Reality Check 101

It is not often that this column re-visits an issue from the previous month. It seems however, that capital punishment misinformation and myth persists.

Death penalty opponents often use statistics which do not distinguish between factual innocence (no connection with the crime) and legal innocence (acquittal based on problematic investigations, evidence, procedures, prosecution, witnesses, jury dynamics, judicial activism, etc.). Many times the numbers include as “innocent,” guilty convicts already released from death row into life without parole.

Assume for a moment that 66 percent of retried capital cases end with 80 percent of them receiving reduced sentences while 7 percent are acquitted, as one writer recently claimed. In round numbers that means that for every 100 capital cases, 34 were not worthy of review and eight were upheld. Fifty-three were still found guilty but failed to meet rigorous requirements for execution. Five were acquitted and no one wrongfully executed — a 100 percent success rate for the system. In addition, since Supreme Court decisions in 1986, 2002 and 2005, the United States does not execute the insane, irresponsibly retarded, or juveniles. Even if a juvenile is condemned, he faces another decade of litigation.

In terms of race and class, the most extensive economics study done to date found that, inGeorgia, while 74 percent of murderers were poor, only 38 percent on death row were. The NAACP has admitted that whites represent 38 percent of murderers but 56 percent of those executed.

A favorite ploy of anti-capital punishment organizations is to compare theUnited Statesto other countries and states to other states; another example of selective statistics. The fact is that high murder rates can be found in both death penalty and non-death penalty jurisdictions. TheUnited Statesmay have high murder rates compared to some countries, but the non-capital punishment countries ofSouth AfricaandMexicolead the world in murder and violent crime. Internally,Americais no different.Michigan’s murder rate is actually as high as or higher than several death penalty states.

Opponents of capital punishment fare no better with their Bibles. The most common error is to use references without regard to the Scriptures around them — both those close by (immediate context) and those from broader sections (general context).

A typical example is blurring the line between private and civil spheres of responsibility by claiming that Jesus rejected the “eye for an eye” standard of Old Testament law; a strange claim considering that Jesus, only 21 verses earlier declared that it was not His purpose to abolish the law and argues that it is impossible to do so. The fact is that as God, Jesus could not contradict the law which He himself instituted (general context). In Matthew, Jesus did not say “it is written,” the normal legal formula, but “you have heard.” The problem was not the law, but people who had misappropriated a legal standard meant for judicial use in order to justify vigilante revenge. Jesus told them that they had no right to be a law unto themselves, i.e. murder. Their responsibility was enshrined in the interpersonal law of love exercised in righteousness and validated through principles of humility, forgiveness and self-discipline.

If love and forgiveness were supreme principles for government, it could not fulfill its true mandate of enforcing righteousness and justice. In the case of murderers, the government that Christ-as-God instituted would be required to turn the other cheek while murderers were forgiven to roam free. While being indulged by a mercy-restrained judiciary, in an effort to promote their redemption, they could continue preying on more victims, including, as is now rampant, violence against prison mates — life in prison is hardly loving.

What about the hapless felon’s redemption? The average stay on death row is eight to 12 years. Unlike their victims, murderers are given an exorbitant length of time to stare death in the face and prepare for eternity

Could Jesus “pull the switch”? As God, he already has many times through Old Testament judgments. In the New Testament he demonstrated his resolve with the likes of Ananias & Sapphira and promised, through parables and prophecies, to do so again. From his judgment throne, he will cast the unjustified into eternal death. It is after all, judgment which gives love, forgiveness and redemption meaning and special urgency.