“When we kill, even legally execute, the bloodshed stains the conscience.”– Executing Grace
In 1608, George Kendall, a British native, and member of the first council at Jamestown, was executed by firing squad. Although the evidence and charges were sketchy, it was the first known case of capital punishment in the colonies.
Capital punishment in modern times remains unpopular around the world, with the United States and Japan the only remaining G7 countries that still allow death by the state. Unsurprisingly, the top four countries with the highest body counts resulting from state-sanctioned murder are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. America, a country whose sovereignty resided with the people, and not the government, lamentably follows at number five, in what should be a perplexing case of strange bedfellows.
In America, there have been roughly 15,000 legal executions since our country’s birth. With only 2-3 percent of executions administered by the federal government, the overwhelming majority are performed by the states. Today, 27 states still allow capital punishment, although three governors currently have declared a moratorium on their use. Since 1976, there have been 1,571 executions in 34 states, although over the last five years, only 10 states have participated in such slayings. Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida, and Missouri are the top states producing 65 percent of executions, although Virginia abolished its capital punishment laws in 2021.
In Shane Claiborne’s 2016 book, “Executing Grace”, Claiborne makes the case that as Christians, we are expected to be different. While many are quick to apply their pro-life positions to abortion, not all have been willing to include capital punishment in the Commandment that we “do not kill”. While making his case, Claiborne looks at the real cost of the death penalty through the eyes of the victims, the guilty, and the innocent.
Most of us are led to believe that victims of heinous crimes are always supporters of public executions, happy to see their perpetrators killed. While some see a long prison sentence as providing better justice, others increasingly feel the need to forgive and not create more victims.
One of society’s great quandaries may be determining the proper response to those who commit horrible crimes including murder. Does the answer always need to be as barbaric and archaic as the crime? Initially, we returned evil with evil. Public executions continued in the US until the 1930s, to humiliate the perpetrator and set an example for anyone who dared to follow in their path. Since the Bible claims an eye for an eye, it’s not surprising that the Bible Belt doles out the bulk of executions. Seen as a way to balance the scales and reconcile the harm that was done, the state has for too long taken on the role of exacting revenge on behalf of the injured parties, denying them their own means of restitution.
It was Gandhi who said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. Today, executioners wear hoods to hide their identities, while blank cartridges are loaded into guns so that each shooter can feel guiltless, believing their gun did not fire the deadly bullet. And polls confirm that the public is rapidly souring on government-led death as well. Fears of wrongful convictions in light of a loss of trust in the justice system have led to doubts over the accuracy of verdicts. Since 1992, attorneys Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, known for their representation in the O.J. Simpson trial, have run the Innocence Project to find and prove the innocence of wrongly convicted felons. To date, over 300 of these erroneous convictions have been overturned with their help.
There is also growing concern for crimes committed by the mentally ill who have been abandoned on the streets without proper treatment. Even death sentences and executions are declining as prosecutors, juries and judges look for alternatives. In the past 45 years, executions have been limited to lethal injections, electrocution, gas chambers, hanging, and firing squads. But even those have been met with recent challenges as doctors and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly uncomfortable being associated with these killings and refuse to participate.
The first murder was committed when Cain killed Abel in the book of Genesis. Many other prominent figures in the Bible were also murderers. But God chose to punish by banishment, not death. Redemption instead is on the rise. Mercy and second chances are increasingly replacing revenge as the preferred response to evil acts. Proposed policies of restorative justice would place power in the hands of the victims and not the state, in the form of restoration and rehabilitation.
Jesus was the most famous execution in history. He was accused and convicted of crimes he never committed. But Jesus forgave his captors and executioners. Perhaps it's time that we follow his lead and send capital punishment into the dustbin of history.
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