[WCADP-list] Seattle PI op-ed by Judith Kay, WCADP Steering Committee Member

[wcadp-list at lists.drizzle.com]

Judith Kay is an active member of the WCADP Steering Committee where she
oversees the Death Row Support program.  In addition to her work with WCADP,
Judith is also professor of ethics at the University of Puget Sound and
author of Murdering Myths: The Story Behind the Death Penalty.  
 
Below is a copy of the op-ed piece she authored which appeared in
yesterday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  
 
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Death penalty protects no one
Wednesday, September 6, 2006

By JUDITH KAY
GUEST COLUMNIST

Our Jewish and Muslim communities have had a tough time recently between the
Mideast war and the assault allegedly by Naveed Haq on the Jewish Federation
of Greater Seattle office. King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng says the
viciousness of the local attack must be condemned. He implies that any
punishment less than death would not condemn the anti-Semitic crime. 

However, seeking Haq's execution would, ironically, give support to the very
anti-Semitism that the community and Maleng want to denounce. How so?

Both anti-Semitism and the death penalty offer people the illusion that they
will be made safer by eliminating perceived threats. However, neither the
death penalty nor anti-Semitism protect anyone from harm.

Communities do need to defend themselves, but life without the possibility
of parole is sufficient to keep us safe; prisons make the death penalty
unnecessary. The German Christian population -- reeling from defeat in World
War I, the collapse of the Weimar Republic and economic chaos -- believed
eliminating Jews would solve their problems. Yet, German lives were not
improved by targeting a group for destruction. Both the death penalty and
anti-Semitism are distractions from things that genuinely would improve
communities. 

But, you may protest, the people at the Federation office were innocent,
whereas Haq, if found guilty, deserves harm. Of course, that is not how Haq
sees it; he apparently believes that Jews are at fault and deserve death.
Both capital punishment and the oppression of Jews feed on the idea that the
people we do not like, those who frighten us, or those who offend us -- the
undeserving -- may be eliminated.

Although we can all agree that justice requires that wrongdoing (real, not
alleged) should be responded to, there is little besides convention or
prejudice that dictates that our response must be lethal. (Self-defense is
different from justice because it is not a matter of what the assailant
deserves, but rather the permission to do harm in order to protect
ourselves.) Justice can be served by condemning the crime, restraining the
criminal from harming others and meeting the needs of survivors. 

Both the oppression of Jews and the death penalty operate by encouraging
their supporters to close their eyes to people's humanness and instead focus
solely on their prejudices or misdeeds. After years of mistreatment, white
Jews may have acquired habits of seeking security through upward mobility or
thinking they are smarter than people of color. After years of mistreatment,
Muslims may have acquired habits of thinking that Jews control the world and
are the cause of all misery.

When Jews and Muslims act on such habits, others quickly deny their
humanity. In particular, Haq's apparent mental and emotional distress may
make his worthiness as a human more difficult to see. Similarly, criminals
are often seen as inherently evil. Justice requires we respect people's
humanity while responding strongly to their misdeeds, which prohibits
murdering or executing them.

Maleng should not seek to execute Haq, if he's found guilty, in the belief
that such an act would strike a blow against anti-Semitism. If Maleng and
the community want to take a stand against the oppression of Jews, they can
refuse to sentence Haq to death. Life without the possibility of parole is
sufficient to protect our community and condemn the crime. If people adjust
their notion of fitting punishment to the idea all humans deserve to live
regardless of their (alleged) misdeeds, Jewish oppression and the death
penalty might be eliminated.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
 <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/283912_haq06.html>
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/283912_haq06.html 
 
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It's easy to support the death penalty when you don't have all the facts
P. O. Box 3045
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