Perhaps by the time you read this Louisiana will have seen through its first implementation of capital punishment in 15 years. As opposition to it finds expression through those ideologically opposed to it, through sympathetic media, as well as those caught up oversimplifying the issue, keep in mind that this opposition may not care about whether justice is served or whether it behaves ethically, as to them any means justifies the ends of stopping executions.
Waiting in death’s wings is Jesse Hoffman, Jr., whose gruesome kidnapping, rape and murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott earned him a capital sentence nearly three decades ago. He has remained on death row for so long because Louisiana law didn’t permit executions other than through lethal injection, and ideological activists had scared of companies from making available the chemicals to accomplish this, until the state added nitrogen hypoxia as a method.
The usual suspects have tried to stop or delay his Mar. 18 fate with the mask. Likely a number of them are principled opponents who don’t know or for whatever psychic reason ignore that having capital punishment, with carefully investigated cases of those who with extreme malice aforethought killed somebody, consistently applied saves lives. The problem is, they may not be driving the anti-execution train that puts justice aside to promote personal or ideological reasons.
Anybody interested in the debate on the issue must watch the documentary A Murder in the Park. It tells the story of how convicted murderer Anthony “Tony” Porter, a couple of days before his date with death in Illinois, first was spared over questions on his mental acuity, but eventually was freed and then exonerated due to the efforts of anti-death penalty activists, chiefly a rogue (now former) university professor and gun-for-hire investigator amplified by the local press at the cost of imprisoning another man, Alstory Simon, himself later exonerated when the truth came out about how the activists essentially railroaded him. It’s a twisted tale of willfully ignoring incriminating evidence to free someone almost certainly guilty that required bullying and leveraging political clout to convict somebody else almost certainly innocent, all in the name of trying to keep Porter from being executed to fulfill an anti-capital punishment agenda and to reap possible riches from publicity about the effort.
(In fact, the Porter reversal led to Illinois eventually repealing capital punishment, a goal of those spearheading the exoneration some of whom still work in the field despite the later discrediting of their campaign, kicked off by Illinois Republican Gov. George Ryan after freeing Porter by his placing a moratorium on all death sentences almost a quarter-century before Louisiana Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards tried to engineer commutations for death row inmates. Years after but before the repeal, Ryan was imprisoned for corrupt activities during his time in government office.)
While a dispassionate weighing of evidence might leave small doubt of Porter’s guilt and Simon’s innocence, it’s clear that the incident exposed a slice of the movement to free the wrongfully convicted as anti-execution absolutists willing to do anything to stop carrying out death sentences, regardless of the truth or justice or consequences to others. That’s to be expected as while supporters of capital punishment view the issue in instrumental terms – a terrible practice that adumbrates permission for the state to have an awesome power of taking a life but one regrettably needed in order to save lives – its opponents couch their opposition in absolutist moral terms driven by emotion. Some will cross the line and, worse, they will marshal the political power to corrupt justice.
As a result, these people we always will have with us and they will endanger society. Naturally, the prudent citizen will heed the specifics of their opposition, in that no detail must be overlooked that establishes, or disestablishes, the guilt of those sentenced to death. Fortunately, advancements in forensics bring greater surety than ever that such sentences are appropriate.
So, as Louisiana begins to increase public safety through regular implementation of capital punishment, justly meted out, policy-makers must watch out for these ideologues or glory-hunters and not let them interfere with the basic job of securing the lives of the citizenry.
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