Written by Marianne Mansfield
Juries are being seated in the cases of suspects of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the Aurora, Colorado, theater massacre. In both, it is an arduous process because the death penalty is on the table. Potential jurors are questioned at length about their views on the death penalty in general, as well as their singular willingness to impose the death penalty in the case before them.
In Utah, questions about how–not if–to kill those for whom the death penalty is imposed are arising. This is due in large part to the ineffectiveness of the only currently sanctioned method, lethal injection. The firing squad was previously available to those inmates who opted for it prior to 2004 when it was eliminated as a choice for how to die. Three inmates so chose.
On April 29, 2014, the state of Oklahoma attempted to kill convicted felon Clayton Lockett using a combination of three allegedly lethal drugs. Lockett finally died of cardiac arrest 43 minutes after the cocktail was injected into his body. His death, authorities say, should have been immediate.
The drugs that have historically been used to kill prisoners are becoming increasingly difficult for executioners to obtain, in part because manufacturers have refused to supply drugs that may land them in the middle of wrongful death lawsuits. Some states, notably Virginia and Ohio, have attempted to keep the sources of the lethal cocktail secret, but the outcry by the ACLU–and even some of their own state legislators–is making that difficult.
The Daily Press quoted Frank Knaack, the ACLU’s public policy director as saying that the Virginia legislation “prevents the public and the press from knowing anything about the drugs (their source, materials, or components) used in an execution … The awesome power of the government to kill in our name must be accompanied by transparency and accountability, both of which would go away if this bill becomes law.”
In Utah, our legislators are looking toward a different solution. They are considering re-instituting the firing squad. The House of Representatives has voted to approve the measure, sending it to an uncertain fate in the Senate. Leaders in that chamber have thus far declined to say if they’ll support it, and Utah’s Republican Gov. Gary Herbert won’t say if he’ll sign it.
To be fair, Utah isn’t the only state giving this form of death penalty execution consideration. Several others are scrambling to find an alternative to the botched lethal injection dilemma as well. Our friends to the northeast in Wyoming and next door in Nevada are also considering the firing squad if lethal injections and use of the gas chamber are found to be unconstitutional.
In our state, however, the proposal places the firing squad not after the gas chamber but instead of it.
For the most recent period for which data is available, the United States is one of 56 other countries permitting the death penalty in some form. Some of the other countries on that list include Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq and Iran. While the fact that these countries use the death penalty may not come as a surprise, there are others that I wasn’t expecting. Japan and Belize to name but two. However, the majority are countries where authoritarian rule is the case and individual rights are nearly non-existent. It is among all these countries that the U.S. finds itself.
When we consider the use of the death penalty on the state level, the company is a bit less unsettling. Utah is among 32 other states which currently allow its use.
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have abolished the death penalty, although a few left it on the books as an option for those criminals who were sentenced to death before it was abolished.
Execution by any means is gruesome. I don’t think there is an argument about that.
Execution absent justice and integrity is heinous. The executions that ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is forcing the world to bear witness to are senseless and heartless murders, plain and simple. There is no reason, no justification, no acceptable excuse. The barbarity is beyond description.
As I ponder the death penalty as we know it in the U.S. and in Utah, I find myself wondering if given the chance, could I impose the death penalty on a self-proclaimed ISIS fighter? And the answer is, I could not. At least, I don’t think I could. I suppose one never knows for sure until put in the situation. What ISIS does is horrendous and unspeakable, but I choose not be a party to causing another human’s death. It feels like I would be rushing to stoop to the level of their shameful inhumanity.
I stand now as I stood before ISIS erupted onto the world stage. I cannot condone taking the life of another human, even one who commits such atrocities.
Nor could I vote for the application of the death penalty in a criminal case where I sat on the jury of the accused’s peers. Under pretrial questioning, I would be that juror who could not bring herself to allow that I could vote to impose the death penalty. Of this, I have no doubt.
A life is a life, no matter to whom it belongs.
And so, I am beyond grateful to live in a country where our system of jurisprudence provides the opportunity for people of my persuasion to hold and act upon my beliefs. And I am equally grateful that those who are proponents of the death penalty are out there.
However, I think that the time has come for both proponents of the death penalty and those who oppose it to come together for a sensible dialog about what we want our country and our state to stand for. Justice, certainly. What about compassion? It is a question that needs to be asked and answered. Is the death penalty compassionate?
The time is now to examine our motives and our reasoning. Is an eye for an eye the system we want as we move forward?
Is it?
Marianne Mansfield has lived in Southern Utah since 2010. She and her husband followed their grandchildren to this area from Michigan. In her former life she was a public school educator. More than half of her career was spent as an elementary principal, which is why her response to most challenges is, “This isn’t my first rodeo.” She grew up in Indiana, and attended Miami of Ohio, Ball State University and Michigan State. She is a loyal MSU Spartan and Detroit Tiger baseball fan. She has been writing fiction and opinion since her retirement in 2004.
RELATED OPINIONS:
– “DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: Death by firing squad is the better of two evils”
– “OPINION: New death penalty legislation is the law of retaliation.”
