Capital Punishment

By now everyone has heard of Christa Pike's botched execution in Tennessee. I think it is nightmarish that they tried to kill her twice, and she is still alive, barely. 

I have been against capital punishment since 1959. I was 8 years old then. How the subject even got on my radar was the Charles Starkweather story. Charles Starkweather - Wikipedia

"Charles Raymond Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959)^[2] was an American spree killer who murdered eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming between December 1957 and January 1958, when he was nineteen years old."

This was the first major news story I can remember. I won't go into all the details here, if you want you can read the Wikipedia article.  I actually didn't know the details, most of the news went over my head.  I did know that Starkweather was "on the lam", everyone did. His path went through our area on his way to Wyoming, where he was apprehended. It was a scary time.  My parents usually didn't lock our doors, or take the keys out of our vehicles.  But during this time they locked up.  However Dad left his keys in his pickup, saying he didn't want Starkweather coming to the door asking for them.

After Starkweather was apprehended, he was tried and sentenced to death. The means of execution at that time was the electric chair. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief that he had been captured.  I didn't watch the news much, but knew he was sentenced to die.  I didn't feel sorry for him, I thought he was a horrible person.  I still think he was a horrible person. I think what triggered my reaction was the faulty reception on our black and white television for the only two stations we could get. At the time, maybe still, they didn't allow photos inside a courtroom when a trial was taking place.  They had artists renditions of the people taking part.  They showed a grainy drawing of Starkweather.  And just then the picture started breaking up into snow.  I thought I was seeing his electrocution in real time, and he was just dissolving into particles.  My mom reassured me that it wasn't actually happening, they wouldn't show that on tv. It was just our bad reception.  She talked to me saying, "He has to answer for what he did."  I didn't argue with her, I didn't really even disagree.  Just this gut level revulsion that I couldn't articulate.  I still can't articulate it.  I just feel this state sponsored killing is wrong.  People say that he made his victims suffer terribly, that he deserved to suffer.  But his death didn't bring the victims back, or help their families.

Starkweather's girlfriend was Caril Ann Fugate.  She was only 14.  That was 6 years older that me at the time.  She served 17 years in an adult prison before she was paroled. She maintained to the end that she had been kidnapped by Starkweather, and hadn't taken part in the murders.

Yesterday was the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux.  I remembered this story about her when she was 14: 

"In 1887, Paris was shocked by a brutal triple murder committed by Henri Pranzini, an Italian-born adventurer convicted of killing his lover, her 12‑year‑old daughter, and the housekeeper EWTN+1. Reports described Pranzini as unrepentant, refusing visits from priests and showing no remorse. To many, he seemed a lost cause. She did not see only a criminal, but a soul in danger of eternal separation from God. Thérèse later called Pranzini her “first spiritual child” 

Where Peter Is+1." She began praying with extraordinary devotion for his conversion, offering sacrifices and having Mass said for him, asking Jesus for a sign that he had turned toward Him. Thérèse’s confidence was rooted in her belief in God’s mercy. She trusted that even if Pranzini died without visible repentance, God’s love could still reach him.

On August 31, 1887, the day before his execution, something extraordinary happened. As Pranzini was led to the scaffold, he suddenly asked the priest for a crucifix, took it, and kissed the wounds of Christ three times Where Peter Is+2. For Thérèse, this was the sign she had begged for — her “first son” had turned back to God at the last moment EWTN. She read the account the next day and rejoiced, later writing that she believed he had been borne into heaven"

The story has parallels to the one in the Gospel about the thief who was crucified beside Jesus, experiencing conversion minutes before death.