Timothy McVeigh is gone and done with. The lethal injection did end his life but did not put an end to the controversy surrounding the broader issue of capital punishment and the circumstances that preceded this execution.
That McVeigh received a fair trial is not in dispute. The government proved its case in the court, asked for death penalty and the courts obliged. It was the lynch-mob mentality on the part of the government and certain pro-death-penalty groups that still cloud the case and beg for some introspection.
First the conduct of attorney general John Ashcroft. By inviting the victims’ families to witness execution, the attorney general blurred the line between justice and revenge. There might have been need on the part of some of them to witness the evil man put to death but a great majority of them did not want any part of it. The argument that in order to bring closure to their agony the families had to witness the execution does not wash. A full three-fourth of the 1000 invited relatives decided not to come. A good number of them, despite their tremendous loss, spoke against the execution. An execution, and a public one at that, is neither a deterrent for potential murderers nor a means to bring a closure for the victims’ families.
By making Timothy McVeigh’s execution partially public the attorney general acted no different than the vengeful Taliban mullahs in Afghanistan who kill the condemned in full view of public. Perhaps we should call our fundamentalist attorney general Mullah Ashcroft. The incidents at Ruby Ridge and Wacco, the catalysts for McVeigh to blow up Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, continue to gnaw at the national conscience. The government’s record in handling those two stand- offs was less than honorable. The deceit, the cover up and subsequent out right lying has further discredited the government. To brush off the likes of Timothy McVeigh, and there are plenty of that kind around, as insignificant fringe elements is a terrible and often fatal mistake. Such expediency is a short cut to Ruby Ridge and Wacco. Back to the core issue of capital punishment in this country. Ours is the only industrialized country that still practices capital punishment. Some how we are not able to extricate ourselves from the shackles of our wild- west mentality of killing at the drop of the hat. Granted, we no longer erect make shift hanging platforms in town squares and provide a carnival atmosphere around executions. The hangman’s noose has yielded to an aseptic, surgically precise lethal injection to do the killing but the intent and the purpose remain the same.
The debate over capital punishment is old and arguments fairly predictable. But apart from the moral dimensions of killing to avenge killing, one also has to look at the significant issues of race, wrongful conviction and the less than commendable zeal of self-promoting prosecutors who demand death penalty to score points with the public. Blacks constitute 15% of the population in this country but a staggering 50% of the death row inmates are blacks. Our justice system is based on the premise of fairness to the victim as well as to the accused. How fair are we to when botched up investigations and cooked up evidence results in wrongful conviction? Not to mention incompetent lawyers who end up defending such criminals. Shouldn’t we take note that a number of death row inmates have been spared sure execution because of DNA evidence?
These facts have compelled the State of Illinois to put all future executions on hold. The cause and premise of a civil society will only be served when the entire country would follow suit and put an end to this tit for tat barbaric practice.