The malevolent love affair between Alabama’s criminal justice system and death row leaves nothing but desolation in its wake. There is no room for an altar of mercy, or redemption, or humanness; because both the perpetrators and victims have been swept up in a cycle of viciousness. The incarcerated are deprived of life under the guise of criminality-- despite the determining factors of poverty, inadequate counsel, judge override, unaccounted innocence, and deeply rooted racial bias (“Alabama’s Death Penalty," 2020). To put it plainly: the scales of justice in Alabama hold no reverence, and have certainly never been blind.
Alabama may stand alone among the states, baring the highest rate of people sentenced to death row at .956 per every 100,000 (“Alabama’s Death Penalty," 2020) -- but nevertheless is heavily accompanied in its twisted application of the law. The state is merely following the footsteps of its superior; with America, too, standing alone on the world stage as one of the few authorities that still sanctions the death penalty as a form of punishment. There is much to say about the justice system in Alabama; but to me it seems that the terrifyingly vulnerable question this reality uproots, is an inquiry into the soul of the nation that has allowed its warped ideologies to flourish. We are the ones that provided a resting place for its dysfunction: we gave it a crib built on broken shoulder blades and cracked whips, and crocheted its blanket with slave labor, while lulling it into dissonance with Jim Crow’s makeshift melodies and fragmented nursery rhymes. More real than anything else is the essential revelation regarding us: the people leading their lives in the midst of it all. Who are we, and what have we become while trapped in the dehumanization of those we deem criminal?
The excessive nature of the death penalty cannot exist without drastically chipping away at the society it survives within. In addition to depriving the indicted of breath, and a chance to pay penance through restorative methods -- it also demolishes “the human capacities of those of us in whose name the punishment is publicly inflicted” (Steiker, 2005). Though the notion of killing in order to pay retribution comes from some semblance of sympathy for victims, it is completely overrun by the cruelty that powers electric chairs and flows through lethal injections (Steiker, 2005). To elaborate, the presence of extreme suffering intermingled with feelings of righteousness creates an atmosphere contradictory to human inclinations towards empathy and compassion (Steiker, 2005). Meaning, the death of our benevolence stands within the manufactured link between moral satisfaction (“justice”), and calculated executions (Steiker, 2005). This form of punishment not only permits, but requires, a weakened psychological constraint against maliciousness and brutality (Steiker, 2005). The death penalty, at its core, forces us to engage in warfare between our burning desire to set ourselves apart from those we would rather not see, and our ability to see ourselves in everyone around us.
That being said, while we grapple, there are those who are severely affected. Anthony Ray Hinton, author of The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, fought discrimination and false murder charges while on Alabama death row for 30 years before his exoneration. He writes, “The death penalty is an enemy of grace, redemption and all who value life and recognize that each person is more than their worst act” (Hinton, 2019). The words of Hinton bring to fruition this nation’s greatest test: the stride towards mercy, and a reckoning that demands enough redemption for us all. It seems to me that the story of Alabama is one we share; and the experiences of Anthony Hinton and so many others serve as a witness to what we have become. Now, we aim to fight for each other's humanness. Now, there is nothing to do but inevitably let light in -- to stand in the sun -- or, the fire next time (Baldwin, 1964).
References
Alabama's Death Penalty. Equal Justice Initiative. (2020, April 8). https://eji.org/issues/alabama-death-penalty/.
Baldwin, J. (1964). The Fire Next Time. Penguin Books in association with Michael Joseph.
Hinton, A. R., & Hardin, L. L. (2019). The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row. Rider Books.
Steiker, C. (2005). No, Capital Punishment Is Not Morally Required: Deterrence, Deontology, and the Death Penalty. Stanford Law Review, 58(3), 751-789. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40040280
Comments