death penalty commission hearing

The joint hearing room in Annapolis was frigid yesterday. When I left, after only three hours of testimony, my feet felt like small blocks of ice and my fingers would not straighten out. I sat a few seats away from the daughter of a murder victim. Her parents were horribly murdered over 25 years ago and she’s been waiting this long quarter century, attending every hearing and court session, for the murderers to be executed. She’s in her 80s now and she will say, if asked, that she is waiting for justice. I don’t fault her for framing the death penalty that way, she occupies a unique and terrible position. But the death penalty is justice for no one – not the victim, not the survivors, not the killer, not the community. It was an exercise in respect to sit near her and her husband, ever reminding me to be respectful in my treatment of the issue. It must be terribly painful for them to attend these hearings as most of the expert, and even citizen, witnesses speak eloquently against what she so fervently wants. She knows that she has several supporters in the room. But, although they are outnumbered, they remain current practice – even if in name only. Repealing existing law is always far more difficult than not putting it there in the first place.