Oct. 17, 2007

The deceit of capital punishment

What I learned when I witnessed the brutality of an execution

By John F. Sugg, Creative Loafing

(photo: EXECUTIONER'S SONG: "Tiny" Davis was the last man electrocuted in
Florida. As in Georgia, officials claimed the electric chair was "humane.")

It's too bad Albert Camus isn't alive and visiting Atlanta. The great French
thinker would understand precisely what is going on when Georgia officials
proclaim that it's just dandy to kill murderers Jack Alderman and Curtis
Osborne this month -- even though the U.S. Supreme Court is considering
whether the method of dispatching the miscreants is unconstitutional.

Russ Willard, spokesman for Attorney General Thurbert Baker, declared that
the executions are de rigueur because there are "no judicially entered stays
prohibiting" them. Interpreted: Kill 'em all, and let God sort out whether
the state murders were constitutional.

"People write of capital punishment as if they were whispering," Camus told
us a half-century ago. I'd add that some folks, such as Willard, substitute
the obfuscation of bureaucratese for the hushed tones Camus decried. For me,
I'll side with Camus, who proclaimed, "It is my intention to talk about it
crudely."

That's why this column includes a very crude photograph. Allen Lee "Tiny"
Davis – a loathsome man who brutally murdered a Jacksonville mom and her two
daughters – was the last person executed in Florida's "Old Sparky" electric
chair. Florida had secretly photographed executions for years, and this
picture became public only when state Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw, an
ardent death-penalty foe who is now retired, attached it to an opinion.

As a witness to the 1999 event, I watched Davis' head cook and heard him
bellow twice in agony as he died. I sat stunned as blood oozed from under
the leather mask that choked and partially asphyxiated the condemned man,
and I saw more blood erupt on his chest after 2,300 volts began to sizzle
through his twitching body. I recoiled in horrific nausea as he continued to
breathe for several minutes after the current was turned off.

Florida officials, like Georgia's, always maintained that the electric chair
was humane. It's not as though they didn't know about Old Sparky. Florida
for decades had been famous for its sandy beaches, sunny skies and
flaming-head executions. After Davis' demise, officials sought a nicer way
to kill people. Georgia followed suit.

Proponents of the death penalty should acknowledge that there is no
justification for the gruesome spectacles. We're not delivering justice;
we're descending to the moral level of killers, and quite likely murdering a
few innocent people. When the condemned dies, each of us becomes a version
of Tiny Davis because the state represents us.

Death-penalty states in 2005 had a 46 percent higher murder rate than states
that have banned legal homicide. That spread has increased steadily. In
1990, death penalty states' murder rate was only 4 percent greater than
no-execution states. So, claims of "deterrence" are dangerously delusional.

Some so-called Christian fundamentalists in the Atlanta area seriously
advocate a return to stoning and burning for not only murder but also for
"crimes" such as being gay. They can't point to any message from Jesus that
sanctions his followers to kill their fellows. The ultimate irony is that
Christ was history's most famous victim of capital punishment. I can
certainly see Satan pushing the poison plunger, flipping the switch or
dropping the trapdoor – I can't see Jesus doing the same. Did God execute
Cain? No, he spared him.

Reason and religion aside, let's not forget that 124 condemned prisoners in
25 states have escaped the executioner after proof of their innocence
materialized. In August, Troy Davis – who was sentenced to death despite an
appalling lack of hard evidence – just barely escaped Georgia's death
chamber, at least temporarily.

Officials across the nation have adopted poisoning, also known as "lethal
injection." It is said to be painless, although anyone who could give
authoritative testimony on that point is beyond conversation. Critics
contend that the chemicals likely cause extreme agony. But, since one of the
trio of lethal drugs injected into the condemned induces paralysis, the
awful pain is undetectable to everyone except, of course, the guest of
honor.

So we can understand why Camus' wisdom would be so applicable in Georgia
today. He wrote: "If people are shown the machine, made to touch the wood
and steel and to hear the sound of a head falling, then public imagination,
suddenly awakened, will repudiate ... the penalty."

Do you get it? The problem with executions is public relations. It's not
whether we torture or whether that torture is constitutional; it's the
public perception that counts. Speak softly about executions, remove them
from the town square to hidden chambers, paralyze the condemned to project
an illusion of peaceful passing – and citizens don't have to confront the
awful brutality that they, by proxy, have committed.

But then we have these annoying "activist" judges who spoil the fun. The
U.S. Supreme Court has decided to rule on the constitutionality of poisoning
criminals. A number of states – including execution-record-holder Texas –
have called moratoriums on the death penalty until the justices rule. But
not Georgia.

That outrage follows an incredible series in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution last month that exposed bias and unpredictability in
the application of the death penalty. The series also revealed that the
Georgia Supreme Court often uses overturned cases to justify upholding death
sentences. That's "justice"?

Georgia's Republican leadership, and many Democrats, needn't be dismayed. If
poisoning is declared verboten, there are many other means. Sure, they'll be
equally cruel, but it will take the courts a few years to rule.

Here are some suggestions, ripped from the rich history of executions:
stoning, clubbing, "pressing" with heaving stones, stretching on the rack,
breaking on the wheel, drawing and quartering à la Braveheart.

There's also drowning, shredding, starving. Almost certainly
unconstitutional, but a heck of a lot of fun: impalement.

We could boil, al dente in water, or fry extra crispy in oil. Or slowly
roast. Flaying would allow the condemned to ponder his sins for a day or
more.

Beheading? Absolutely a contender. A cheer for the French doctor Joseph
Ignace Guillotin. Garroting and hanging. Gassing and the firing squad are
always candidates.

OK, you've guessed my point. There is no humane way to kill someone.
Politicians know that. But we're talking about winning elections. And the
Grim Reaper is a great vote-getter.

A Georgia case reinstated the death penalty in America. Read about it at:
Amnesty USA: "30th Anniversary of Gregg vs. Georgia: The beginning of the
modern era of America's Death Penalty"

A federal profile of condemned prisoners is at:
U.S. Department of Justice: Capital Punishment Statistics

And a Georgia study is at:
Georgia Department of Corrections Study

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Source : Creative Loafing

The deceit of capital punishment: What I learned when I witnessed the brutality of an execution: Metropolis: Columns: Creative Loafing Atlanta

Gut wrenching.

-Ray

Thanks for sharing that... it really does make me sad.