Feature photo: ABA; Photo above: littledan77
The final words of a Death Row inmate give us another reason to rethink the death penalty.
“The public execution is… a hearth in which violence bursts again into flame.”- Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
The words of the French philosopher Michel Foucault are charged with a passion and urgency uncharacteristic of “objective” academic texts. In his classic work, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Foucault explained that the hallmark of modern “justice” is that it is ultimately meted out far from public view.
The horrors of punishment become private, even anonymous… the person who throws the execution switch remains anonymous to everyone but himself. And, being beyond our line of sight, the person being punished is effectively silenced.
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I’m not a soft-on-crime bleeding heart: I believe people who commit heinous crimes should be held accountable for their actions.
But I also believe that there’s more than enough evidence to suggest that the death penalty is not an adequate form of accountability. There’s the Innocence Project’s report documenting at least 17 cases of death row sentencing of people who were wrongly convicted.
And then there was Republican Governor George Ryan’s commutation of sentences of all 167 death row inmates in Illinois in 2003. It was a decision, Ryan said, that he knew would draw serious criticism, but the possible burden of that decision was one he would bear willingly because the administration of the death penalty was simply too flawed to be morally or constitutionally legitimate.
Rarely, though, does the public hear from death row inmates themselves.
Napoleon Beazley was just 17 years old when he murdered John Luttig in 1994. On May 28, 2002, Beazley was executed by the state of Texas. In his final statement he reflected upon the death penalty as an effective form of justice:
The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But the person that committed that act is no longer here – I am.
I’m not going to struggle physically against any restraints. I’m not going to shout, use profanity or make idle threats. Understand though that I’m not only upset, but I’m saddened by what is happening here tonight. I’m not only saddened, but disappointed that a system that is supposed to protect and uphold what is just and right can be so much like me when I made the same shameful mistake.
If someone tried to dispose of everyone here for participating in this killing, I’d scream a resounding, “No.” I’d tell them to give them all the gift that they would not give me…and that’s to give them all a second chance.
I’m sorry that I am here. I’m sorry that you’re all here. I’m sorry that John Luttig died. And I’m sorry that it was something in me that caused all of this to happen to begin with.
Tonight we tell the world that there are no second chances in the eyes of justice…Tonight, we tell our children that in some instances, in some cases, killing is right.
This conflict hurts us all, there are no SIDES. The people who support this proceeding think this is justice. The people that think that I should live think that is justice. As difficult as it may seem, this is a clash of ideals, with both parties committed to what they feel is right. But who’s wrong if in the end we’re all victims?
In my heart, I have to believe that there is a peaceful compromise to our ideals. I don’t mind if there are none for me, as long as there are for those who are yet to come. There are a lot of men like me on death row – good men – who fell to the same misguided emotions, but may not have recovered as I have.
Give those men a chance to do what’s right. Give them a chance to undo their wrongs. A lot of them want to fix the mess they started, but don’t know how.
The problem is not in that people aren’t willing to help them find out, but in the system telling them it won’t matter anyway. No one wins tonight. No one gets closure. No one walks away victorious.
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To learn more about American “justice,” read How the US Prison System Has Become Big Business.
For a look at life inside a prison, check out Photo Essay: Going Inside Brazil’s Prisons.
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6 Comments... join the discussion!
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As long as the justice system remains flawed (is wrongful convictions) then I have to be against it. There was a recent case in Australia where a young man was convicted for rape, even though he had a solid alibi, was too young to be in the bar where the alleged rape took place, and also the fact that there might not even have been a rape at all (the woman doesn’t remember a thing, probably drugged).
He was convicted because DNA samples found belonged to him…but later on they discovered there was some sort of mix up. After spending more than a year in jail he was released. He’s now suing.
How common is this?
There is so much effort/money/resources that go into the punishment end of criminality, but much less into the causes of it.In the end, it’s really society failing so many of the convicts. I bag on “society” a lot, I know. But come on, it’s all f***ed up.
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My primal nature says eye for eye but my inner karmic sage says no killing is ever right.
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I don’t understand the reasoning for capital punishment in penal systems wherein prisoners who are threats to others can be effectively detained. The death penalty seems reactionary and vengeful, but not rational. What just cause do executions uphold?
Killing someone in self-defense (or in defense of another) makes sense to me, since it is not the killed person’s death you desire–the person’s death is a tolerated result of your innate right to protect your life (or the life of the person you’re defending). In my view morality is a reciprocal exchange: you and I agree not to transgress each other’s innate rights. These rights are 1) the right not to be deceived, and 2) the right not to be coerced.
So you can shoot the man who tries to shoot you, and you can lie to the Nazi at your door who asks if you are hiding a Jew, because in each case the perpetrator has chosen to transgress another’s innate rights, and the corollary to our innate rights is the the duty to preserve them. But none of this means anyone can morally kill in order to punish.
Right? I’m really asking. . . If someone disagrees, please reply to this post.
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Wow. That’s powerful stuff.
I agree with Josh. My brain says one thing but my heart says another.
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I think the justice system feels victorious when they carry out a death sentence they handed down in the same way they resist clemency when it will appear to them they made a mistake. I am thinking of the Carla Faye Tucker Case and the denial for clemency.
No one wants to be wrong. If that was the only bottom line why not carry out the sentence immediately? Even the justice system knows it is flawed…
As for me a lot of the death row cases I see are people with mental illness of some sort, not insane, but with serious issues that cause impulsive behavior and with results they can never reverse.
Forced isolation, living in the past indefinitely, not working, being watched 24/7 achieves nothing.
I would like to see criminals be forced to face and communicate with the families of the victims, to be brought out into humanity by being accountable for their actions to the people who matter most-the victim’s families at least once a month.
I would like to see them all on a psychological treatment plan that is geared toward their release upon successful completion of the plan and at least a bachelor’s degree. I would like to see them re-integrated into society with a guaranteed job and probation for ten years secured by a device that tracks their whereabouts.
I am not a bleeding heart for convicts by any means but I am sick of my tax dollars being forcibly earmarked to bail out the richest of my brothers as opposed to the least of my brothers.
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