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The VigilanceVoice

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Tuesday--
June 25, 2002—Ground Zero Plus 286

Who's In Charge Of Death?
by
Cliff McKenzie
Editor, New York City Combat Correspondent News
 
 

GROUND ZERO, New York City, June 25--The Supreme Court flipped to the other side of death's coin yesterday.  It took the decision of who is going to die out of the judge's hands and put it back in the jury's.

         The problem is that a dozen years ago the Supreme Court upheld the right of judges to be the "final factor" in deciding whether a convicted criminal should be given a life or death sentence.   Now, that's changed.   Juries hold the gun, not the judge.
         Focus of the issue is who is in charge of meting out a death sentence--the judge or the jury?   In Arizona, where the case originated, juries have no say in the sentencing.  It becomes the privilege of the judge to issue a life or death sentence.  Many other states provide an "advisory" system, where juries recommend to the judge either life or death, and the judge then chooses.

         Arguments against juries holding the power of life over death claimed that some juries were swayed emotionally from issuing a death sentence, whereas a judge was more immune to letting his "feelings" decide the ultimate verdict.
         Opponents chastised judges for being inured by their job to the coldness of making decisions such as a death penalty, and may, in the absence of any emotional concerns, look purely at the black-and-white letter of the law.    Another argument against judges holding the "noose of death" in their hands was political.   Judges seeking reelection were sometimes prone to issue a death sentence so they would not be considered "soft on crime," the argument goes.
       Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights collected statistics from Alabama showing that judges overrode 83 cases where the jury had recommended life and ruled for the death sentence.   In only seven cases, he reports, did the judges switch from death to life sentences.
         As of April 1, 2002, Death Row USA,  which monitors those given the ultimate sentence, reports there are 3,701 people awaiting death in the 40 United States jurisdictions that provide the death penalty as punishment.   Ninety-eight percent are male and nearly half are white and half black, 45.3% and 43% respectively. 
         What I find of concern in the Supreme Court's decision is the flip-flopping between who is ultimately responsible for another's death--the public or the government?

          Under the decision above, ultimately a jury should decide the fate of Osama bin Laden, not a military tribunal, or a judge.
          The ultimate act of Terrorism is holding the gun in your hand and deciding who lives and who dies.   Some might consider this the ultimate act of Vigilance.
          I find it interesting that the U.S. government, via the Supreme Court, has put the responsibility for "killing" back upon the people.   It is a moral hot potato for sure, but ultimately, if we follow the formula for Vigilance--Courage Minus Fear, Plus, Conviction Minus Intimidation, Plus, Right Action Minus Complacency--we end up at a destination where our children judge us, and their children's children judge us.
        The Vigilance Formula includes in its last quotient the element of Right Action.   Right Action is not a moral decision made by peers to be judged by peers.   Were that the case, all Right Action would be those actions most expedient at the time they were made, and would be vulnerable to pressures of the times.  Lopping off bin Laden's head and sending it around to schools throughout America might seem a fine idea to some seeking retaliation against his heinous crimes, but perhaps two or three generations from now its suggestion would repulse the most right of the right wing.
        Right Action in the Vigilance Formula is designed to remove us from the present in our decision making and thrust us forward in time to our children's children's children generation.    What is right for them?
        This kind of decision making is difficult for most of us to comprehend, let alone make.   Yet if we look at all decisions a society makes, the only ones that really count are those that protect and insure the safety of our children far out into the future.   Decisions founded on political, social, economic, religious or righteous convictions, excluding all children in their chemistry, are just selfish decisions that fit the moment.
        The Supreme Court just made one of those selfish decisions.   It turned the "killing of others" over to the people.   A dozen years ago it took it out of their hands.
        The same is true regarding abortion.   Prior to the decision that a woman could "kill" her child because it was "her body" and "her choice," society stepped in to protect an unborn child from the indiscriminate Terrorism by his or her parent.  
        This was not a Vigilant decision.  It did not consider what was right for the children's children's children.   Few mothers who underwent abortions by choice would brag to their future children, "you'd have a brother or sister, but I killed him or her because I didn't want it."

       The Death Penalty issue is another similar issue.   A parent now who sits on a jury must decide the life or death of a person--must vote to end his or her life, or, against such a penalty.  Since juries are charged with the responsibility to render a verdict based on the law, and not on their emotions or feelings, there can be no Right Action in deciding the death of another.   If the question can't be raised in the Jury Room, "Will this person's death help or hinder the future generation of our children, and their children's children's children," then all the Supreme Court has done is ducked the real issue--Vigilance.   It has acted again in a Complacent manner, putting the responsibility for Terrorism on the shoulders of the people.
         Personally, I think laws that allow the killing of others are wrong.   I don't think the children of either today or future generations glean any evolution of the human spirit by witnessing society killing either unborn babies or persons convicted of crimes--however ugly and horrible those crimes might be.
        And I'm speaking as a "killer," not a dove.   I was trained to kill.   I killed.   As a U.S. Marine, I was even paid to kill.   And, in Vietnam, there was no reservation about killing women and children, old and young--anything that moved in what was called a "free fire zone."

     I've also witnessed executions.   I've seen a Korean soldier with the Blue Dragon Division accused of rape.   The trial was held in the middle of the camp.  The Vietnamese girl bore witness against the soldier in front of all the other troops.   The commander rendered his verdict on the spot.  The soldier was put on the bed of a truck and the commander blew out his brains.   It was all about discipline.   The Korean Marines wanted their people to know if you did the crime, you did the time--eternal time.

      What I have become is not soft, but firm in my beliefs.  I believe that unless one can justify to the future generations of children the acts we take today, that such acts which are not justifiable are illegal and immoral acts.
        Terrorism is not just about bin Laden's attacking America.  It is about America attacking itself.   When we allow the killing of others--whether on death row or by sucking out an embryo, we tell our children and their children's children that "killing" is justified--that Terrorism is justified.
       There are as many people on death row as were killed on September 11, 2001.  While we offer sorrow for the dead at Ground Zero, we turn our heads and shield our eyes to those we have condemned.   We teach our children there is a line between the human and inhuman, and those who stand on inhuman side can be killed.

     Annually over 1.5 million babies are killed through abortion.   We do not grieve nationally at the loss of our most important asset, a loss 150 times greater than what occurred on Nine Eleven.
       Terrorism often takes the shape of ignorance and neglect.    Or, as the Supreme Court has ruled--in Complacency.
       When you think of Death Row, or Abortion, think of Right Action.   What do we tell our children's children's children?
       And when Osama bin Laden's head comes to your kid's school, are you going to be there cheering or jeering?

                                                

Go To June 24--Outhouse Terrorism   

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