Death Took a Holiday

Does anyone else find it fascinating that during Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit to America, the Supreme Court had states revisit death by lethal injection? A pro-life prelate touring our country as she clutches the culture of death firmly to her ample bosom shows impeccable timing on our part.

And who met the Roman Catholic leader upon arrival at the airport? Our Torture President, a Protestant.

Some may ask, "What would Jesus do?" George W. Bush wonders what John Yoo, Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales would do.

By a 7-2 decision, the Roberts court rejected arguments in Kentucky that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment leading to a painful death. States that put the three-drug cocktail on ice now can return happy hour to death row.

In Missouri, the governor wants the state Supreme Court to check off execution orders "immediately." Also eager to get back into the death business are Bible Belt governors who like posting the Ten Commandments, so long as they don't have to obey them.

Florida, where inmates have spontaneously combusted, has a new motto: "If at first we don't kill 'em, we'll try, try again." Gumbo isn't the only thing Louisiana is famous for. Nothing smokes like a Virginia ham, except maybe a convicted murderer.

Killing killers makes us feel better, especially God-fearing Christians. It brings survivors closure. It gets candidates elected because it means they are tough on crime.

Never mind that DNA testing and other forensic science has brought freedom to people falsely convicted of homicides and rape.

When Dubya was governor of Texas, he showed no mercy for a convicted killer who claimed she had found Jesus and repented. He had only gallows humor. Of course, Dubya found Jesus, too, and took him to the White House.

There are good reasons for the constitutional separation of church and state. Still, you'd think that as an anti-abortion pope groupie, Bush would have brushed up on John Paul II's remarks about the culture of death.

For Pope Benedict's sake, he could have pretended to have heard of the "Evangelium vitae" and that whole sanctity of life thing.

To recognize the culture of death as a "right in law," the late pope submitted, "means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom."

The church opposes capital punishment, rejects policies leading to hunger and deprivation, and isn't a big fan of torture. Our pope-ophile president continues a pre-emptive war that has killed countless Iraqis and more than 4,000 U.S. troops. To Bush, redemption is weakness and retribution a sacred right.

Yet as my favorite pope, John Paul II, reminded us, "God, who preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide." States ought not indulge in Old Testament justice.

John Paul II spoke to "the mystery of redemption." He acknowledged: "The dignity of the person and the Gospel of life are a single and indivisible Gospel. … Believers in Christ must defend and promote this right."

To the Holy See, humanity is a lifelong journey. To the born-again Bush, the buck stops in utero.

Capital punishment is so flawed that if you kill a pregnant Marine, bury her in your backyard and escape to Mexico, you can avoid execution. Mexico is among the more civilized countries that won't extradite criminals who face execution.

Who dies depends on juror bias, judicial activism, legal competency, race, class and media glare. McClatchy newspapers reported that our high court actually debated whether it is acceptable for states to execute convicted child rapists who haven't killed anyone.

State-sponsored execution is morally repugnant and doesn't reduce the crime rate. Justice John Paul Stevens finally called it unconstitutional.

Lord, give us the strength and wisdom to change the things we have accepted.

Rhonda Chriss Lokeman (rlokeman@creators.com) is a contributing editor to The Kansas City Star. To find out more about Rhonda Chriss Lokeman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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