No To Death; No, Never...Period

I suspect most who read this will disagree with what I have to say, but I have to say it, sort of a personal mea culpa.

            When the history of this session of the New Hampshire House is written, replete with so many victories for fiscal conservatives like me, I will look back with great sadness and yes, I admit with some sense of real shame at what now seems inevitable, the expansion of the death penalty.

            I realize polls continue to show a majority of people favor the “eye for an eye” Old Testament view of justice, but after having lunch with Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, I am more convinced than ever that the New Testament approach, the view of this man we call Jesus of Nazareth, is the proper approach.

            No civilized society should have the death penalty on its books.  In fact, the only civilized society which does is the United States.  Germany of the European democracies, even in the wake of the horrific atrocities done in the name of Adolf Hitler and Nazism, has long since abandoned the death penalty as an acceptable form of punishment.

It will be to our eternal shame that Republican super majority will succeed in expanding the death penalty to include those who kill during home invasions, and I am saddened today to think that I was an accomplice.

Yes, I was an accomplice by not speaking up when the bill was before the House.  I assumed that there would be a floor debate, and before you could utter the words “lethal injection”, the vote had come and gone.

That’s no excuse.

I am an accomplice by not going to the Senate and decrying this extension of barbarism, and my only excuse is really no excuse at all, that I was busy with other matters, that I didn’t know about the hearing until it had come and gone.

But wait.

I understand the Senate, at the urging of sponsor Speaker Bill O’Brien, will amend the House version, so I promise myself and everyone reading this that I will not be an accomplice again.  I know I will be in the minority, but I pledge to speak out against the expansion of the death penalty when it comes back from the Senate.

Twice in my tenure here, the House has voted to abolish the death penalty completely.  The first time, Republicans were in the majority in the House; the Senate concurred; and only a veto by Democrat Governor Jeanne Shaheen prevented the repeal from becoming law.  I recall speaking in favor of overriding her veto that day.

Last session with Democrats in control, the House again voted to abolish the death penalty in New Hampshire.  Democrat senators, less concerned with sending a message that no just society would kill in the name of preventing killing and far more concerned with watching the polls and trying to get re-elected (how did that work out Maggie, Betsi, Jackie, and company?  Not so well, huh?) Disposed of the bill before it got to the desk of another Democrat Governor who had pledged to veto the repeal.

Sister Prejean, in responding to my question, said she doesn’t get involved with the Democrat-Republican politics of the issue.  There are pro and anti death penalty types in both parties although I suspect Republicans are more likely to favor it.

Not me.

            Never.

            No matter how terrible a crime, we should not kill the killer.  The death penalty, as Sister Prejean noted, is pre-meditated by society.  I would add that it involves a massive conspiracy (between prosecutor, judge, jury, and society at large). 

            As Seth Cohn said this afternoon, it is understandable if you kill someone in the heat of passion—maybe not good, but understandable—but for society to impose the death penalty, we must conspire in advance to do so.

            It is not a deterrent.  As Sister Prejean noted, states that cling to the death penalty, mostly southern states, have the highest crime rates.

            It is racist in that black people and other minorities are given (strange word given, especially in this context) the death penalty in far greater numbers (percentage-wise) than rich white men for example.

            Sister Prejean, in response to a question about Biblical retribution, noted that the death penalty in Biblical days was not merely handed down for killing another.  There were no fewer than 37 offenses which merited death, including adultery.

            Hey, here’s a thought.  Those who want to take us down the slippery slope of increasing death penalty crimes should think about strapping those bands around, in preparation for the serum to flow into the veins of one very high profile former California Governor and adulterer.

            Here’s a idea.  Let’s make it death for all or death for none.

            I say death for none, and I remain ashamed that I didn’t say it louder earlier this year.  

Comments

[Daniel Tamburello]

Steve,

Good write up. You are correct about it not being a partisan issue.

I know you have advocated in the past for euthanasia, correct?

Would you allow for or support a revision to the death penalty to allow those convicted of capital crimes who seek the death penalty for themselves, the opportunity to request it? The recent case of Camden Hughes' murder comes to mind...his mother wants the death penalty for herself but it doesn't fit according to NH law...

Also did you agree with the action taken against Osama Bin Laden?

What about those executed as complicit in the holocaust?