UI 050: Compassion for the Cruel?

This last week a murderer and torturer was put to death.  Executed by lethal injection because he of his monstrously cruel behavior.    He and his thug accomplices cruelly and merciless savaged two innocent teenage girls, a father, and his 9 month old son.  Fortunately he apparently suffered as there was a problem with the lethal injection.  Unfortunately the media, our President, and many in our society think he should have never had the death penalty anyway.  They are especially distraught over the supposed pain he endured.  Though he and his thug accomplices were wickedly cruel to those who deserve compassion, the left and many distorted people think the courts and the state should show compassion for the cruel.   Here's the record of events in brief from Dennis Prager's article:

June 3, 1999:

Clayton Lockett, 23, Shawn Mathis, 26, and Alfonzo Lockett, 17, planned on robbing Bobby Lee Bornt, 23, at his house in Perry, Oklahoma. They tied up Bornt and beat him in front of the man’s sobbing 9-month-old son. At the same time, Stephanie Neiman, 18, was dropping off her friend Summer Bradshaw at Bornt’s home. All three robbers raped the two girls, and then drove the girls, Bornt and his baby son to a rural area. They forced Mathis to dig a grave over which Lockett shot Stephanie Neiman twice. Unfortunately, she did not die from the gunshot wounds, and so she cried and begged not to be buried alive. But Clayton Lockett ordered her buried.

“I could hear her breathing and crying and everything,” Lockett said nonchalantly in his videotaped confession.

And here's more of the story from TulsaWorld.com:

Neiman fought Lockett when he tried to take the keys to her truck.

The men beat her and used duct tape to bind her hands and cover her mouth. Even after being kidnapped and driven to a dusty country road, Neiman didn't back down when Lockett asked if she planned to contact police.

The men had also beaten and kidnapped Neiman's friend along with Bobby Bornt, who lived in the residence, and Bornt's 9-month-old baby.

Lockett later told police "he decided to kill Stephanie because she would not agree to keep quiet," court records state.

Neiman was forced to watch as Lockett's accomplice, Shawn Mathis, spent 20 minutes digging a shallow grave in a ditch beside the road. Her friends saw Neiman standing in the ditch and heard a single shot.

Lockett returned to the truck because the gun had jammed. He later said he could hear Neiman pleading, "Oh God, please, please" as he fixed the shotgun.

The men could be heard "laughing about how tough Stephanie was" before Lockett shot Neiman a second time.

"He ordered Mathis to bury her, despite the fact that Mathis informed him Stephanie was still alive."

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Related story: Officials refuse to say if they tried to revive Clayton Lockett

Related story: Execution scrutiny rages after botched execution

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Bornt and Neiman's friend "were threatened that if they told anybody about these events, they too would be murdered," court records state.

"Every day we are left with horrific images of what the last hours of Stephanie's life was like," her parents' impact statement says.

"We were left with an empty home full of memories and the deafening silence of the lack of life within its walls. ... We feel that the only thing left to do is let Clayton Lockett serve out the sentence of death that a jury sentenced him to. Anything less is a travesty of justice."

And in case  that was not enough it gets worse. From KFOR.com:He (Clayton) confessed to raping one of the women, shooting Neiman twice with a shotgun and ordered his two co-defendants to bury her in a shallow grave while she was still alive.

From the Washington Post:After the trial was completed in August 2000, the Associated Press reported that “Lockett was found guilty of conspiracy, first-degree burglary, three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, three counts of forcible oral sodomy, four counts of first-degree rape, four counts of kidnapping and two counts of robbery by force and fear. The charges were after former convictions of two or more felonies, according to the court clerk’s office.”

Clayton Lockett was sentenced to death for first-degree murder, and more than 2,285 years in prison for his other convictions from that night. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence in April 2013, after the case was appealed for errors made in the initial trial, which the appeals court classified as “harmless errors.”

In March 2014, Clayton Lockett filed for a temporary restraining order to prevent his execution, along with Warner’s, until more information was revealed about the new drugs Oklahoma was using for executions, the ones that eventually led to his drawn-out death. An Oklahoma County District Judge denied the request. Clayton Lockett also filed for clemency with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board in March, which would have commuted his planned execution into a life sentence. That request was also denied.

Alfonzo Lockett and Shawn Mathis are currently serving life sentences.

So far this story is tragic, but it would as though justice has been served.  But like I said there was a glitch with Lockett's execution.

This is from AP via Fox News:

The head of Oklahoma's Department of Corrections told Gov. Mary Fallin on Thursday that he needs more oversight of execution procedures and said it took officials 51 minutes to find a suitable vein before the botched execution earlier this week.

Clayton Lockett died of an apparent heart attack 10 minutes after prisons director Robert Patton halted the execution. The prisons chief said Lockett had an intravenous tap placed at his groin because suitable veins couldn't be found elsewhere. That vein collapsed, and Patton said Lockett didn't have another vein that was suitable — and that the state didn't have another dose of the drugs available anyway.

The IV line was covered by a sheet because it had been placed at Lockett's groin, Patton said in his letter to the governor. Its becoming dislodged wasn't discovered until 21 minutes after the execution began and all of the execution drugs had been injected into the line.

"The drugs had either absorbed into tissue, leaked out or both," Patton wrote. "The director asked the following question, 'Have enough drugs been administered to cause death?' The doctor responded, 'No.'

After the doctor attending the execution found a faint heartbeat, Patton ordered the execution stopped. Lockett died anyway.

Now, I don't know about you, but it does not bother me in the least that there was a problem with his execution and he supposedly suffered.

But there are a lot of people who desire to show compassion and mercy to the cruel.  There is an uproar once again against capital punishment.  And it's an absolute argument for many.  By that I mean, they argue no person should ever be executed - regardless of their behavior.

But nearly all of the anti-death penalty crowd is preoccupied with the "suffering" Lockett felt for what may amount to an hour or so.

Of course this is ironic considering they created the problem in the first place.   The death penalty could be administered a number of different ways that are likely to be less problematic or painful.   Plus, they (the anti-death penalty mob) have harassed and disrupted the drug manufactures enough that they no longer make or distribute drugs that would make the lethal injection more surefire and "humane."

Other options like firing squads, hanging, or the guillotine are strictly off limits - even though they may actually be more efficacious and there is likely less suffering.

Nope, ultimately these folks feel so much compassion for convicted murderers that they have made it there mission to save them from the most powerful and meaningful sentences.

I am discussing all of these recent events just to illustrate a point that was made time and time again in Jewish thought.

From the Kohelet Rabbah, 7:16:

כל מי שנעשה רחמן במקום אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

 

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari

Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

 

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel

In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate

This saying could also be translated: Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind.

You get the idea.

There is appropriate kindness and inappropriate kindness.  There is appropriate vengeance and inappropriate vengeance.  It depends on context. Once again... Context matters.  And values matter!

If your values are along the lines that people are not responsible for their behavior, then therefore you should also think they should not be punished for them.

Or if you think punishment does nothing to deter undesirable behavior, then you are likely to act with kindness where punishment would have otherwise taken place.

I find that people who think this way have a hard time in general with the concepts surrounding accountability.  They tend to focus on their "rights", or to others "rights" - rather than on people's obligations.

These concepts are not just academic.  It spills over into nearly all aspects of life.

Parenting definitely is affected by this tension.  Will you reward or punish bad behavior?  Will you show "kindness" to your child when they behave cruelly towards their sibling?  Every good parent should struggle with finding the balance for teaching their child there are negative consequences for negative actions.  But today there are many parents who have lost their moral bearings, and operate out of cowardice.  They will never punish their child.  They will only "love" them and show them "compassion."

Unfortunately these parents do not realize they will inevitably "in the end show cruelty to those in need of compassion."  For instance, Johnny has taken all of his sister's beloved dolls and cut off their heads..  Mom and dad find out and ask Johnny "what is troubling you?"  When Johnny shrugs them off, they figure they should spend more time with the young boy.  So Dad takes him to a baseball game, and mom cooks him his favorite treat. But what about little Susie and her dolls?  She is witnessing her parents reward Johnny's bad behavior, while she is still mourning the loss of her dolls.  She feels betrayed, hurt, and that there is no justice in her home.

I know this may be a quotidian example, but I'm using it again just to illustrate the point on how big this issue can be in our lives.

How a person and a society treat bad behavior has serious ramifications in the long run.  I don't think all those who oppose the death penalty or who are upset with Lockett's suffering are thinking clearly regarding this topic.

And just to provide evidence that I am not proposing a straw man argument, here are some comments from these stories:

diatomic_jones

5 days ago

So you think it's okay for the state to kill people? It's weird to me that people who think the least of our government think it's competent enough to flawlessly determine guilt and appropriate punishment.Thanks to the efforts of the Innocence Project, we've seen people who've been in jail for very long periods of time released because DNA evidence showed they were innocent. Can we definitively say that every person on death row is guilty of the crime that put them in jail? Every innocent person executed is the state committing murder, in my name, your name, in the name of all of this. Supporting the death penalty in a flawed system is tantamount to supporting murder.

or

RickyRoe

5/2/2014 3:38 PM CDT

 

 

So what about the literally hundreds of people executed that were actually innocent? Is getting your revenge really worth innocent lives? Is spending the rest of your life in prison not enough for you people that you want them tortured and killed as well, even if there is a chance they could be innocent? It costs less to keep them in jail; Europe, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and most industrialized countries have gotten rid of it; there are undeniable biases against minorities and the poor; and it has not been proven to be a deterrent. So what is the argument for it, except to satisfy some sort of blood lust?

 

Fredrick.E

4/30/2014 10:34 PM CDT

Number of death penalty executions around the world:
1 China
2 Iran
3 Saudi Arabia
4 Iraq
5 USA
6 Yemen
7 North Korea
8 Somalia
9 Sudan
10 JapanNoticed any industrialized western countries. Well, maybe Japan?

 

JoeMaf

4/30/2014 11:27 PM CDT

I don't understand Americans.
Rotting in jail for the rest of your life is a lot worse of a punishment than execution.
With execution the criminal wins and gets a get out of jail free card. 

 

Aaron Darc

5/1/2014 3:55 AM CDT

 

 

And what would Jesus do?America is weird. Savage hypocrites.

So there is a sampling of various comments and the "logic" they are using.  (My verbal replies are in the podcast.)

 

And yes, I understand the comments on news sites are not from the best and the brightest.  Again, this is just to show these people do exist and they really do engage in unclear, immoral thinking.

 

They think emotionally.  They think legally perhaps.  Or maybe they are looking for social proofs, but none of this is from a source of morality clarity.

 

And just so you don't think they are alone...

Headline from the LA TIMES:

White House says Oklahoma execution 'fell short' of humane standards

 

I seriously doubt any of these people have read Maimonides, the RaMBaM.

in his book The Guide of the Perplexed. Referring to the verse (Exodus 21:14), “If a person willfully schemes to kill his neighbor – he shall be (even) taken from my altar and put to death”, Maimonides writes that:

the wicked and calculating person (who killed intentionally and was sentenced to death) – if he seeks sanctuary among us, we must not provide him with asylum and not have mercy upon him...because compassion towards the wicked – is cruelty to all beings.

 

Do those who are upset about Lockett or the death penalty even consider the victims, and the aftermath in the lives of their families and loved ones?

 

Stephanie Neiman's parents made this statement:

“Every day we are left with horrific images of what the last hours of Stephanie’s life was like. Did she cry out for us to help her? We are left with the knowledge that she needed us and we were not aware of it therefore unable [to] help her.

“We go through the motions of living, we eat, we sleep, Steve [the father] goes to work and comes home again. We do what we have to do to make it through the day and we start all over again the next. We exist.”

No one argues that the death penalty brings somehow brings the murdered victim back to life.  Because that is not the issue.

The ultimate issue is understanding when it is appropriate to respond with compassion and when it is appropriate to respond with might.  These two forces, strength and compassion, are in constant tension with each other.

Whether we are talking about parents raising children, civilization's justice systems, or the internal conflicts we find within our selves as we critique our own life.  We must battle the evil inclination to simply offer love, compassion, and mercy to all regardless.

A society built on unconditional love and compassion to all is necessarily unkind and cruel to those who are the victims of the merciless and savage.

Our love and compassion should be with the victims, their surviving loved ones, and not with the predatory murderers.

We can NOT forgive them for their murder, as only the murderer can offer that.  You can only forgive someone for what they did to you.  Otherwise it is not yours to give.

I ask that all those who have argued against the death penalty, ask forgiveness from the families of the murdered.

And for those who have used this case and execution as a platform to voice your opposition to capital punishment, you can begin by showing appropriate compassion and mercy by apologizing to the families of the victims and utilizing your talents for creating a more just society, rather than strictly a more compassionate one.