Predictions coming true on death penalty

During the many years the New York State Legislature debated capital punishment, dire predictions were amassed against its reinstatement. Now with the return of executions throughout the U.S. and to New York, those predictions are coming true.

Many opponents of the death penalty argued, for example, that innocent people would be executed, just as innocent people are often jailed. The difference is that the latter group can be released, apologized to and reimbursed for the injustice they endured. The dead cannot cash checks.

In a recent case, there is evidence that an innocent man was executed, evidence convincing enough to merit concern from Catholic quarters, including Pope John Paul II. In July, Virginia executed Joseph Roger O'Dell III, who said that DNA evidence would prove he did not commit the crime. A witness against him had already recanted his testimony. But the commonwealth and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to authorize the DNA test.

The Pope recently met and consoled O'Dell's widow. Last fall, seeking to prevent his execution, she had urged the pontiff to speak out on her husband's behalf. The Pope instructed his nuncio in Washington, D.C., to send a message to President Clinton opposing the death penalty.

Another concern of death penalty opponents was that capital punishment would be unevenly administered. Such a case has attracted the attention of Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who urged California's governor to grant clemency to Thomas Thompson, whose scheduled execution this week has been postponed by a federal court. The cardinal shares questions raised by Thompson's attorneys ``about the circumstances which made this case eligible for the death penalty and other substantial questions regarding his role in the crime for which he was convicted.'

Thompson was convicted of a rape and murder. While he has maintained his innocence, questions have been raised about the role of his accomplice in the crime, who was convicted of second-degree murder and is now eligible for parole. A federal judge reversed Thompson's rape conviction and death sentence, saying the evidence of rape was not substantial and that Thompson's lawyer had not represented his client properly.

Cardinal Mahony said, ``Society will certainly not benefit by the execution of Mr. Thompson under the circumstances and questions raised now regarding his case when the possibility of a life sentence without the possibility of parole is a viable option.'

A third prediction from those opposed to capital punishment was that executions would be unfairly meted out in terms of race and geography. The latter is coming true in New York State, which has legalized capital punishment for only two years. A recent study has found that upstate district attorneys are twice as likely to call for executions compared to their counterparts downstate, where the murder rate is five times higher.

Of course, one could eliminate all of those inequities, and Catholics would still be opposed to the death penalty because it is wrong. But the existence of such injustices provides more and more proof that killing people is not only immoral but also bad social policy.

(08-07-97)

[[In-content Ad]]