An old friend was lying in a hospital bed, recovering from one of those indeterminate ailments that afflict the human body as it ages, when she received news that her six-year-old grand-niece in Florida had been raped and murdered.
        "I've spent most of my life opposing capital punishment," my friend mused. "But something like this makes me so angry, I wonder if I was right."
        Now, I'm sure she doesn't. She wonders, yes. But she doesn't doubt her lifelong stand against capital punishment, in principle. There are far too many instances of people being wrongly executed.
        You can free a wrongly imprisoned person; you can't undo an execution.
        Someone assured me the other day that up to 40 percent of people convicted of murder would have been exonerated, if DNA testing had been available at the time.
        An investigative series in the Mercury News, in Santa Clara county, California, concluded that one-third of all convictions were based on "questionable conduct."

Confession
        Nor is "lock him up and throw away the key" an acceptable alternative.
        Because my friend's question is not really about the courts or about punishment. It's about recognizing our own feelings. Personally, when I hear about ruthless brutality – against children, against animals, against social or racial groups – I can taste the rage rising in my throat.
        Bit if sheer rage – an implacable desire to see someone punished – justifies capital punishment, I'm not sure where I would stop. With individual rape and murder? With drug trafficking? Military genocide? Mindless graffiti and thoughtless vandalism?
        I don't have much doubt that the world would be better off without those who commit such acts. At the very least, that kind of behaviour demonstrates an anti-social lack of respect for the well-being of others.
        What I'm not as sure about is whether the world is better off with those who are willing to dispose of its misfits, like putting them out with the garbage.
        Once you accept the principle that some people are expendable, where do you stop? With political dissenters? With seniors who have outlived their usefulness? With nosy neighbours?

Assurance
        Unfortunately, the concept of getting rid of the bad guys is entrenched in most of our religious beliefs. The good will eventually go to heaven; the bad will go to hell. In theory, only God can make that decision. But a lot of people seem sure they have a right to speak for God.
        Even the legal constitution of the United Church of Canada states that "the finally impenitent go away into eternal punishment…"
        I may have believed that once. I don't any more. Because I don't believe that anyone is ever beyond the reach of God's grace.
        Do I have more knowledge, and better judgement, than God? If I don't, then I cannot argue that any person, no matter how heinous his offences, is so worthless as to be put away forever.
        Which is why I must continue to oppose the death penalty, no matter how heinous the crime.