Passionate Potpourri

Some crimes are so heinous that it is difficult to accept the idea of humans committing those acts. Many people feel that capital punishment, aka the death penalty, is appropriate for certain criminal acts.

Not everyone agrees with that philosophy.

Historically, the Navajo Nation and other Native American tribes have used capital punishment, but on their own terms. The Navajo Nation’s formal court system focuses on restorative, rather than punitive justice, using a centuries-old set of traditional laws that guide judges in their decisions.

“We believe that our system, our beliefs in how justice is administered, is better for us,” said former Navajo Nation Supreme Court Justice Herb Yazzie who added, “We resist these attempts to assimilate us into another way of thinking. We will always question them,” according to apnews.com, Aug. 27.

The execution of Lezmond Mitchell, 38, at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Aug. 26 prompted Justice Yazzie’s comments. Mitchell, a member of the Navajo Nation, was the fourth federal inmate executed this summer. He was the first Native American executed since the resumption of the federal death penalty in 1994.

Mitchell's death sentence drew fierce opposition from the leaders of the Navajo Nation and the leaders of 13 other tribal nations who criticized the federal government's actions as an insult to their sovereignty.

"This is an affront to our Nation because we should be the ones to decide these matters," the Navajo Nation said in a statement after the execution, according to cnn.com, Aug. 26.

Historically the U.S. judicial system has operated on the premise that the accused is innocent until proven guilty by a jury of peers and sentenced for punishment by the court.

America has a long history of “an eye for an eye” when meting out punishment.

Legal executions took place in the American colonies as early as 1630; and like England, the death penalty was imposed for many crimes, even minor ones such as picking pockets or stealing a loaf of bread. England and America gradually reduced the number of capital offenses and the focus became first-degree murder — murders showing deliberation, willfulness, and premeditation. Both countries eventually moved executions inside their prisons to eliminate the spectacle of public executions.

Protests over capital punishment in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in a gradual decline in the number of executions in this country.

Only two people were executed in 1967, and the following year saw the beginning of an unofficial moratorium on executions. States waited to see how the U.S. Supreme Court would rule on the constitutionality of capital punishment. The Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional in the 1972 case of Furman v. Georgia as it was then applied. No executions took place from 1968-76.

The most important recent case was Roper v. Simmons in 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute murderers who were under 18 when they committed the crime. The court declared such executions violated the Eighth Amendment. The 5–4 court majority pointed out that only two nations in the world allowed such executions — the United States and Somalia.

Seventeen states have banned executions. New York, which had prohibited the death penalty 30 years before, reinstated it in 1995. But the New York Court of Appeals struck down the law in 2004, and the state legislature has refused to pass a new death penalty law. New Jersey (2007), New Mexico (2009), Illinois (2011), and Connecticut (2012) recently joined the ranks of states without capital punishment. And in 2011, the governor of Oregon announced a moratorium on the death penalty in that state while he remained in office.

It was also noted that although 19 states permitted these executions, only three states had carried them out in the last decade, according to the Constitutional Rights Foundation in 2012.

Where do we draw the line on executing those who are “proven” guilty?

Incorrect identification by eyewitnesses was a factor in more than 70 percent of wrongful convictions, according to a study by the United States Department of Justice and United States Senate in conjunction with the Jewish Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York City.

This study contributed to the founding of the Innocence Project in1992. The non-profit organization assists prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing.

More than 365 people in the United States as of September 2019 have been exonerated by DNA testing. These prisoners had served an average of 13 years before exoneration and release. Twenty-five percent of prisoners who were eventually found innocent had confessed or admitted guilt during trial, according to https://cardozo.yu.edu/innocence-project.

We need to change the “eye for an eye” mentality that has been the major impetus for the death penalty in this country.

Executing the “guilty” leaves no room for proving innocence.

We cannot give someone back their life. The Native American system of restorative justice is much more compatible with our claim that we are a Christian nation.