From the Cross to the Gurney

It goes without saying that men have been killing each other for as long as man has been on the planet. Homo Sapiens (modern man)  has been on Earth for somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000 years following an evolutionary trail that goes back 3.5 million years. Men began living in what would be considered a civilized state about 35,000 years ago. It was just less than 4,000 years ago that we have the first evidence men created a codified set of rules or laws to systematically kill other men as punishment for crimes. The beginning of our fascination with capital punishment came in the Babylonian Code of King Hammurabi. I find it interesting that the Code of Hammurabi is hailed as man’s first set of laws to bring order to man's attempts at living in a society governed by laws, and  yet there were twenty-five different crimes that called for the death of the offender.

Since the time of the great Babylonian Empire man has found so many reasons for the death penalty and nearly as many methods to accomplish it. Let me run down the only the most popular methods: hanging by the neck; firing squad with arrows, spears or bullets, burning alive, boiling alive, beheading, suffocating, bleeding from cutting, lethal injection of drugs, crucifixion, exposure to weather, insects or wild animals; disembowelment, electrocution, lethal gas chambers; impalement; starvation; beatings or stoning; and the list could go on. The earliest forms of execution were mostly those forms of execution that involved a great deal of pain, humiliation or both. For instance, the exact origin of crucifixion isn’t precisely known, but we know the Romans perfected it to the point that they could prolong death for days based on how the cross was made and how the victim was affixed to it. Crucifixion was usually reserved for those who committed crimes against the Empire and was intended to be a warning to all that treason against Rome would result in the most painful death imaginable. Over the years execution became more common until, by the 1700’s,Britain had codified 222 offences for which one could be put to death. By then the law in Britain included death for such things as cutting down certain trees, robbing a rabbit warren and other such petty crimes.

To be fair, the reasons for imposing the death penalty around the world have narrowed since the late middle ages and there have been attempts to make this act more “humane”. One example is the invention of the guillotine. It was argued that the death penalty in France would be more palatable if the condemned died quickly and therefore less painfully. Previously, a beheading could get messy if the executioner was not skilled enough and required several blows from the sword or axe to sever the head. The guillotine, they argued, would assure a swift and unfailing beheading. The absence of any complaining from the condemned reassured the French they were on to something. With this rationalization and the French Revolution well underway, beheading was never more popular.  

Our own traditions with capital punishment came from our British roots. Hanging was the order of the day for executions in our colonial days and that tradition followed with us after we established nationhood. Our new American sensibilities were influenced by the cruelties of the British during our Revolutionary War. Those sensibilities were reflected in our Constitution’s Eighth Amendment which prohibits “cruel or unusual punishment" including torture. There was no actual prohibition of the death penalty- only the admonishment that it not be cruel or unusual-whatever that may mean. My reading of the Amendment leads me to conclude that it is OK to kill a person for a crime; but in the killing, there should be no dallying or inordinate pain inflicted. We have been trying to get better at it ever since. Our efforts to kill, but do it with less mess led us to develop alternates to the hangings and firing squads primarily because those methods had a fairly high failure rate. Failure rates always rekindle to the old arguments that executions are by their very nature “cruel and unusual” because the failed attempts lead to prolonged anguish and discomfort for both the condemned and the witnesses, along with the notion that death itself is cruel and unusual. Beheading on this continent seemed just too old-world for us, so that tradition got skipped in the New World. Technology brought us the electric chair, and the gas chamber to augment our main course of hangings. Those methods eventually proved to have an error rate too, and for a while the courts imposed a near moratorium (in the early 1970’s) on the killing until we came up with the latest innovation: lethal injection.

Lethal injection was a great boon to the execution business because it provided a nearly guilt free way to kill undesirables with no more discomfort that just “going to sleep”. It was portrayed in the same way your kindly Veterinarian might describe gently "putting down" a beloved house pet.  As we grabbed on to that method the number of executions in the US rose dramatically. So, there you have it: a brief history of execution.

I would like to see the history of execution in this country (and world- wide too) end very soon because we just stop doing it. I’m on the wrong side of US public opinion on this subject, but I’d like to see public opinion change. I know all the reasons 65% of us favor capital punishment for the most heinous crimes, and I’m glad we only use it for cases that involve the most reprehensible acts- but I think it can and should eliminated entirely. Those who favor capital punishment cite reasons that not are supported by evidence. They make the claim that the Death Penalty deters crime. They claim the tax payers should not have to pay the costs of imprisonment for years. They claim it gives victim’s families closure and it is real "justice" for those who take a life. Every bit of research in every part of the world concludes the death penalty does not deter crime. I won’t use this space to cite all the data, but you can look it up. It is conclusive. I would also point out that every death penalty case carried through to execution costs (on average) 10 times the amount of money as putting the same offender in prison for life without parole. The data tells us it is ineffective in preventing capital offences and exponentially more expensive. As for closure, it is a subjective argument and I often wonder if closure is ever possible when loved ones are brutally taken from us. As for “justice”, equivalency only equals justice if we decide it does. We can decide that another punishment is adequate justice. These can be matters of our individual and collective conscience. Given all we know about the death penalty, perhaps in the final analysis we practice it because we have a deep-seated need for revenge against those who commit the most ghastly crimes.

I have always opposed the death penalty because I believe our human character needs to evolve beyond the motives of revenge killing. To kill because another killed diminishes our humanity and is ultimately an uncivilized response to those who commit the ultimate human violation- as well as being completely illogical. If taking a life is the worst human behavior, how can it be OK for the state to do it?  Our continuation of this barbarous act, no matter how we have tried to sanitize it with new or improved methods, puts us in league with some very unsavory company.  In the five years between 2007 and 2012 the United States had the fourth most recorded executions in the world, at 220. The top three were Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. There are no reliable figures for China, but intuitively I believe they are probably number 1. Iraq was only 36 killings ahead of us, at 256. We beat Pakistan, Yemen and North Korea. Nearly every other western country (as well as most others around the globe) have outlawed the Death Penalty and would refuse to extradite a fugitive back to the US if the accused could face the Death Penalty.

Please don’t think I believe the most brutal murderers should escape the most severe penalty. I believe we need to redefine what the most severe penalty should be. For me, the ultimate penalty should be life in prison without parole or release for any reason. The latest “botched” execution in Oklahoma is another example to demonstrate that executions cannot be done Constitutionally- that is, free of cruelty. And there is ample evidence that we can and have been able to keep the most heinous criminals from leaving prison if we deem they should never get out – Charles Manson being a good example. The other monumental problem with the Death Penalty is that the use of it may be the most racially biased activity in the country- again, the research on racial bias in the use of capital punishment is beyond argument.

I am a hopeful person, even though the history of our kind is filled with a blood-for-blood mentality. I am hopeful that our evolution as a species includes not only an evolution of our intellect, an evolution of our technical prowess, an evolution of governance and lawmaking, but also an evolution of  our humanity. Most of the world’s governments¸ and most of the world's religions have abandoned and condemned this form of punishment. I have no faith in our government (at this time) to do anything, let alone the right thing. It is up to the people to reexamine this issue in the light of our evolving humanity. I cannot imagine any argument that makes the case that killing people is an advancement of the human condition. It is instead, a remnant of our brutal past. We continue it out of some sense that killers deserve to be killed- and maybe they do. But that does not mean that we have to do it. We have the power to say real justice means rising above the blood-for- blood ways of the past for the betterment of mankind.


One of the most poignant visual images on the topic for me was a photograph that appeared in our local newspaper a few years ago. The power of that image has remained with me.  The news that day was that a prisoner in my state was about to be executed  for a despicable crime by lethal injection at the prison in Walla Walla. He would be strapped to the gurney, his arms outstretched, wherein an antiseptic syringe would be placed in his veins to carry a cocktail of drugs that would first make him unconscious, before other drugs stopped his heart and lungs. There were the usual camps of protesters outside the prison walls. Some were there to boisterously cheer on and celebrate the death, while others were there to stand in a somber vigil against this brutality. Our local paper chose to print a picture of a well know nun and my cousin, Sister Rosalie Locati, a Sister of Providence. The picture showed Sister Rosalie alone in a small chapel kneeling before a large crucifix, praying for the condemned man and praying to end this practice. How ironic, and perhaps how absolutely proper, for her to kneel before an image of the most famous execution (and the image of her faith)  praying that all executions might end.  So far, her prayers have not been realized. In fact we have regressed from her prayerful wish and execute more now that even a few years ago. In the end we have not progressed much from the days of the cross to our modern day-cross, the gurney of lethal injection. I know my own conscience on this matter, but it is for all of us look into our hearts to question our deep beliefs and values on this basic issue. It is a matter of our humanity.



Thanks for looking in.