Today Brandon Rhode was set to die. Before the state could take his life, he chose to attempt to take his own.
To be clear, I am wholeheartedly against capital punishment. Both as a casual criminologist and morally. Often people say that must be because I have never been a victim of crime or known a murder victim. That is not the case. My sister's best friend, a close family friend, was murdered. I was against the death penalty before her death and I am still against it after I help my sister pick up the pieces. I will never advocate the killing of another human being, no matter the wrong they have done. It serves no purpose, it deters no crime.
And then there's the possibility of executing an innocent person. I thought the criminal justice system believed it is better to let a thousand men go free, than incarcerate one innocent person. Guess not. Maybe that only exists in my idealistic mind. My freshman year of college, I had the opportunity to hear Sister Helen Prejean speak and one quote stuck with me to this day. "What if we were all judged by the worst thing we had ever done." Though the rehabilitation of people on death row can be debated. The most cynical arguing that everyone "finds religion" in jail but society is not helped, only harmed by the use of capital punishment in the United States. All of the world is looking at us and how does this make us look?
If I ran television stations, I would play The Life and Times of David Gale on a day like today. To force whomever is watching to see how easily an innocent person can be executed.
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