The Scott Peterson Death Penalty: One Christian's perspective

At 2:35 yesterday, one of my students yelped. "Peterson got the death penalty," she said, nearly jumping from her seat. Her father (who is a criminal justice lawyer) was at the courthouse where the verdict was read, and text messaged her, which showed up on her Instant Message personal computer in my classroom. I checked CNN and Yahoo and the Mercury News sites, and they didn't have the story up yet. Which means I got the news before most anyone else.

Interesting.

Today in my journalism class, we talked about the death penalty. It was interesting. I had the students get in groups of four and figure out, on a scale of 1-10 where they stood on the issue. Then, after that, I had the class physically get up and move around the room. The rating of 1 (never kill anyone) was on the far left, 10 on the far right. The kids positioned themselves where they philosophically lined up. And then they talked.

Couple of observations: First of all, I don't imagine that reasoned adults have better, more articulate discussions than my kids do. During the debate, one of my students actually said, "No, you're not talking about justice, that's vengeance. Justice isn't concerned with emotions, which is why it's blind."

Folks, that's deep. Most adults can't articulate the difference between vengeance and justice.

Here's what I heard as I listened to my students.

1. People on both sides wanted to administer the strongest possible punishment. Many people who were pro-death penalty were for it because they felt that it was the strongest form of punishment. Many people who were anti-death penalty were for it because they felt that death "was an easy way out" and that having to suffer in jail for life was worse.

2. Both sides agreed that killing a person doesn't always mean the same thing. You have to take into account motives, which is why we have degrees of murder.

3. People who were anti-death penalty were sometimes not opposed to it philosophically, they just doubted the current system that could make errors. So as long as errors in the system were possible, they didn't like it.

4. Some folks brought up that the USA is one of the few industrialized nations still using the death penalty. Don't know if that's true, but if it is, that's a bit embarassing.

5. One student from Georgia said that 15 percent of his state is black, but 50 percent of death row inmates are black. I checked that fact out online, and it's true. He said the system is racially unbalanced, and therefore unfair.

For the life of me, as a Christian, I can't find compelling reasons to serve up the death penalty. I mean, can you really imagine Jesus being pro-death penalty? Didn't he kind of stop a capital punishment in mid-stoning?

Folks say, "Well, there's the death penalty in the Old Testament." Yes, and in the Old Testament, you could have been killed for preaching another religion, or not eating sacrificed meat soon enough. None of us would be in favor of that now. Jesus even said that God allowed some laws due "to the hardness of your hearts."

For me, the most striking thing is that jurors said that Peterson's lack of remorse bothered them. It bothered me too, profoundly. Which is why I can't kill the guy. The Bible teaches that all souls are eternal, and that the crucial part of this life is to come to a point of submission before God, an admission of your wrongs. Repentence, it's called. And as long as Peterson is alive, he has a chance to repent.

I suppose you could say an execution date would hasten that "come to Jesus moment." But I'm not sure. Then, it might be motivated by fear, or something. I'm not sure it's the same. I don't know.

What I think we all agree on is that Scott Peterson needs to die. The man who killed his wife and unborn baby needs to be eliminated from this world, never to return. The problem is, I think that maybe the only person who can do that is Scott Peterson himself, by offering that old self up to be crucified.

And as long as he's in jail, there's a chance of that happening.