Deadly Errors

There is no way in which the dead can be revived, resuscitated to live another day. Unless they're not truly dead, but presumed to be, and hastily buried, as does on occasion happen. When a body on a mortuary slab suddenly quickens and becomes a living being again. Or a frightened "corpse" begins to frantically tap on his closed casket being lowered into the coldly receiving ground, alerting loved ones to the fact that supposed death had loosed its grip.

And when the state, using the instrument of the death penalty in its determination of justice for capital crimes errs, the misfortune of that error is ineradicable, representing yet another tragedy, a miscarriage of justice. Canada, like many other countries of conscience around the world, long ago abolished the death penalty. The European Union, led by a German initiative, has been strenuously attempting to persuade other countries of the world to refuse to sentence any of their citizens to death.

Still, there are many countries for whom the imposition of a sentence of death is seen as just desserts for murderers. There is always the option of another type of penalty, that which removes one's freedom on a permanent basis; life incarceration. Of course, there are countries, like Canada, whose deliverance of a life sentence is muted by degree. First- and second-degree merit their distinct levels of state punishment.

No European countries support the death penalty. It is harshly imposed in Asian, African and Middle-Eastern countries. Sixty-two countries of the world regularly impose the death penalty for major crimes. In some countries, like China, crimes of a financial, economic nature can be construed as a major crime. In some countries, like Iran, the death penalty can be imposed on homosexuals. In the past decade, an average of 3 countries a year relinquish state-imposed death.

And in Canada, criminal offenders serving life sentences of 25 years for first-degree murder may plead before a parole board for day parole three years before full parole eligibility. Which, if agreed to, can result in early release. That person must report to a parole officer for the rest of his/her life, and must adhere to certain conditions, which, if breached, can result in return to prison, and for life.

China, Russia and the U.S.A. among many other countries of the world still cling to the ultimate punishment that the death penalty represents. Capital punishment is legally practised in 36 states of the Union, but since the 1990s they've been in steady decline, with some U.S. states having entirely abolished the death penalty. One thousand and ninety-nine convicted criminals were executed in the United States since 1976.

And here's another statistic: since 1973, 126 death-row inmates were exonerated, found not guilty of the crimes they were accused, tried and sentenced for. This, while awaiting execution on death row. Currently, thousands of scheduled executions have been put on temporary hold in the U.S. as state legislatures await a ruling on capital punishment relating to lethal injection standards now before the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for a Kentucky man convicted of the killings of two police officers have initiated the case, insisting that drugs used in lethal injection executions represent "substantial risk of wanton and unnecessary pain". The 2006 execution of an Ohio man took over an hour, after a corrections official punctured his arm no fewer than 19 times in one botched attempt after another to secure a vein.

Death-row inmates are injected with the fast-acting barbiturate sodium thiopental to achieve unconsciousness, then comes pancuronium bromide to halt breathing, and finally potassium chloride to stop the heart. The botched Ohio execution was not the only one to go horribly awry. And in the wake of these events, people throughout the United States are asking themselves whether they really want the state to execute the death penalty.

"If you take a poll and ask people about horrible crimes, you still see support for the death penalty in places like New Jersey" (as of December the first state since 1965 to completely abolish the death penalty), said Richard Dieter, executive director of Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center. "But if you ask which is preferable - life without parole or the death penalty - more people support life without parole."

How could it be otherwise in a civil, civilized society? And this growing inclination toward re-thinking the imposition of the death penalty falls evenly across the political divide, from liberal Maryland to conservative Colorado and New Mexico.

It's past time.