I’ve opposed the death penalty for as far back as I can remember. Not out of sentimentality or naivete, but because no government should claim the right to kill in the name of justice. I believe that every execution erodes the moral authority of the state and the character of its people.
My commitment was shaped by my faith and further inspired by Sara Ehrmann, who led the Massachusetts Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty. She launched her career in response to the internationally controversial Sacco and Vanzetti case, on which her husband served as assistant defense counsel. I had the honor of discussing capital punishment with her at her home in 1965. At the time, I was co-directing a program that developed post-release services for inmates in the Massachusetts Correctional Institutions.
Ehrmann’s words still resonate: “Killing is not a remedy for crime; it is a reflection of our failure to create justice without cruelty.”
I write today because that conviction is being tested. The death penalty is experiencing a troubling revival in two nations that historically presented themselves as bastions of humaneness.
Read the entire commentary on Substack In The Center Lane With Herb Paine →
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