We don’t usually follow murder trials in the news. However, two local men have been convicted of a drug conspiracy and may face the death penalty. One of them was a student in my wife’s school. One of her colleagues is on the jury. As a result, we are following the trial closely.
This is not an argument about guilt or innocence or the justness of the death penalty. Rather, it is an argument that derives from my April 16 posting on Reconciliation and Forgiveness .
In that posting, I considered another case: a women asked how she could forgive a murderer who would not express remorse. I responded that I hoped that she would, if only because harboring resentment harms us. I cited the old proverb: “harboring resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other fellow to die”.
Here is a problem with the death penalty. With God’s grace we can forgive people who have harmed us but have never asked forgiveness. If we can’t, we should consider skipping the part of the Lord’s Prayer that says, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. If forgiveness is a challenge for us, reconciliation is even more difficult. It requires cooperation from the trespasser. For reconciliation to happen the trespasser must:
• Recognize and acknowledge that a harm has been done
• Experience remorse
• Request forgiveness
• Make amends, directly if possible, indirectly, if not.
If either of these men is executed before seeking forgiveness from the victim’s relatives, reconciliation will be impossible. One of them (according to the newspaper story) has begun to make amends by writing regularly to his daughter and attempting to be a better father to her. The death penalty will permanently remove whatever chance the criminal and the victims survivors have to be reconciled.
If I’m ever a candidate for a jury in a murder trial, I will say that I could vote for the death penalty – but it is not very likely.
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