South Carolina | Where's the Christianity in electric chair, firing squads?

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster recently signed legislation that would allow the state to execute people by firing squad or the electric chair if chemicals used for lethal injections are not available. The death-row inmate would be able to choose between the other two options. It is sad that the US remains the one western nation still dedicated to this archaic practice. It is also particularly problematic given the racist realities of the death penalty.

It is especially tragic that the legislators who voted in favor of this and the governor who signed it almost all claim to be Christians and pro-life, but deny the way of Jesus out of a desire to appear tough or appeal to some misplaced idea of justice.

The United States is the only western nation, and one of the few democracies, that still actively practices the death penalty. In 2019, we were fifth in the world for executions behind China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Egypt. Of course, none of these nations is known for its great human rights record. For the US to hold onto this archaic practice makes little sense, especially after studies have concluded that the death penalty has not been effective in stopping murder and is costlier than life in prison.

The racist nature of the death penalty is also very evident. For example, as the Death Penalty Information Center highlights, even though African Americans only make up 15% of death-penalty cases, they make up 34.4% of the executions.

In South Carolina this is particularly relevant. Though many in South Carolina may not learn about it in their history books, in 1944, South Carolina executed a 14-year-old African-American old boy, George Stinney, for alleging murdering two white girls. Later, evidence put great doubt on his guilt and showed that he did not receive a fair trial.

Ultimately, almost all these legislators and McMaster, who claim to be Christians, are distorting their Christian faith. Jesus undermined the idea of capital punishment in his life and teaching. There is the famous story of the woman caught in adultery, which was a capital offense under Mosaic law. He told those looking to stone her that those without sin should cast the first stone. He told his followers to love their enemies, forgive those who wronged them, and put down their swords. Half of the New Testament was written by a man who was a murderer, the Apostle Paul, who told believers not to return evil for evil but overcome evil with good.

For Christians to be proponents of the death penalty while much of the rest of the society is opposed to it shows a Christianity that has become detached from the actual teachings and heart of Jesus.

True justice and wholeness will not come from executing more evil people in the society. It is a false hope that will not lead to more peace.

It is time for legislators in states like ours to take a hard look what is pushing them to make this desperate attempt to continue with the death penalty.

Source: greenvilleonline.com, William McCorkle, May 30, 2021. William McCorkle, Ph.D., is a South Carolina educator and immigration advocate.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.

Two Executions In Six Hours: Florida Set For Historical Double Execution Tuesday

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Florida executes Dominick Occhicone

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Florida executes James Duckett

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North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits. An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

Former Florida cop to be executed on same day as 80-year-old Pasco man

In an unprecedented move in the modern history of capital punishment, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday cleared the way for 2 executions to occur on the same day. DeSantis reset the execution of James Duckett, whose execution earlier this year was stayed amid efforts to secure DNA testing and analysis of evidence in his case. Duckett’s execution was reset for July 28. That is the same day previously set for the execution of Dominick Occhicone. Court records indicate that Duckett’s execution is scheduled for noon. Occhicone’s is set to follow at 6 p.m.

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