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Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009

Community Conversation: All should have the opportunity to change their lives for the better

By Michael Simmons, Richland

I have had the privilege to visit the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla as a Catholic volunteer most Sunday mornings since shortly after the Easter day riots of 1977.

As a Catholic, I believe in the sanctity of all human life, from womb to natural death.

In prison facilities like Walla Walla, the possibility of escape by those on death row is impossible. I go through no less than seven electronically controlled gates and metal doors to visit the Intensive Management Unit, where death row is located.

I was acquainted with the four men who have been put to death since the death penalty was reinstated in 1981: Westley Allan Dodd in 1993, Charles Rodman Campbell in 1994, Jeremy Vargas Sagastegui in 1998 and James Homer Elledge in 2001.

I know the men currently on death row to some degree and try to visit them regularly. Most already have been incarcerated for over 10 years. Several have shown signs of significant growth as individuals. Visiting them is no different than visiting the rest of the population.

I have known men who have avoided the death penalty with life or long-term sentences. For the most part, these men fit in well.

Many have jobs that benefit the institution. One helps run the hobby shop, teaching other inmates how to make teddy bears, Indian drums, leather belts and more.

Another obtained a mail order law degree and helps other inmates with legal research in the library and does janitorial work. A third murderer I know has missed few Sunday services in 25 years.

Many inmates whose crimes could have qualified them for the death sentence are contributing to the institution and doing just fine. The point is, people can change, and all of us deserve that opportunity, even if it is in confinement.

Several of the men on death row have changed over the years. They deeply regret their terrible crimes and have, as best they can, tried to apologize to family and friends of their victims.

A lot of people would agree that our country has lost prestige around the world because of our lack of respect for human life, exhibited through wars, abortion, torture and the death penalty.

It is disgraceful that we can be counted with those despots who still kill their fellow citizens.

New Mexico and New Jersey have shown great courage and leadership and mercy by abolishing the death penalty. It is the only just and reasonable thing to do.

It seems impossible to figure out who should die and who should live. How can someone who has had all the "opportunities" in the world be spared from death, and a young person who was brought up with nothing in an evil environment be put to death for a similar crime?

How can the killer of one or two people be put to death and the killer of 48-plus people be permitted to live?

The answer is that all should be given the opportunity to finish their lives in a confined, reasonable environment, where they have a chance to become more humane and of some service to mankind.

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