Justice versus mercy in the jury room

Dramatic post-crime transformations suggest to some that repentance

should stay the executioner’s hand.

Both the Bible and Jewish law affirm that repentance ameliorates

divine judgment. The prophet Ezekiel writes: “But if the wicked will

turn from all the sins which he has committed, and keep all my

statutes ... he shall surely live, and shall not die ... Have I any

pleasure at all that the wicked should die? Says the Lord God; and

not rather that he should return from his ways and live?”

The Talmud confirms the power of repentance to blot out one’s sins

before God.

This, though, refers only to the divine court and not human

reckoning. The Jewish tradition is clear that a person sentenced to

capital punishment is to be punished by death, regardless of

repentance. The human response cannot mirror God’s granting clemency

to repentant criminals.

If a person has returned to God through repentance, then he will

be forgiven by God for his sins. In human courts, though, justice is

grounded exclusively on past actions; repentance cannot undo what has

already been done. Further, Judaism insists that repentance cannot be

achieved until the injured party has forgiven the criminal for his

sin. It is impossible for a murderer to fully repent because he

cannot gain forgiveness from the victim. That option has been removed

with the person’s death. Therefore, there can be no forgiveness for

the murderer since there is nothing to be done to right the wrong. He

cannot take the murder back, and there is no forgiveness from the

grave.

Additionally, Judaism cautions that allowing repentant murderers

to escape capital punishment would fill death row with wholesale

claims of repentance. Every inmate would seize this mechanism to

escape the ultimate punishment. Also, it is beyond the scope of human

knowledge to verify whether the criminal has truly repented. The

death row inmate has understandable motivation to appear repentant to

avoid execution. Only God knows the human heart, and therefore only

God can accept repentance.

Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols asked for

forgiveness and offered to help victims’ families with the healing

process.

“My heart truly goes out to all the victims and survivors and to

everyone who was affected by the Oklahoma City bombing,” Nichols

said. “Words cannot adequately express the sorrow I have felt over

the years for the grief they have all suffered.”

To be honest, I care far less about Mr. Nichols’ sympathetic heart

than the hearts he stilled forever. Even if words could express his

sorrow, they would remain just that -- words. Any protestations of

remorse ring hollow, and they are too little, too late.

In God’s eyes, one who repents is as if he has gotten a “new heart

and new spirit” and begun a new life. In the Jewish legal system,

though, repentance was not germane to carrying out the sentence of

the court. Questions related to the sincerity of the criminal’s

repentance prevented human courts from staying an execution.

If criminals repent before their just punishment in this world,

they have the opportunity to become reconciled with God in the

world-to-come. That is not to deny their just punishment in this

world.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

Conversion is a personal experience with public consequences.

Accepting God as one’s Lord and putting one’s whole trust in God’s

grace and love is a blessing and a gift to which one must respond.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter

the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my

Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

Christian heritage and Holy Scripture, especially the Letter of

James, emphasize that “faith” necessitates “works.” We usually do

good, hoping that God will love us because we do good; Christian

truth is that we are to do good in response to God (already!) loving

us at our beginning and through our end. All of this emphasizes that

“actions speak louder than words!”

Conversion is less something one does than it is something that

happens. It requires both looking at the past and saying “I’m sorry”

and looking to the future and saying “Wow!” In that “Wow!” is an

amendment of life put into words in the Baptismal Covenant on pages

304-305 of the Book of Common Prayer: “persevere in resisting evil,

and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord ...

proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ ...

strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the

dignity of every human being ... with God’s help.” When attempting to

be faithful to this commitment is apparent in one’s life, that person

may be said to be, and treated as, a “convert.”

If someone convicted of a crime has demonstrated “converted”

behavior between the time of that crime and the time of their trial

and sentencing, that “conversion” might be taken into consideration

at their sentencing. Simply having said, “Lord, Lord” should not be

sufficient reason for sentencing differently. Of course, “actions

speak louder than words” applies to all of us, extending well beyond

those accused of crimes.

[This question begs another, which I think, is more basic for

Christians: “Can those who worship God who, in human life, was put to

death as a victim of capital punishment, support our ‘death

penalty?’”]

THE VERY REV’D CANON

PETER D. HAYNES

St. Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

There seem to be two possible expectations of our justice system.

The first is justice -- punishment for wrongs done. The second is

rehabilitation -- making better citizens of offenders.

As I raise my children, my heart bleeds for them as I punish them.

I don’t want to be the bad guy, but without justice, my children will

become spoiled brats. It is my hope that a timeout or restriction

will change their behavior. In the case of my family, justice has

twin objectives.

Taken to our legal system, a traffic ticket also has twin

objectives. Hopefully the fine and traffic school (which are

penalties) will change my driving behavior. This is true of any level

of justice, even in cases involving capital punishment. The

punishment is meant to change the course of a life.

Now, if there is no life after this one, then capital punishment

cannot bring justice and rehabilitation. Without life, rehabilitation

would be meaningless. What would be the point? The purpose of justice

is then limited to punishment.

As a Christ-follower, I am convinced that this life is just a test

lap for eternity. I will spend far more time there than here.

However, the decisions of this life have eternal ramifications in the

next. If the goal of this life is to prepare Mr. Payton for eternity,

then the death penalty has caused him to consider the path of his

life and succeeded. If he has truly turned his life over to Christ,

then both justice and rehabilitation will have been meted out in his

sentence.

Mr. Payton’s faith in Christ would be an overriding factor in

sentencing him, if there were no eternity. If he had been

rehabilitated to being a productive member of society, even from a

prison cell, then yes, it should be considered in his sentencing.

However, if there is no eternity, Christ could not change him, and

the point would be moot in the first place.

SENIOR ASSOCIATE PASTOR

RIC OLSEN

Harbor Trinity

Costa Mesa

At Donovan Penitentiary near San Diego, one of our most committed

Zen practitioners is a man serving a double-life sentence for murder.

He was sentenced as an 18-year-old and is now around 45.

His life was spared. He reads widely, has developed many skills

and interests, works at a daily prison job and realizes he must make

the best of his life, even if it will be lived within prison. He

tries to be a positive influence on the younger men who may be in

prison for shorter terms.

We have written in support of his parole applications, realizing

that our input about his Zen practice is only a part of the board’s

decision-making process, which must include other considerations,

such as details about his crime, the families of the victims and

psychiatric reports.

I am opposed to the death penalty even for prisoners who have not

converted. Capital punishment degrades the culture that resorts to it

and subverts the very humanitarian principles it seeks to avenge. In

sentencing hearings, all relevant factors including religious

experience should be considered. It is hard to understand why a judge

would make the mistake of excluding it, especially since testimony

about a conversion could be heard without requiring a favorable

decision.

The term “conversion” is foreign to Zen. There is nothing to

change, to turn away from or return to. We try to wake up to each

moment, to realize the true nature of our life and to manifest it in

our daily lives.

This process may be described as aspiring to do our best, living

with awareness, experiencing our delusions and imperfections, atoning

and again aspiring to do our best. This entire cycle is natural and

perfect. We move from unawareness to awareness to unawareness moment

by moment: no special state is achieved, and there is no sense in

which we have accomplished something definitive.

Atonement means to be “at one” with, which means being fully

present each moment. The traditional metaphor in Zen is “polishing

the diamond”: A diamond is perfect, and yet it is only natural that

we polish it to shine brightly. Our meditation and Zen training is

not an attempt through hard work or intervention to produce rubies

from coal, and we are not climbing some kind of spiritual ladder.

Our Donovan practitioner describes his experience in prison:

“Take the long capillary back to my cell.

Zen brother Steve is doing yard work.

Digging ditches and picking up trash as if his soul depends upon

it.

Maybe it does.

Thursday, Thursday, Thursday.

Cellie is at work when I get home.

Peace, quiet, solitude. A hot cup of coffee.

It’s great to be alive!

Folded blankets. One for the floor, two to sit on.

Posture. Breathing. Labeling.

Rumble and hiss of ventilation. Distant toilets. A radio.

I breathe. The beast breathes.

I awaken the Buddha.”

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa