Arkansas' governor is now rushing to execute inmates on Death Row before the shelf-life of a drug runs out. It's one of the drugs--potassium chloride--used to put a prisoner to death. Why the rush to fatal judgment? Can this be the same Asa Hutchinson who once patiently waited out a besieged bunch of crazies till they left their fortress peacefully and, most important, alive?
It's a complicated process, putting the condemned to death by the state, and should be. Which may explain why Arkansas hasn't executed a prisoner since 2005. To quote the governor, "I certainly would expect to set dates before January, absolutely. It's been way too long and painful for the victims and their families, and so we would set the dates without any undue delay. ... It's my job as chief executive to faithfully execute the laws." The Hon. Asa Hutchinson did not bother to mention that it's also his duty not to execute prisoners when circumstances call for mercy instead of vengeance. For there is such a thing as due delay, too. Else, what is the governor's power to commute sentences for?
At a time when the Party of Lincoln is becoming the Party of Trump on the national level, why shouldn't the state party become the party of Winthrop Rockefeller again? Win Rockefeller never did a better, more life-affirming deed than when he commuted the sentences of every prisoner on Death Row to life. He did so openly, publicly, proudly. Not in secret.
These days, on the principle that even a blind hog can find an acorn now and then, a flamboyant circuit judge named Wendell Griffen ruled sections of a state law unconstitutional. Namely, those sections of the law that keep secret the supplier of a drug used in executions (vecuronium bromide). But it shouldn't take the common law, just common sense, to tell the rest of us that any public policy that must be carried out in secret may have something shameful about it. There are times when the state must act in secret, such as wartime, but this is decidedly not one of them. Unfortunately, the state Supreme Court reversed Judge Griffen's decision.
What ever happened to the biblical commandment--Choose Life!--in a culture that now is inclined to choose death instead? This culture of death not only sanctions abortions by the millions, but one of its leading figures can calmly set the price of an unborn child's body parts while enjoying a nice glass of wine and a good meal. The whole spectacle is beyond callous. In this Year of Our Lord 2016 A.D., cruel and unusual punishment seems to have become routine and usual. Welcome to Rome, 100 A.D. And our own Sanhedrin, formally the General Assembly of Arkansas, has happily cooperated with the governor in this danse macabre.
Is an old principle of religion--simple reverence for life--to be replaced by this love affair with death? Just think of how the right to die is being marketed these days. As if our lives were just one more piece of property we're free to dispose of at will. It's not. For our lives, and these prisoners' lives, are a divine gift. No, not a one of these prisoners may turn out to be the next Birdman of Alcatraz, but that doesn't mean each of their lives is worthless. What man dare take it, and in a rush at that?
Editorial on 07/20/2016