Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has had three opportunities to grant clemency to death-row inmates and denied it on each occasion.
The day after Lee Hall was executed, Gov. Bill Lee said that the life-and-death decisions he has to make about death row inmates weigh on him, particularly as a man of faith, but he said that the state process works and it worked when Hall took his final breaths. Hall was the third Tennessee citizen Lee participated in killing through the state's machinery of death in 2019.
I have disagreed with Lee in the pages of The Tennessean on the issue of the death penalty. However, this time I am in full agreement with him. If the state of Tennessee wishes to kill its citizens by appropriating about $5 million per person, locking them in a cage for 30 years, escorting them to the electric chair, strapping the individual into the chair and electrocuting him, it can certainly do so. If this utilitarian approach is what Lee means when he says the state process worked, then yes, it did, including leading Lee to the electric chair since he had gone blind. He was denied his last request for a drink of water before he made his last statement.
In citing how well the process works, Lee referred to the lengthy appellate process. As someone who has immersed himself in this process for more than 40 years, I've examined this statement. The most important aspect of the death penalty is the trial. More than 90% of those tried in death-penalty cases cannot afford a lawyer because they are poor. And this does not mean they receive some excellent public defender. Rather, those offices are woefully underfunded and overworked, making it extremely difficult to provide adequate defense counsel in death-penalty cases. At trial, poor representation determines the appellate outcome as well. The trial court record, compiled by well-funded prosecutors and poorly resourced defense lawyers, is often the determining factor in death-penalty appeals. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has mandated that “death is different” in an effort to provide fairness, the reality is that those without capital receive capital punishment. It just takes longer. Thus, it is a canard to equate fairness and justice with a lengthy appeals process.
As for the life-and-death decision about death-row inmates weighing heavily on him, it must not be too heavy. He has had three opportunities to grant clemency and denied it on each occasion. Each man had compelling reasons for receiving clemency. Frankly, I have had heard this “weigh heavy” mantra from governors across the South since 1979, when I met with Gov. Bob Graham in Florida. It appears governors wish us to feel sorry for them even as they kill the people with whom we work.
Finally, Lee has repeatedly proclaimed himself as a man of faith. One can only wonder which faith? If it is the Christian faith, rather that the political faith of winning reelection by repeatedly allowing the death penalty to be carried out, I would welcome him to demonstrate it in his actions with the condemned. He cannot even bring himself to come to the prison and pray with the men on death row, as they have requested. As Christians, we need to recall what Jesus taught: “By their fruit you will know them.”
Source: The Tennessean, Opinion; The Rev. Joseph B. Ingle, January 2, 2020
⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us:
deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.
Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
