I've been thinking for a while about whether to write about my apostate beliefs about capital punishment. The execution of John Allen Muhamed, the man who pulled the strings of his underage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo as they pursued their careers as the terroristic "Washington Snipers," seems like a good chance to do so.
In theory, I think that a just society should not put people to death unless, like Gary Gilmore, they really want it. (But then I think that a just society should allow anyone to die if they really want it. I don't think that prisoners deserve a right the rest of us lack.)
However, I don't think that we're a just society, and that the harm done by capital punishment pales next to other harms in our society, so I don't care much about it. Does the execution of John Allen Muhamed diminish us? Yes, I suppose, the way that each individual raindrop contributes to a flood. The question for me, as a political activist, is whether capital punishment is worth my effort. Should I care about our being diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamaed? Probably not.
The funny thing is that, in practice, I am opposed to capital punishment. As an attorney, I do not have the courage of my lack of convictions. When in law school, I worked a bit on the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and I gave it my best effort. (FWIW, I think that he was guilty of second-degree murder -- having reacted violently when he saw a white police officer beating his brother -- but that he should not have been eligible for the death penalty. Seeing your brother being beaten, even if it's being done legally, undermines rational thought.)
As a federal appellate judicial clerk, I would work past midnight to help figure out a legitimate basis to prevent someone being executed by the state. I found that most energetic proponents of capital punishment were rotten, arrogant people who were out to pander to popular bloodthirst by making them feel like they were the Lord's instruments of vengeance (which, as I understand it, is a little misreading of Scripture.)
As a political activist, though, do I really care about spending my capital on standing against the popular will? Not really. If the people of this nation want to be diminished by executing a guilty man -- and I lose my ambivalence when guilt is not clearly established -- then let them go ahead and be diminished too. Am I diminished too? OK. A million more things happening in our society every day diminishes me more than the murder of John Allen Muhamed, and I will not sacrifice the work I want to do about them to the cause of feeling pure by washing my hands of the death of John Allen Muhamed.
I'm not pure. I'm American. There's blood all over my hands by virtue of my citizenship -- but also more opportunity than most people in the world have to save innocent blood as well.
Do I really think that there are a million greater diminishments every day than the execution of John Allen Muhamed? Of course not. I think that that's a gross underestimate.
While an ideal society, which we are not, would not have decided to kill John Allen Muhamed, I care more about my societies sins in these areas:
We are more diminished by the fact that so many of our citizens will go to bed hungry tonight than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the fact that so many of our citizens lack adequate housing than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the fact that so many of our citizens lack adequate medical care, many dying ever year because of it, than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the fact that so many women and children (and elderly and men as well) are battered by their spouses, lovers, parents, and children and have no place to find sanctuary than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the fact that so many people with legitimate claims to right civil injustices against them cannot do so for lack of funds than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the fact that so many of our citizens are imprisoned due to the lack of qualified counsel with adequate time and resources to spend on their cases than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the how those citizens, many of them innocent or deserving clemency, languish and suffer and are degraded and killed in our prisons than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the fact that we do not adequately enforce the laws against dumping poisons into our common streams, oceans, lakes, rivers, and groundwater than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the destruction of mountaintops and prairies and wetlands than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by our inability to legislate an end to our disproportionate contribution to global warming than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
I'm not done with domestic diminishments, but let me touch on some international ones....
We are more diminished by the deaths of so many tens of thousands of civilians in Iraq since 2002 due to our benighted policies than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the starvation and pestilence caused by overpopulation due in part by our many years of refusal to fund international family planning programs linked in any way to abortion services than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
We are more diminished by the pollution of foreign lands by American companies bolstered by American foreign policy than we are diminished by the execution of John Allen Muhamed.
Does the newly minted ghost of John Allen Muhamed want to complain to us about how his execution has diminished us? Well he can friggin' well get in line -- a line of billions, and growing.
You see all of those issues up there? Those are Democratic issues, where Democrats, imperfect as we are, are on the side of reducing the diminishment of our society.
The American people want to be able to murder the likes of the clearly guilty people like John Allen Muhamed. Do you think that we should sacrifice one single fed, clothed, housed, and cared-for child's worth of potential improvement of our world by taking a principled stand against the execution of the likes of John Allen Muhamed?
I don't. I am diminished by this, and I diminish you by this. I think that we've earned our diminishment fair and square, and let the chips fall where they may. I'll concentrate on other issues, thanks.
There's one argument I'll make against the execution of a man or women clearly guilty of a capital crime who does not have a compelling defense that they were not responsible for their actions.
Do you know what that argument is?
It's not that "killing anyone is wrong." How many people is my country killing today, at home and abroad?
No, it's that "killing people is expensive." It requires so much work, so many appeals, to try to determine -- and necessarily imperfectly -- that we are only executing the truly deserving.
Do you know what I like about that argument?
It makes conservatives the big spenders. It puts them in a bind. And by doing so, it can help elect elect more and better Democrats who might help to alleviate all of those other problems I mention above.
If God tells me, once I day, that I am wrong, I will tell him that he should have built an easier puzzle.
But what of John Allen Muhamed, the man of the hour, whose guilt was not at issue?
Well, if there is a Hell, John Allen Muhamed, you can go to it. You're God's problem now.
But if you think that the diminishment of our society, as an act of the popular will, by the murder of John Allen Muhamed diminishes us in any appreciable way -- that it's more than a molecule of water in the national bucket -- then I have news for you:
Wise up. You're not cynical enough.
UPDATE: The link to JR's excellent diary in my tip jar is wrong; use this one!