Mortality and Morality

I’ve spent much of the last couple of months focusing on the excitement of the prospect of bringing another member into mine and my family’s loving arms. This new life, new person, new member focus has been an uplifting testament to the true belief in innocence and good in the world. Much of my home life and personal discussion time with my family and close friends revolves around this topic and the expectation of good things in the future. I’m thankful for this positivity, for as all of this occurs, much of my scholarly life has not proven to be on such a positive level.

I’m currently doing research for my American Government Topic Statement, which could eventually evolve into a thesis statement for a dissertation at a much later date; and in all honesty I’m becoming more and more disenchanted with the notion of the good in all people. I have been spending much of my time researching the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and how their applications to state laws have affected the implementation of capital punishment. Much of the argument against the death penalty has been incited by extreme social abhorrence for the very principle of putting someone to death.

The Supreme Court actually ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional in the case of Furman v. Georgia (1972) citing for their reasons an extreme shift of the opinions of society as to the “cruel and unusual” aspect of the amendment. Basically, all five concurring Justices were of the belief that the death penalty was “incompatible with the evolving standards of decency in a contemporary society.” Public opinion polls were used as tools to bolster this ruling, and in an unusually rare occurrence, public opinion swayed, nay, altered the general understanding of the 8th and 14th amendments entirely.

Here’s where my morals start coming under fire… As much as I’d like to say that my support for the death penalty has dwindled in the past years because I too am a compassionate human being and I do not find it to be an acceptable method to humanely carry out justice, I cannot admit to such sentiments. While in fact, I believe that there should be a moratorium placed on the death penalty once again, it is not because I care so much for the rights of the condemned.

I feel absolutely horrible saying this, but my issue is on a much more personal, selfish level. “Nationally, during a 23-year study period, the overall rate of prejudicial error in the American capital punishment system was 68%.” This intolerable number boils down to this even more insufferable idea… “[C]ourts found serious, reversible error in nearly 7 of every 10 of the thousands of capital sentences that were fully reviewed during the period.” (Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995) Such deplorable numbers have not swayed my consciousness completely from one side to another for any other reason than the simple self preservation notion.

It seems that it would be horrible Karma for me to continue blindly supporting a method which has such a high rate of proven error involved in it. What if I somehow ended up finding myself as an innocent facing the possibility of capital punishment? I can’t even imagine how helpless one must feel in such a situation—unfortunately for many; this has proven to be a reality. It is unacceptable that my conditional support or lack of support of the death penalty is deeply rooted in my own personal irrational fears. My thinking is clouded and I find myself becoming very emotional over this topic.

I am not going soft, for there are many people out there who I not only feel deserve to die, but deserve to die with a tortuous end to their existence. There is one such man living half a mile away from me. He was convicted of aggravated child molestation which is defined under section 16-6-4 of Georgia Law as: “A person commits the offense of aggravated child molestation when such person commits an offense of child molestation which act physically injures the child or involves an act of sodomy.” I am of the belief that this particular breed of monster should experience tremendous pain before they receive a slow dispatch from this life into their afterlife which if there is any justice will be spent in infinite pain for all eternity.

You see, I’m a hypocrite, one of the worst kinds. It would be so easy for me to jump on the humane train and tout my reasoning for the evolution of my beliefs as one which falls within the “humane” argument, and the fact that I’m tempted to do so attests to my hypocrisy. If only it weren’t for the simple fact that I wish the imposition of such a permanent and irrevocable punishment on a whole new faction of society, my abilities to ride away into the sunset upon my new found vehicle would be possible—but alas, I’m stuck here, in reality, fully aware that I have not become more evolved, I have simply become pickier in my bloodlust.