Death penalty panel: Can we move beyond vengeance?

Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing is wrong? Three panelists faced that question from different perspectives. Fr. Roger Karban began from a religious viewpoint, with reminders of Jesus' words, "turn the other cheek," and of Pope John Paul's statement, "The cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are rare if not practically nonexistent." Lena Woltering communicated the gulf of misunderstanding between middle and poverty class cultures, which helps "perpetuate some of the negative reactionary methods in which our society has operated for so long." Judge Sheila Murphy stated a tragic irony of our society: we have institutions for killing criminals, but "no institutional ways of healing them." She also gave a frightening statistic: in the first 12 years after the death penalty was reinstated, 100 criminals were executed. In the first 10 months of 1999, there were 82 executions.

The panelists concurred that the answer to America's violence problem does not lie in executing the offenders, but in something deeper, rooted in understanding ourselves, our society, and our spirits. One thing anyone can do is sign a Declaration of Life: a notarized statement that if you die as a victim of murder, you do not want your murderer executed. For a copy of the form, contact Woltering's Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity.