The Executioner’s Site
A friend brings to my attention ExecutedToday.com, a site that each day commemorates someone killed by government or other authorities. TAC associate publisher Jon Basil Utley’s father, Arkadi Berdichevski, is among those profiled. Some of the condemned are less sympathetic than others, but all of these stories are a useful reminder of what lies at the root of official power.
It was at a Jr Chamber of Commerce meeting, in the 1970′s that we had an opportunity to ask the late Hoyt C Cupp, warden of the Oregon State Penitentiary, about the death penalty.
He said, quoting him as best I can from memory, “Having personally overseen the execution of many people, I believe the state has a right to put criminals to death lawfully. However, I also believe that they should NOT do this, because of the corrosive effect on the public psyche, but mostly because it is completely impossible to do this in a fair manner, in the real world. You will ALWAYS find that nearly all executed criminals were either poor, or minorities, or ill-served by their attorneys.”
I remember his words, as I was profoundly impressed with his views on this and other matters. He had the power to execute ALL prisoners in his charge in an emergency, but he believed that criminals should be kept safe from each other, and should always have the option to work, for pay, if they so chose.
I think he was ahead of his time.
I agree with Barney (and the late Mr. Cupp) about this.
I might be able to support a death penalty for all first-degree murderers, with the victim’s family having veto power (I’m not sure about this; I have often decided, but never stayed convinced), but I am sure that I cannot support a death penalty like the one we have in place.
It is politicized, it is racial, it is class-prejudicial, and it is arbitrary. Right now, in some death-penalty states (I’m looking at you, Texas), we have a system that combines all the worst features of not having a death penalty with all of the worst possible features of having one.
By the way, I’ve heard that Oregon’s state prisons have some of the best anti-rape policies in the nation. I wouldn’t be surprised if much of that stems back to this one obviously conscientious and serious man, about whom I know nothing.
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