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182 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
not to investigate who had murdered this child In other words, to send Gary
Nelson to death row was to say, “We care more about appearing to have gotten
somebody than we do about stopping the murderer of Valerie Armstrong.”
Gary Nelson got off death row. But the odds were more than likely that he
would have been executed. How often does a private lawyer with the skills and
commitment of an Emmet Bondurant volunteer to take a “hopeless” deathpenalty
case How many lawyers and law firms have half a million dollars’ worth
of time that they are willing to give for an indigent African American man condemned
to die
The death penalty raises hundreds of moral, ethical, practical, and religious
problems. It is part of a criminal-control system that is leading us farther away
from, rather than toward, a safe and just society.
I met a post-office employee in 1977 who looked hard at the button on my
jacket (“Why Do We Kill People Who Kill People to Show That Killing People
Is Wrong”). He said, “I only have one reason to oppose the death penalty.” He
went on to tell me of a man in the small Georgia town where he had grown up
who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to die. The prisoner was later exonerated
and, like Gary X. Nelson, released. “But the risk of making a mistake like
that,” said the man behind the counter, “is too much of a risk to take.” The man
in the post office was right. Everybody makes mistakes. When the life of a
human being is at stake, it’s too much of a risk.
What about the Victims by Murphy Davis
O c t o b e r 1 9 8 8
“But what about the victims!” is a question that comes often to those of us
who oppose the death penalty. The tone of the question varies, but whether
searching or hostile in tone, the question has always grieved me because of the
implied assumption that to oppose further violence is to be against those hurt
by crime and violence.
This is a very personal issue for us at the Open Door. Our life makes it impossible
to cut sharp lines between the victims and perpetrators of crime. We live
every day with those who suffer because of violent crime and those who suffer
because of the violent punishment of crime. The pressing question, it seems to
me, is how can we live in a way that brings healing to the broken victims and
that creates fewer victims