An odd thing happened on March 27 at the State House during a committee hearing on bills to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts. No one, not even the bills' sponsors, showed up to argue for the death penalty. What a drastic change from just a few years ago when such a hearing would be standing room only and charged with tension and drama, anticipating votes on the floor of the House and Senate too close to call.
What happened? Maybe, as one speaker put it, "the death penalty is an idea whose time has gone". Perhaps, as evident when relatives of murder victims described to the committee their own journey from proponent to opponent, we as a society are discovering that killing the killer doesn't kill the pain. Bud Welch, whose daughter died in the Oklahoma City bombing, said his epiphany came when he realized that his daughter's death resulted from the very same emotions of revenge and hate on the part of the bombers that he harbored against them.
Could it be the emerging awareness of the death penalty's steep financial costs? Compelling testimony from criminologists and economists from across the country revealed that states with the death penalty ultimately end up using more tax dollars than those states without it. It's not as simple as measuring the relative costs of keeping murderers for years in prison as opposed to shortening their lives by the death penalty. Rather, death penalty cases up the ante as prosecutors and defense lawyers spend more of the state's money to pursue every legal avenue. Far more often than not, the state's request for the death penalty is denied and the convicted ends up spending life in prison anyway.
In the end, maybe the clamor for the death penalty has died because the legislative votes are not there anymore. Everyone knew before the hearing that the last two election cycles have brought in many more opponents than proponents, and some veteran legislators have recently changed their minds. The Joint Committee on Criminal Justice has not yet voted on H. 319, H. 3295, S. 193, or S. 194, although the committee is expected to recommend their defeat. Governor Mitt Romney plans to submit his own death penalty proposal later this term as part of a comprehensive package of crime-fighting proposals.
The Massachusetts Catholic Conference opposes the reinstatement of the death penalty.
Massachusetts Catholic Conference www.macathconf.org