Thoughts on Death and Justice

Last night I was reading an article from The New Yorker detailing the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004 for killing his three young children (three daughters...a two-year-old and a set of one-year-old twins) by setting fire to their home. Cameron maintained his innocence throughout the trial, conviction, and appeals...even refusing to accept a pre-trial plea bargain that would have kept him off of death row. His final words:

The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. Form God's dust I came and to dust I will return, so the Earth shall become my throne.

A report released last month by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which reviewed the cases against Willingham and another convicted arsonist (Ernest Ray Willis) found that the evidence supporting arson as the cause of the fire wasn't as airtight as the prosecution presented it at the trial, and stated that:

The investigators had a poor understanding of fire science and failed to acknowledge or apply the contemporaneous understanding of the limitations of fire indicators. Their methodologies did not comport with the scientific method or the process of elimination. A finding of arson could not be sustained based upon the standard of care expressed by [National Fire Protection Association guidelines for fire and explosions investigations] or the standard of care expressed in fire investigation texts and papers in the period 1980-1992.

In short, neither Willingham nor Willis got a fair trial. Does this new report prove their innocence? Absolutely not. But it does show that each of them, on separate occasions, got railroaded by the same flawed justice system. Willis, by the way, was exonerated and released from prison in 2004 after spending 17 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Willingham, as I've already me ntioned, was executed while maintaining his innocence. His blood is on the hands of every one of us.

A recent issue of National Geographic gave a small piece of attention to the global prevalence capital punishment. And while it brings good news for opponents of the death penalty, it doesn't paint a pretty picture of our American justice system (via Sister Helen Prejean):

In the early 1800s an Englishman could be hanged for stealing a shirt. By the end of the 1900s, growing concern for individual rights had caused the death penalty to disappear from the United Kingdom and nearly everywhere else in the Western world. Two exceptions are Belarus and the United States, although this year New Mexico became the 15th state to outlaw capital punishment. Death-penalty opponents cite the exoneration of 131 people on death row since 1973 as well as the high cost of capital cases.

Defenders argue that the penalty offers justice and cite some studies that show it’s a deterrent. The practice is strong in culturally conservative areas—Japan, Saudi Arabia, Texas—and totalitarian regimes.

So while the use of capital punishment is decreasing dramatically worldwide, America is holding out as one of the few places that still practices what most of the developed world has found to be an ineffective and excessively cruel form of punishment. According to their data, in 2008 the United States ranked fourth worldwide in state sponsored executions...behind such warm-and-fuzzy countries as China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia and slightly ahead of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and North Korea.

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea...these are the places that sanction the intentional killing of their citizens. Why are so many of us so proud to be counted among them? And why are we, as citizens, content to allow our government to continue to allow potentially innocent people to be put to death in the name of "justice"?