HUU Sermon Archives

Execution: A Conversation

Harrisonburg UU Death Penalty Task Force
Sept. 14, 2003

Chalice readings:

“Who is the slayer? Who the victim? Speak.” — Sophocles

“And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” — Deuteronomy 19:21

“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”— Leviticus 19:18 and Matthew 22:39

“Comparing oneself to others in such terms as 'Just as I am so are they, just as they are so am I,' he should neither kill nor cause others to kill.” — from the Buddhist scripture, Sutta Nipata 705

Readings from the record**:

Announcer (Mary Hahn): We will now hear from some actual people, represented by readers in our congregation today.

I'm Vernon Harvey. My daughter, Faith, was raped and murdered by two men in Louisiana. Faith didn't know the animals she was dealing with when Willie and Vaccaro offered her a ride home...At first they couldn't find the graduation medal around her neck because it was embedded so deep from the stabbing. The SOB, Vaccaro, got a life sentence, and it's been four years and they haven't fried Willie's ass yet. I can't wait to see the smoke fly off his body... All you hear about these days is the rights of the criminal. What about our rights?

I'm Mika Moulton, in Illinois. Gov. Ryan commuted the death sentence of the man who murdered my son.

We've been living a death sentence since then.

I'm Bud Welch, father of an Oklahoma City bombing victim (speaking before the killer's execution):

I was opposed to the death penalty all my life until my daughter Julie Marie was killed...For many months after the bombing I could have killed Timothy McVeigh myself. Insanity is real, and I have lived it. You can't think of enough adjectives to describe the hate I felt. But after time, I was able to examine my conscience, and I realized that if McVeigh dies, it won't help me in the healing process. People talk about executions bringing closure. But there can be no closure when my little girl is never coming back. I finally realized that the death penalty means revenge and hate, and revenge and hate are why Julie Marie and 167 others are dead.

We're Ken and Lois Robison, from Texas.

Larry was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic...Our family tried in vain to get him proper treatment, but hospitals routinely discharged him after 30 days...We were told that if he became violent, he could get long-term treatment.

Our son's first and only act of violence was to kill five people. Despite his well-documented history of mental illness, he was found sane and sentenced to die.

I'm Leigh Anne Gideon, a reporter who used to witness executions in Huntsville, Texas.

You will never hear another sound like a mother wailing when she's watching her son being executed. There's no other sound like it. It's just this horrendous wail.

**Sources:

#1 -- Dead Man Walking (Sr. Helen Prejean)

#2--The Washington Post

#3 and 4--”Journey of Hope” website

#5--quoted in a Washington Post column by Richard Cohen

Role-plays:

We will now step into the roles of a few stake-holders in the criminal justice system.

WOMAN ALONE:

A woman was raped in the parking lot of the building where I work. They never caught the creep, and I have to walk through there every night on the way to my bus. At home, I don't have air conditioning, but I keep all my windows shut and locked – no matter what the weather. These wild, awful people live in the complex in back of me. They fight and cuss each other late at night. I heard a man beat a dog to death in that yard once. It was awful. No, I didn't try to stop it or report him. Those people are drug dealers; at least that's what I've heard.

This used to be a nice neighborhood. All the nice people have moved away, though, and I can't afford to move. I don't know any of this new element by name; don't think I want to. But Saturday at the mall I met this candidate. You might have seen his ads; he's the one who wants to get tough on crime. He's better looking in person. He was really nice. He has this idea for how to change a law so more of the scum out there can be terminated. I think he's got my vote! (by Chris Edwards)

 CITIZEN “SO-WHAT?”

I don't care. I don't want to care. I don't want you to want me to care. I just don't care. Now you can cite telephone polls about how people feel, but when it comes to action, that's quite another thing.

First of all, I mind my own business and everyone in my family does too. Nobody has ever been involved in a serious crime or gone to prison, so I think the further I stay away from that kind of people, the better. I know a lot of preachers rile people up for or against the death penalty, but who trusts a preacher anyway? I mean, you know, they get paid for what they say. I always wonder what they think on Monday.

Second, I sometimes think that relentless arguing about these touchy-feely social issues actually makes them worse. Is it possible if we stopped talking about capital punishment, maybe those who believe in this admittedly heinous and primitive act of supposed justice might have to stop and look at what they are doing rather than callously arguing about it?

Third, I don't like thinking about crime and criminals. I figure, hey, if they got themselves into this mess, then let them get themselves out. They have more time than I do to work on the problem.

Fourth, this is a free country. And we are the superpower. We are the top dog. The system must work pretty well. I say let things stay as they are. If the system ain't broke don't fix it--even if it isn't 100 percent right all of the time.

Fifth: Isn't this just about survival of the fittest? Isn't it natural when we have 5-6 billion people, who over-inhabit this globe, that 1000 or so might have to be put to death each year because they don't want to follow the rules? That's only about 2/100's of a percent.

Sixth: Many people just have too much stress in their lives to even think about the stress of capital punishment. I mean how would you like to be the person who pushes someone off the edge of sanity with this whole issue of the death penalty when they can hardly survive as it is due to poverty, or physical illness, or mental stress? Give us a break.

I think most people are like me: we don't really care to get involved in this discussion. You know in the last presidential election, 39 percent of the electorate voted. And in that very close race, about 19 and a half percent elected our president. That indicates how much people really want to get involved in these “important” issues. That means I am part of the 61 percent majority that doesn't really care. I'll leave it to you to figure out what that says about American democracy. (by Merle Wenger)

MINORITY REPORT:

Good mornin'. My name's Donald Roberts. Guess it's up to me to make the minority report. My family lives in a black neighborhood in Dallas Texas. That's right, I said Texas -- the execution state. They kill you with a smile.

As a black man, I know full well how the system's more likely to kill a brother. The cops are always lookin' at you funny, no matter what you doin' (just goin' about your business). Never mind "driving while black" -- it's more like "breathing while black!" If they decide to take an interest in you, they more likely to use "excessive force" than if you was white. Hell, they might just

kill you by "accident."

That's the way the whole thing is set up.

A man does Murder One, the only difference between a sentence of 25 to life or the death penalty is the color of his skin. Why else you think there's so many black men on death row? What -- you blind? Blacks are only 15% of the

population, but we 50% of death row!

If you're poor and black, god help you, cause your "public defender" probably won't -- might even fall asleep on you!

And the judge and the jury see a black man, they throw the book at him as hard as they can -- go right TO the death penalty. A lot of white people fear the black man 'cause of the news that sells -- remember when that white lady killed her own kids, and said a black man took 'em? or when that white guy killed his pregnant wife, and said a black man murdered her? Well, everyone believed 'em, and that stuff stays in peoples' heads, man!

The black man -- guilty until proven innocent. only there ain't no second chance for justice -- after you been electrocuted or poisoned to death. (by Eric La Freniere)

SPIRITUAL COUNSELOR #1:

I am pastor of the Sunrise Evangelical Church and also serve as spiritual guide to prisoners on death row in the state's highest security prison. I tell the condemned men I meet with there that they must accept the punishment that has been meted out to them, that Holy Scripture is clear on this--for instance, in the famous injunction in Deuteronomy 9:16 calling for “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” And in Genesis 9:6: “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man.”

But I also bring the good news to these men, reminding them that knowing the certainty and imminence of the death they face, they can free themselves from sin now by simply accepting their Lord with all their heart and all their soul. Their death sentence then will turn out to be a release into new and eternal life. Unlike Cain, the first murderer, who received a life sentence of roving the Earth a vagabond and outcast with God's curse on his brow, I tell these men they will be transformed and transfigured to Paradise. (by Robin McNallie)

SPIRITUAL COUNSELOR #2:

They call me a spiritual counselor. Among my several responsibilities is discussing personal problems with prison inmates. Many prisoners seem to learn from the prison experience, but that is not my greatest concern. The inmates on death row are the ones who are really shortchanged. They are treated as worthless human beings. Admittedly they did commit horrible crimes.

But in what way are they shortchanged?

Frankly, they are deprived of the opportunity to learn. We don't really know whether they will learn from a lifetime in prison, but

surely they are entitled to that possibility. We would not be letting them free to repeat their crimes, and fifty years in prison may not soften them up and remake their souls. But there is at least a possibility for change on their part that does not exist if they are put to death. (by Norm Lawson)

HISTORIAN:

At 6:40 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1890, at Auburn State Prison in New York, William Kemmler, a convicted killer, became the first man to die in the electric chair. It was a gruesome procedure. The execution required two lengthy bursts of current to kill the man, filling the room with smoke from his charred body.

The origin of the electric chair tells the story of a war between two engineering giants: Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. These American icons were locked in a fierce battle to supply electricity to the cities of America, Edison promoting DC current and Westinghouse promoting AC current. A subplot to this competition was their underhanded battle to avoid supplying the electricity for the execution, fearing such an association would brand their commercial ventures as lethal.

Society recognized the (and I quote) “need” for a modern humane form of execution that was uniquely American. The State Commission of New York considered 300 alternatives, including hanging, exposure to wild serpents, bisection, crushing with weights, suffocation and beheading.

Enter Edison, who overcame his own anti-death penalty stance to cooperate with the commission by advocating Westinghouse's more deadly AC current. Harold Brown, Edison's technician, developed a prototype of the chair which he tested on dogs and cats, even a camel, a horse and a cow, which finally convinced the New York State Commission to adopt the electric chair despite Westinghouse's plea that this was cruel and unusual punishment.

Kemmler, the first human test subject, went calmly and with dignity to his death.

By the end of the ordeal, the Attorney General had fainted at the stench of burning flesh. By the 1920s, over 20 states were using the uniquely American electric chair.

Today many states have moved on to (and I quote) “a more humane way of execution” – death by lethal injection, though the electric chair is still used in some states. (by Mary Hahn)

Benediction:

For much of my adult life, if I thought about it at all, I agreed with the death penalty. I was definitely in favor of it during the time I was the father of four young girls. The thought of one of them being kidnapped, raped and murdered made me feel nothing was too bad for someone who could commit such an act.

As a reporter for the Associated Press, I had firsthand knowledge of the famous Martinsville Seven. That was the case in 1951 in which a white woman in Martinsville, VA, was gang raped and physically and mentally injured but not murdered by seven young black men. They were all given the death penalty and executed. I felt at the time it was just.

But in recent times I have changed my view of the death penalty.. I just don't like the idea of the all-powerful State coming in and taking a person's life in cold blood. It is not that I feel compassion for the perpetrators of heinous crimes. I think it has to do with my fear of government. If the State can take your life for crime, it might not be too great a leap for the State to take a life for political reasons, to keep the current regime in power. (by Jim Geary)

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