EDITORIAL Justice is a grim reaper in Texas
During the 1990s, 31 countries
abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
During the 1980s, 11 countries abolished the death penalty for all
crimes.
During the 1970s, seven countries abolished the death penalty for
all crimes.
In all, 70 countries, including places like Cambodia (1989),
Croatia (1990), Czech Republic (1990), East Timor (1999), Haiti (1987),
Honduras (1956), Ireland (1990), Namibia (1990), Lithuania (1998), Nicaragua
(1979), Paraguay (1992), Poland (1997), Romania (1989), South Africa (1997) and
the United Kingdom (1998), no longer have a death penalty for any crime.
According to Amnesty International, another 13 have abolished the
death penalty for ordinary crimes and reserve it for exceptional cases such as
crimes under military law or crimes committed in exceptional circumstance, such
as wartime.
Twenty-three countries have de facto abolished the death penalty,
meaning that they retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes, but have not
executed anyone in 10 years or more and/or have signed an international
commitment not to carry out executions.
The bottom line: 106 countries have abolished the death penalty in
law or in fact for ordinary crimes, many of them during the past quarter
century. Ninety nations retain the death penalty.
Granted, not all of the places that in law or in fact have
eliminated the death penalty are paragons of human rights. But it is
interesting to note that apparently one of the instincts at work in countries
undergoing transformation after overthrowing dictatorships -- in Eastern
Europe, for instance, and some countries in Latin America -- was to eliminate
the death penalty.
Those twin elements -- achieving freedom and revoking the
prerogative of the state to take lives as repayment for crimes -- seem a
natural fit. It is an instinct that makes sense, particularly to those who have
lived under the brutality of states where violence was the normal means to
maintaining the states interests.
In the same period during which much of the world was moving
toward a degree of enlightenment on capital punishment, the United States was
traveling in a different direction. Since the death penalty was reinstated as
the result of a 1976 Supreme Court decision, 602 prisoners have been executed
in the name of the citizens of the United States.
Of those, more than 200 have been killed in Texas (see story),
which has come to symbolize the new national lust for ultimate vengeance.
It is odd that Gov. George W. Bush, who so loudly proclaims Jesus
as his model, pulls a Pilate-like defense on the presidential campaign trail
when asked about Texas status as the national leader in state-sponsored
killing. He has nothing to do with the executions, he says, he is simply
upholding the law.
Someone condemned to die in Texas can face a process that
has the integrity of a professional wrestling match, wrote Attorney
Stephen B. Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta,
in the July 1999 issue of the The Champion, magazine of the National
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
In the elaborately documented article, Bright continues, An
accused may stand virtually defenseless -- facing the death penalty, as his
lawyer sleeps through trial; be condemned to die without any adversarial
process to determine guilt and punishment; and be denied any post-conviction
review, because a lawyer misses a deadline or fails to raise any issues.
So much for Texas law.
Texas isnt alone -- just by many measures the worst example
of death penalty craziness in the extreme.
When the United States began walking in a different direction from
most of the rest of the world, it took up company with some unsavory
characters. Among the 90 governments that retain the death penalty are Chile,
Cuba, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Rwanda,
Vietnam and Yugoslavia.
State sponsored killing, it has been amply shown, does not deter
crime. It just sucks the rest of us into legalized violence. The world
doesnt need more vengeance, even in the name of justice. Were
headed in the wrong direction, and its time to turn around.
National Catholic Reporter, February 4,
2000
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