The Valley Catholic
commentary
moral theology
Fatally flawed:
How America kills its criminals
By Father Gerald D. Coleman, SS
“Never repay injury with injury... I will repay, says the Lord.”
(Romans 12:17-21) The “sense of faith of the faithful” (sensus fidei fidelis) does not agree.
Sixty-four percent of people, Catholics included, favor capital punishment. Writing
for The Wire.com, Arit John comments, “Most people don’t care if convicted murderers
suffer. In fact, some prefer it that way.”
How we treat criminals says a lot about us as a society. We need to administer
justice with due consideration for victims of crime. Capital punishment, however,
erodes our sense of the innate dignity of every human person.
Those who support the death penalty primarily see it as a way to deter the most
horrendous crimes. They generally insist, though, that criminals are entitled to a
“dignified end.” The dominant “dignified” method of execution throughout the 19th
century was a combination of the electric chair, the firing squad,
methods eventually
the advent of
‘Executions or hanging. These to be a more modernled toto kill cleanly. the gas
chamber, thought
way
are
The 20th and 21st centuries have given rise to execution by lethal injection. The standard method used is a combination of three
intrinsically
drugs: a sedative, often sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide
immoral.’ as a paralytic agent, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Some
states have enacted “secrecy laws” guaranteeing anonymity to suppliers of these lethal-injection drugs.
Protocol recommends that the best procedure for lethal injection is to connect
an intravenous line into the convict’s arm. These days, however, these drugs and
recommended procedures are anything but uniform. Drugs have sometimes been
used that have reached their expiration date and last-minute decisions are made to
switch drug methods. A cavalier attitude oftentimes prevails. One expert in criminal
sentencing comments, “What’s the big deal, as long as the guy ends up dead.”
At times, untested drug combinations from unknown suppliers are used, in
some cases prison wardens buying drugs from pharmacies under their own name.
Use of untested drug combinations from unknown suppliers increases the chances
of inhumane deaths and violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment in the
Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. High profile cases are examples:
• On January 9, Oklahoma injected convicted murderer Michael Lee Wilson
with a combination of pentobarbital, vecuronium bromide, and potassium chloride. Before dying. Wilson said, “I feel my whole body burning.”
• On January 16, Dennis McGuire entered the execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correction Facility.
An IV was placed in each arm near the elbow joint. The
execution began at 10:27 a.m. as 10 mg of hydromorphone entered his veins. He tried to break free of the
straps, arching his back and pushing his wrists and
head against the gurney. He kept thrashing and making loud gurgling noises, appearing to be drowning.
At 10:50 a.m. he stopped moving and was pronounced
dead at 10:55 a.m.
• On April 29, Oklahoma executed Clayton Lockett. After seeming to pass out, he opened his eyes and
started mumbling and thrashing against the gurney.
Believing that he would survive, the warden sought to
have the execution stayed and resumed at a later date.
But 43 minutes after the execution began, Lockett died
of a heart attack.
• In July, when expiration dates had expired for the
lethal combination of drugs, Arizona’s Corrections
Department deviated from its protocol and switched
drug methods. The convicted murderer Joseph R. Wood
III took nearly two hours to die, during which time he
received 13 more doses of lethal drugs than the two
doses set out by the state’s rules.
Executioners often have no medical training and
have virtually unlimited discretion to deviate from state
guidelines and protocols.
Executions have become medical nightmares. They
create a second class of victims. They constitute unethical
and inhumane procedures and demonstrate the same
level of disrespect for human life as abortion, infanticide,
genocide, and trafficking in women, children and men.
In Catholic moral parlance, executions are intrinsically immoral and cannot ever be permitted or tolerated.
• Father Gerald Coleman, SS, a moral theologian, serves
as Vice President of Corporate Ethics for the Daughters of
Charity Health System.
September 9, 2014
17
guest commentary
The Gift of Consolation
By Gregory R. Kepferle
Recently a friend experienced a sudden illness. He had the
best of care at a top rate hospital, but surgery was unsuccessful
and he died, surrounded by loved ones. John was a healer, a
spiritual thinker and writer, gentle and caring. While saddened
by his death, I remember him with gladness and know that I am
a better person because o