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Preeti on the Web |
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Providing Food for Thought |
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The Death Penalty Goes Too Far |
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As a country, we have not yet evolved to the point where we see the death penalty for what it really is: going too far in an attempt for a poetic justice that in reality can never be fully attained. |
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We can’t afford the kind of justice that McVeigh deserves |
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June 21, 2001 |
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Note: An edited version of this opinion column appeared in the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper on June 21, 2001. Poetic justice is the concept that good things should happen to “good” people and bad things should happen to “bad” people. Poetic justice feels right. It feels logical. When bad things happen to “good” people and good things happen to “bad” people, the world feels like a cruelly unfair place. This yearning desire for poetic justice is the driving reason behind those supporting the death penalty. When a murderer kills innocent people, something “bad” has happened to “good” people. When that “bad” murderer does not have to endure what his or her victims did, we feel that the murderer has not received the “bad” consequences he or she deserves. An obvious example of this is last week’s execution of Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh died a relatively painless, humane death. In contrast, the 168 bombing victims (including 19 children) endured excruciating suffering when they died. McVeigh was allowed to call family members to say goodbye before he died. He was permitted to eat a last meal of mint chocolate chip ice cream and give a last statement. None of the 168 victims of the bombing ever had a chance to say goodbye to loved ones, choose a last meal, or utter a final statement. To many, the scales of justice still do not seem to be balanced. As a witness to the execution whose mother-in-law died in the bombing put it, “It was too easy for him. He just laid there…He went to sleep. That was it.” Another witness, whose mother died in the bombing, stated, “I saw a man die today-quietly, silently, very peacefully, … My mother did not get that chance.” One witness to the execution, whose mother also died in the bombing, explained, “I thought I would feel something more satisfying, but I don’t. So many people suffered and for him just to have gone asleep seems unfair. Justice was served. I just wish it would have been a little harder on him.” Making it harder on McVeigh could have brought a greater sense of poetic justice, but it would have also brought in the issue of cruel punishment, prohibited by the 8th Amendment. Through this Amendment, we recognize that we lose a bit of our own humanity whenever we allow another member of our human family to be the recipient of cruelty. We recognize that when we try to give criminals the “bad” that we think they deserve in the name of justice, we sometimes pay the price of socializing ourselves to be people that think that someone else’s suffering and demise can bring reconciliation. As a country, we have not yet evolved to the point where we see the death penalty for what it really is: going too far in an attempt for a poetic justice that in reality can never be fully attained. One witness to McVeigh’s execution stated that McVeigh “deserves to burn in hell. Maybe I’m wrong in feeling that way, but that’s the way I feel.” It is understandable why many feel that McVeigh should have suffered in some form. Something bad needed to happen to a bad person in order to compensate for the bad that befell so many good people. It is how we get the poetic justice we so desire. Unfortunately, in the case of the death penalty, the resulting coarsening effect on society is too high a price to pay for this attempt to equilibrate the scales of justice. With the death penalty we may have approached some kind of poetic justice, but we have eroded our humanity in the process. Ultimately, nothing can completely assuage the pain that the family and friends of the victims feel, for nothing can bring back their loved ones. The pain may diminish with time, but it, to some degree, will always remain. As one aggrieved mother who lost her daughter and in-laws explained, “I don’t think anything can ever bring me peace. When I die and they lay me in my grave, that’s when I’ll have closure.” Sadly, this is a pessimistic reality for many family members and friends of the victims, as well as for the survivors of the bombing. The best we can do is provide them with the support, compassion and love they need. In the end, this is only way to bring them as much healing, peace, reconciliation and closure as possible, which under it all, is what everyone truly desires. |