“It’s pointless to teach someone a lesson by killing them.” — Mokokoma Mokonana
The first death penalty carried out on these shores was in 1692. Thomas Grander was convicted of sodomy with a farm animal. He was 17 years of age. Now such an act would probably result in jail time, not a prison bit, and certainly not execution.*Hannah Ocuish, a Native American girl, was executed for murder. She was 12 years old at the time she was put to death. Our societal standards have changed over the years. We no longer execute children, nor some of the more severely intellectually disabled or mentally ill.
States may or may not have death penalties. The Great State of Michigan has never had capital punishment. Many states that do have that sentence on the books haven’t used it in years. Illinois stopped executing people when newly established DNA testing resulted in exoneration of 13 of the 25 men on that state’s death row.
Death penalties do not deter crime. Murders happen at the same rate of occurrence in death penalty states as in states which do not employ that sentence.
The Bible doesn’t seem to be much help here. There is the oft quoted “an eye for an eye” rejoinder, which seems to support the idea of capital punishment. But then there’s “Thou shalt not kill.” Hmm.
Different religions have come down on different sides of the issue. The Pope has spoken against the death penalty, and many of his adherents believe in his infallibility. Yet other religious traditions differ. George W. Bush, an evangelical Christian, said he was “in favor of a stronger death penalty.” I know, I know. We think we know what he really meant.
National Geographic, March 2021, provides stories and photos of folks exonerated from death sentences. Some spent years incarcerated before new evidence resulted in exonerations. The average time the exonerated men, (and one woman), spent on death row was more than 11 years.
We know the system isn’t perfect. Think of O.J. Simpson, acquitted of murder despite the evidence. He was then held responsible for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in the civil trial. He had to pay a lot of money for having caused their deaths. Different juries. Very different results.
Errors in the criminal justice system do occur, sometimes through prosecutorial malfeasance, or jury anomalies, or through incapable or shoddy defense efforts. Sometimes errors are just errors. A man in Texas was executed after being convicted of arson resulting in the death of his wife and children. Later advances in technology revealed that the fire had been accidental, and that the man executed for the arson/murder had played no part in it.What could Texas do for that man that was wrongly executed? Compensation to his family, in that case was untenable, given that his wife and children were dead, too. Oops.
George Gascon said, “Given the irreversibility of the death penalty, the possibility of a wrongful conviction cannot be overstated.”
I haven’t gotten to this point in my thinking out of naiveté. I attribute my evolvement to the permanence of the death penalty, and the inability of the state to correct errors when they become known.
How many men has Michigan wrongly executed? Zero. Not all states can say the same.
* — I speak with some knowledge of this; not pertaining to any firsthand experience with bestiality, let that be said. During one phase of my career, I had occasion to visit places of incarceration. In one West Michigan jail, a young man was doing six months or so for such behavior. Called “Animal Lover” by other inmates, he got teased quite a bit. Might he have been sentenced to probation, with perhaps some required counseling? Maybe, but he fared far better than Thomas Grander in 1692.
