The Death Penalty & a Watching World

 

          

                                                            Rev.  Dr. Jeff Hood press conference

Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.  If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 

 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”  Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”  

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12: 17-21 NRSVue 

 The state of Alabama engaged in a ghoulish, experimental form of judicially mandated homicide Thursday evening. A convicted murderer, Kenneth Smith,  was executed 35 years after his crime. Smith's victim was Elizabeth Sennett, a pastor's wife. He and another man were hired by the pastor to murder her and stage the death as a robbery so he could collect the insurance. In a truly "you can't make this up" twist the pastor took his own life when the plot was discovered. 

Despite being sentenced to life in prison in two trials a judge chose to overrule the decisions of two juries and have Smith put to death using nitrous oxide, gassing him by a method never used before. Companies which produce the chemicals previously used in lethal injections have chosen not to supply them anymore if they are going to used for the death penalty. While the nitrous oxide did kill Smith, he writhed in apparent distress for nearly half an hour before he expired.

While the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of this execution one of the three dissenting judges, Sonia Sotomayor, described what would happen as treating Smith as a "guinea pig" and commented that the world is watching. 

Smith's spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood,  was present with Smith when he died and described what he saw as torture. He was clear that Smith committed a terrible crime but also asserted that this form of execution dishonoured the memory of the person he killed, a view not shared by Sennett's sons.  He condemned what he considers the lies that this would be a humane form of death and went so far as to say it was evil. 

The United Church of Canada publicly opposed capital punishment well before it was abolished in Canada, a rejection of retributive violence. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke against an "eye for an eye." 

 While the death penalty was legally ended in Canada in 1976 the last execution was in 1962. The rate of homicides in Canada has declined steadily through those decades, suggesting that the threat of the death penality is not a deterrent. 

I have admitted along the way that there are criminals who to my mind deserve to die, yet I remain convinced that when we kill as a society in response to killing we diminish and brutalize ourselves. 

 When I worked as a chaplain intern at Kingston Penitentiary in the summer of 1979 I spoke regularly with murderers who I felt were genuinely repentant -- the connection with the term "penitnentiary" -- even though this would make no difference to their sentence. Often it was through their connection with chaplains and other people of faith that they came to understand the gravity of their crimes. 

I'm mindful that John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, the apostle Paul, and the disciple Peter were all executed by a tyrannical regime. The verses above were written by Paul. 

 Justice Sotomayor is correct that the world is watching the United States, a nation which many claim is Christian, and this is far from their finest hour. 

                                                     Elizabeth Sennett, Kenneth Smith's murder victim