The Unique Immorality of the Death Penalty
On October 5th, 2021 at 6:11pm, Ernest Johnson was executed at a state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. Ernest had an intellectual disability as a result of being born with fetal alcohol syndrome.
I went to the prison that day as a chaperone along with a group of girls from Rosati-Kain High School, an all-girls Catholic school, which my younger sibling attends. We went to the prison not because we believed our presence would stop the execution. The day prior, Missouri Governor, Mike Parsons denied Ernest clemency, despite a plea from Pope Francis himself (a tactic previously employed by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1999 to great effect). We went because we could not stand idly by while our state carried out this gross abuse of power and justice and someone had to stand up for Ernest.
Among those in attendance were Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (MADP), State Representative Kimberly Collins, U.S. Representative Cori Bush, as well as several other friends and supporters of Ernest. We gathered in a small, cordoned-off square that the prison guards so kindly allowed us to stand in (of course, located about a football field’s length from the prison entrance) as we held various signs of protest. We prayed for Ernest to find peace in his last moments, and we prayed for the politicians (and constituents who voted for said politicians) who allowed this atrocity to happen that they may have a change of heart.
At 6pm, we held a moment of silence, as we waited for confirmation of Ernest’s death. During this silence, a woman shouted, “Kill him! Kill him!” as she drove past in her red pick-up truck. Soon after, we received the official word: the state of Missouri had systematically murdered Ernest Johnson. And for what? Justice? No. Absolutely not. That was not justice. A man’s life was taken from him unjustly.
One of the signs read, “Why do we kill people to show that it is wrong to kill people?” This sign illustrates the unique immorality and irrationality of the death penalty. How can we teach people that murder is wrong by threatening to murder you if you do it? Those in favor of the death penalty will say, “It’s not murder. It’s justice. It’s retribution.” But what does justice really mean? The literal definition is giving to others what they deserve, which begs the question: what does a murderer deserve?
Does he deserve to die just like his victims did? Does his dignity go away because he chose to take a life? I would say, no. Killing a person who murdered someone does not bring the victim back to life. It does not, as many might think, bring closure or peace to the family of the victim(s). It does not deter others from committing similar crimes. What it does do is strip a person with rights and dignity down to a worthless criminal and rob them of any chance of rehabilitation or reformation.
The United States is the only developed nation in the world that still practices the death penalty. Think about that for a moment. Conservatives and Republicans can’t seem to stop talking about how great, powerful, and immaculate this country is compared to those “other” countries. They are uncivilized, unlike us. We are champions of human rights, unlike them.
The conversation around abolishing the death penalty feels almost nonexistent. Most people don’t care about prisoners enough to ensure humane living conditions, let alone ensuring their right to life in prison. In this country, when you commit a crime, you become sub-human — unworthy of basic human rights. Many people argue that they don’t want to pay for criminal’s to be housed in prisons, so they’d rather them get the death penalty. But the death penalty is far more expensive than life in prison. And of course, we can’t forget the fact that 4% of death-row inmates are innocent.
Any way you look at it, the death penalty is an egregious and evil act that cannot be allowed to continue in civil society. Every person, no matter what, has dignity and worth, and nothing can take that away from them. We cannot allow the injustice of the death penalty to continue because “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
