et vobiscum morietur sapientia

“when I think of you
I die too”

-Edna St Vincent Millay-

It’s fascinating, if a bit disgusting, to observe the American legal system wrestling with animal instinct as though it were a rational code of behavior. We are one of the few countries calling itself free that still indulges in ritual sacrifices or deadly acts of revenge and of course we need to reconcile that with our loudly professed Christianity. It’s no wonder that nothing makes sense with regard to killing prisoners.

Is Percy C. Walton too stupid to justify having caustic chemicals squirted into his veins? Is he insane, and if so why is it wrong to kill someone insane or someone very unintelligent? Certainly he committed some horrible murders, but he seems to think that when you die you go to Burger King and he hallucinates all the time. So certainly he’s as equal a threat to society as the mafia hit man or perhaps worse, so why not kill him and let the contract killer rot in a dungeon?

Is it some twisted concept of mercy or compassion allowing the soulless body of the law to lock up one dangerous person and kill another in cold blood? It all seems to hinge on whether or not Walton understands that he is being killed for having killed and that of course negates the argument that executions are about protecting the public. Such crepuscular casuistry is all about sanctifying vengeance.

What is quite obvious is that the American Rabble, always calling for blood, is terrified that someone might fake being crazy and thus has made it all but impossible to meet the requirements. Because we are a religious country, we have become so sure of God that we have put on his robes, or more correctly taken up his adding machine to total up the cosmic books that must be balanced so that the sun will come up and the crops not fail. An eye for an eye was the product of a civilization so antique their ignorance is unfathomable, but we cling to it; assimilate it into our “modern” faith because we fear that if we show mercy, if we feel compassion, if we shy away from needless killing, if one act of vengeance is not offered up on the altar, the real God will return and kill us.

God may be merciful, God may be silent, God may know all, God may be absent, but certainly and for all our swooning self congratulation and ecstasy the God we play when we justify things through God is the beast.