"Strained Mercy" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Strained Mercy

A recent article in The New York Times reveals that the U.S. Supreme Court is displeased with the number and quality of death penalty decisions coming its way from Texas, through the state’s highest criminal court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower courts, it is reported, are seeming to take a snottier-than-thou attitude to the Black-Robed Nine, shoving pro-capital punishment decisions up the line after the nation’s highest court has instructed them otherwise.

Texas just loves killing people in its name, hundreds since the game was restored 28 years ago, and their zeal presents something of an embarrassment to civilized discourse. Personally, though I think many people prove themselves undeserving of life, I also believe killing people for killing people isn’t justified either. Also, when you put someone to sleep with a toxic cocktail, they no longer suffer for their sins.

Anyway, back to the injustice, one of the reasons why the high court is getting so many death penalty cases is because the top Texas court features elected judges, and seven of nine are former prosecutors. Did you ever hear of a DA campaigning for a seat on the bench talking about compassion? Nope. All they want is swift and lethal justice. Most campaign against the idea of lengthy appeals.

Earlier this month, a 39-year-old woman was hours away from execution when the Texas governor granted a 120-day reprieve to allow for a review of disputed evidence. Previously, both the top appeals courts had denied the stay, and the Harris County District Attorney announced that he was "very disappointed" with the governor’s decision.

Very disappointed doesn’t seem very reasonable. Surely if a governor who has signed plenty of death warrants sees a reason to allow for a re-examination of the evidence, it should be incumbent upon the prosecutor to say, By all means. Do they get a bonus in their pay for pushing a state murder? Do they earn plaudits from the survivors when they show a particularly high level of blood lust?

Let us not strain the quality of our mercy.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.