Irish are right to slam U.S. on death penalty

Troy Davis execution was truly barbaric

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The death penalty is outlawed in Ireland

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In the same vein, Justice Scalia has opined that “for the non-believer . . . to deprive a man of his life is to end his existence.”  This, the argument goes, explains why non-believers are more opposed to capital punishment.  Ms. O’Brien equally cynically, yet quite presciently, responds: “[E]vidently, in Scalia’s universe, because you despatch the guilty to their maker, judicial killing is no biggie, a view distinctly at odds with his own faith tradition, Catholicism.”

Each columnist – one an atheist and the other a believer, one from the left and the other from the right – was prompted to reflect upon capital punishment by the circumstances of the Troy Davis case, but reaches the same overarching conclusion on the issue. 

The death penalty is wrong, regardless of the circumstances.  Ms. O’Brien closes her column by observing that “‘you can’t fight murder with murder’, a fact my ten year old is also able to grasp.  Unfortunately, the US looks unlikely to grasp it anytime soon.”

Mr. Clarke and Ms. O’Brien’s agreement on the issue, coupled with the general consensus against capital punishment in Ireland, prompted my own reflection. What in the American psyche, belief system and culture engenders a climate where capital punishment is allowed by law in a significant number of states and where some public officials actually measure their success by the number of executions carried out under their watch?  What is so appealing about a distinctly Old Testament, “eye for an eye,” primordial meting out of “justice?”

To be sure, in the United States, heinous murders take place on a daily basis and people lose their lives.  American society is violent – far more violent than Irish society.  The families and friends of those who senselessly and tragically die understandably and justifiably want those who have robbed them of a precious human person to be punished. 

But statistics indicate that the death penalty does not have a deterrent effect.  It costs a lot of taxpayer money to execute people.  Extraordinary advances in forensic science have demonstrated the all too real possibility of executing the innocent.  Above everything else, the death penalty does not and cannot bring the victim back.

These factors have combined to lead state legislatures to repeal death penalty statutes in some states.  State and federal courts have considered these factors, together with nuanced constitutional arguments and international legal instruments, and struck down death penalty statutes in other states.  The trend is away from capital punishment in the United States, yet it persists.

And my question about what makes the death penalty acceptable to so many Americans, including an otherwise progressive president, persists. It is only when, or if, a deeper, collective discussion of the ultimate sanction in the United States occurs and the rather unpleasant truths that this discussion will inevitably unearth are further thrashed out openly and honestly that we are likely to see an end to the practice of capital punishment in sight.

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