The Death Penalty

I am against the death penalty.  I will discuss that further along in this blog.  I live in a state, Texas, that executes as many if not more people than any other state in the United States.  I work as a contract worker for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).  I am a social worker. I work for Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, which has a contract through Correctional Managed Health Care to provide services to TDCJ.

I understand that TDCJ is charged with housing offenders on death row, and executing their death sentences as prescribed by law.  I understand that TDCJ is charged with these tasks.  I have understand that TDCJ has to follow the law. I have every moral objection to the law..

I have an objection with the legislators and voters of the State of Texas who have voted in and continue to support the death penalty.

There are many reasons I oppose the death penalty.  One is the very possibility of what happened in Oklahoma on April 29, 2014 http://www.npr.org/2014/04/30/308377785/botched-oklahoma-execution-mobilizes-death-penalty-opponents. The drugs did not act as they should have, and even the offender said that something was wrong.  He later died of a heart attack, after an agonizing time of reaction to the drugs.

Over the past few years, drug companies who make the drugs used in the lethal injections for death penalties have decreased or eliminated the availability of these drugs.  While I find that admirable, I am aware that these same drug companies make unimaginable profits on drugs that are essential to the lives of many people, sometimes pricing those drugs out of reach of the patients who need them, thus giving them death penalties.  I know that there are some assistance programs from drug companies who help people who cannot afford their medications.  But this is very complex and requires some help to negotiate the system.  But, it is there

But this is just one of my objections to the death penalty.

My objection to the death penalty is on a larger, wider, moral scale.   I think that no matter how heinous the crime, how despicable the person, how habitual the offense, it is not up to me or any other human being to decide that this person should die.  I find "playing god" offensive to my sense of what is moral and ethical.

I think that I can say this with some sense of equanimity.  I have dealt with people who are murderers, child rapers, abusers of the elderly, arsonists, animal abusers.  No matter how despicable  their crimes were, or how despicable their behaviors are, I am reminded over and over again that the offenders are still human beings.  My faith, my belief in humanity, my social work code of ethics reminded me that they are human beings who deserve dignity and respect in my professional interaction with them.

It is not up to me to decide if this person lives or dies. That is beyond my purview as a social worker in my current job position. I know I could not serve on a jury panel in a trial in which the defendant faced the death penalty.

Years ago, I was doing groups at my place of employment, and a very controversial execution was in the news. The offenders in this group wanted to talk about that, and not the topic of the day, so we discussed the execution.  The general consensus of these offenders was that it is not up to the state or the court system to decide the death penalty. It should be up to the offender. They were in agreement that some crimes should be punished by life and by life without parole. But they said it should be up to the offender if he wanted his life ended by a death penalty.  They were not talking about suicidality. They were talking about taking a choice of death over life long punishment.

Frankly, I would have a better time accepting that option than the state mandated death penalty, imposed by judge or jury.  I have met offenders who know that because of the length of their sentence, they will never leave prison alive.  That is a depressing and discouraging acknowledgement of their life circumstances.  It is understandable that they are depressed, and see no way out of their depression.  

My job is to help them to find what their role of life in prison is:  to help younger offenders deal with accepting or adjusting to incarceration; to help other lifers find their place and role in prison; to find their peace and place with their maker, to improve themselves as persons so they rise above the person who committed their crime.  I don't know. There may be other roles these offenders might have to find or develop to address their reason for life in prison.

I am so inadequate at helping a long term or life term offender find his role for his life in prison.  I cannot define it for him. I can think of things that might help: getting involved in prison ministries; teaching other offenders, especially in terms of good decision making and understanding consequences; peer support of offenders; changing thinking to be compliant with accepted social rules. 

The whole point of this blog is that we, as human beings have no right to decide that someone should suffer the death penalty, no matter how heinous his crime, no matter how "humane" the administration of the means of death.

Life is sacred. Life a miracle. The giving and taking of life is a function beyond my capacity as a human being. It is a function of my higher power, my God, my maker. It is not a function held by man, although mankind acts as if it is.