit of Pope Pope Benedict XVI, the world's most well known death penalty opponent. In addition, McCollum's proposal comes the same day the U.S. Supreme Court found lethal injection to be a constitutional method of capital punishment, thereby ending a 7 month moratorium on capital punishment in the United States.

"Criminals who are found guilty of committing heinous acts should be sentenced to life in prison as a punishment and for the wellbeing of society," McCollum said in a press release. "The death penalty, by contrast, does not serve society's interests - it is damaging and harmful. Fighting crime, achieving justice, and elevating human dignity are all damaged by state-sponsored executions. We know the death penalty is more expensive to implement than regular sentences, it does not reduce crime, and it imposes a shared societal responsibly for killing another human being on behalf of a justice system that is clearly not perfect."

...Given the lack of support for ending the death penalty in the United States, McCollum's amendment will likely be a symbolic gesture intended to generate a discussion on an issue in which Catholics and progressives agree. "The Supreme Court's decision today was painful for those of us who believe the death penalty is immoral," said McCollum. "No one can respond with greater moral authority or spiritual wisdom on this subject than His Holiness."

I wonder how many Catholics really agree. I wonder if the Catholics on the Supreme Court agree. I wonder if the Pope brought up the death penalty with the former Texas governor and prominent supporter of the death penalty. Good for Rep. McCollum.

Update: On the Christianity Today blog report on the Supreme Court decision today affirming the constitutionality of the method of lethal injection used, we learn:

American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) guidelines say use of the method to put down animals is unacceptable.

Makes you proud to be an American in this "Christian" nation.