On November 10, 2009 John Allen Muhammad, the so-called D.C. sniper, was executed by lethal injection. He maintained his innocence of all murder charges to the very end. I don't believe him, but I don't believe he should have been put to death at the hands of the state either. A life in prison is good enough. As long as he was off the streets and posed no danger to the public at large, that was certainly good enough. I grieve for the victims and their families, as I grieve for anyone who dies prematurely. Life is short, and it is precious.
I am not a religious man and that makes life all the more precious to me. I do not believe that there is a life beyond that physical time on Earth. To take that life away from someone is an unspeakable crime, whether the taker of the life is an individual involved in crimes against his fellow man or the state, seeking retribution and punishment. For those of you out there with a religious bent to your life, the Book of Exodus tells us that God gave Moses the basic laws engraved in stone. There were 10 of the commandments God told us all to live by, and one of those laws was, "Thou shalt not kill." This commandment did not say, "Thou shalt not kill, unless you are the state punishing a horrible criminal who is guilty of unspeakable acts." It said only, "Thou shalt not kill." I believe this implied universality.
Further, my studies in religion show that all three of the major monotheistic faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, accept the Genesis and Exodus stories. It's part of all three faiths. Not one of these religions says it's OK to kill another human being. Jehovah, Yahweh, Allah. Doesn't matter what you call him (or her or it), God says no to killing. As for the other major religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, I don't believe either of them condone killing, certainly not Buddhism. So let's get this straight, here and now, there is not a major religion in the world that says killing is OK, not for any reason. (So how come so many so-called religious people are out there punishing the infidels by killing them? An argument for another day boys and girls. Today we are talking about capital punishment, an instrument of the state.)
I have compiled a list of the nations that practice capital punishment, and as it turns out most of the advanced nations, those that are industrialized, have the highest standard of living, and have the highest levels of educational achievement, have outlawed capital punishment as a barbaric practice. Capital punishment is overwhelmingly practiced in poor and authoritarian countries, and if I might add, in conservative Islamic nations. Yet there are three nations that are in the advanced, industrialized nation category that still practice capital punishment. Those nations are China, Japan, and the United States of America.
Truthfully, China falls into a category of nations practicing capital punishment that have repressive communist governments, including North Korea and Vietnam, both on the border of China proper, and similar in culture and methods for keeping the populace under control. All three make the top ten for executions in the year 2008. China, by far, outstrips the rest of the planet. There were fewer than 6000 state sponsored executions on the planet Earth last year, but at least 5000 of those were in China. That is to say that 83% of all executions on the planet Earth were in a country that holds approximately 17% of the people. Even if you support capital punishment, these statistics are really out of whack. What's wrong with this picture?
For the record, the U.S. comes in at number 5 in executions with 37 last year and Japan comes in at number 10 with 15. The rest of the top ten is populated with conservative Islamic nations and Iran and Saudi Arabia lead the way, coming in at numbers 2 and 3 respectively. So why are the U.S. and Japan, the nations with the #1 and #2 economies in the world and with the most advanced technology in the world and with two of the highest standards of living in the world, traveling in this company? Once again, what is wrong with this picture?
There are those who believe that capital punishment is a deterrent to violent crime. Don't think so. I think we all need to face it. Capital punishment in America is about retribution. It is not about deterrence. It falls under the heading of cruel and unusual punishment and in any thinking sense should be outlawed as a violation of the basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution. I cannot speak for the Japanese. They have their own issues and I do not profess to be an expert on them. For the rest, what we have is obvious repression for political and religious reasons, plain and simple. For the religious, I have to remind you, "God does not approve of killing." For the political, history has shown that you cannot continue to rule by threats of imprisonment and death forever. The people will rise and change this eventually. I simply want to exclude the U.S., my home country from this "Hall of Shame." I do not believe a nation as great as this one should be traveling in the company of repressive regimes that rule by force.
The Top Ten Hall of Shame for Executions in 2008:
1. China-5000
2. Iran-346
3. Saudi Arabia-102
4. North Korea-63
5. United States of America-37
6. Pakistan-36
7. Iraq-34
8. Vietnam-19
9. Afghanistan-17
10. Japan-15
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