The Death Penalty: Murder and The Angel's Message

The Atlanta courthouse murders illustrate why the death penalty doesn't work. Brian Nichols was not deterred. If anything, he became motivated. Killing him only adds to the death toll and an attitude that killing is a solution. It seems apparent from the manner in which he was captured that the cause of his actions was not moral but mental. Whatever combination of elements in his life and mind was broken, Ashley Smith, the hostage who was able to connect with him through the heart, demonstrated much more about what our society needs.

When we establish a standard of a death penalty, we do not deter murder. Data over many years show that more homicides occur where there is a death penalty than where there is not. There are certainly circumstances where one must defend oneself, and many conditions under which aggression arises naturally, but to willfully engage in cold and calculated killing, as State-sanctioned executions are, does nothing but communicate that might is valued more than virtue.

Whether in Atlanta, or Iraq, we need to learn the deeper lessons of nonviolence. We cannot prevent all causes of violence or violent behavior, but we can cease to perpetuate our own evil. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shiite Muslim leader in Iraq who has counseled his people to not take revenge, to not attack either Sunni or Americans, has done more to further real progress there than anything America did by our invasion. We made his task harder. Ironically, he has done more to demonstrate the lessons of Jesus than any of the so-called Christians who so fervantly supported our invasion of a country that was not responsible for the 9-11 attacks. Those who were actually responsible got a lesson from our actions that they should continue doing what they are doing.

This is the same lesson murderers get from the death penalty. Many have said so. Too often, people with suicidal impulses engage in capital offenses so they will be killed by someone else. Why should we continue to feed their illness? It then becomes our illness. Let us learn the true lesson from the Atlanta hostage, whom the killer himself described as "an angel." An angel is a messenger. When will we hear the message?