Death!

Like nearly two thirds of Americans, as a young man I was in favor of the death penalty.  Since I lived in Nebraska, that was an easy position to take - one not likely to cause conflict with friends and neighbors, should the subject come up.  I don't recall anyone asking, but I'm sure I'd have easily justified my beliefs based on a few obvious "facts":

• The death penalty reduces the crime rate.
• Some people are so evil the world would be a better place without them.
• Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for food, housing, medical care, etc. for convicted killers

If pressed, my principal objection to the practice of executing prisoners would be the long period of time between sentencing and carrying out the sentence.

Fortunately, with age comes wisdom, and I've come to understand that the death penalty is ineffective, expensive, and unfairly applied.  It's impossible to determine cause and effect with statistics, but a comparison of murder rates between death penalty and non death penalty states shows a consistently lower rate in the latter (of course, this statistic is likely skewed by the fact that over a third of the executions since 1976 have been carried out in Texas, and nearly 90% are in the south.

 OK, so maybe the death penalty doesn't actually prevent crime, but at least we're executing only the very worst offenders, right?  Actually, no - do we really think over 30% of the worst people in the country commit crimes in Texas?  Then there's this (from The ACLU Race and the Death Penalty):

University of Iowa law professor David Baldus found that during the 1980s prosecutors in Georgia sought the death penalty for 70 % of black defendants with white victims, but for only 15% of white defendants with black victims.

So, if we aren't necessarily executing the worst offenders, we can at least take solace in our knowledge that all of these criminals deserve severe punishment, right?  Again, no - a recent study estimates that about 4% of death row inmates are innocent!  If you think a 96% success rate is good enough, think about how you'd feel if one out of every 25 airline flights blew up on take off - I suspect you'd be a lot less excited about your next trip to Los Vegas!

Since we aren't always executing the worst criminals - and in fact are almost certainly executing the innocent - it seems kind of silly to talk about how much money the death penalty saves us, but, what the heck, let's do it anyway.  Is this racist, ineffective, inaccurate system really worth it because it just saves us so stinking much money?  Care to take a guess?  How much money does the average death sentence save us?  Accurate costs are difficult to come up with, but most studies show a death penalty case may cost $1 million more than a non death penalty case.  Typically, a prison inmate costs about $50,000 per year to house - a cost that will be somewhat higher for the death row inmate who may take a dozen years or more to exhaust his appeals.  While both sides may claim the economy argument, it's clear there is, at best, little or no cost advantage to executions.

Recently, the death penalty has been in the news in Nebraska.  Although I  no longer live in the Cornhusker State, I still follow the news - or at least read the headlines.  I knew Ernie Chambers had been working for years to try to eliminate the practice in the state, but I assumed he was tilting at windmills.  Much to my surprise, a bill to eliminate the death penalty in Nebraska recently passed by a 2 to 1 margin!  Nebraska's Governor - a Republican, of course - has vowed to veto the bill, but it appears support in the Unicameral is strong enough to override the veto.

If Nebraska does do away with the death penalty, it will represent an amazing victory for progressives in the state.  I've long felt that Ernie Chambers was a great - and largely unappreciated - asset to the state, and this may be his most lasting legacy.  We can only hope this is a trend we'll see repeated throughout the country.

Child Abuse at Penn State and Syracuse

I didn't plan to post on the Penn State Child Sexual Abuse scandal - it's not really the kind of thing I want to deal with here - but it has been so much in the news that I decided to chime in.

It seems clear to me that this is not a case of a rogue individual abusing kids.  At the very least, a number of adults looked the other way, allowing him to continue in his pattern of serial abuse.  That's the BEST thing you can think about all those people - it's much more likely that there was a deliberate attemp at a cover-up, involving not only football staff members, but school administrators, Second Mile administrators,  and even county law enforcement.  It's entirely possible that EVERY football coach and official knew what was going on - we may never know for sure the extent of the cover-up.

Recently,  another scandal at a major university's athletic department has been revealed.  Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine has been accused of molesting two boys over a period of about 15 years.  Unlike at Penn State, no witness to an acutal attack has surfaced.

I don't need to know anything more about Jerry Sandusky to form an opinion of his behavior - his interview with Bob Costas was extremely creepy.  Clearly, regardless of the results of any legal proceedings, this guy is guilty in the opinion of any reasonable person.  The case against Bernie Fine is less clear, but there are certainly some red flags about that situation.  I'm certainly not shocked by the allegations in either case - child sexual abuse is, unfortunately, all too common. 

As I could have guessed, coaches, players, and fans of both institutions have been eager to show support.  Of course, they're not supporting the VICTIMS - they're supporting the accused abusers!  Here's a quote from Syracuse Head Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim, "I know this kid (Davis), but I never saw him in any rooms or anything. It is a bunch of a thousand lies that he has told. You don't think it is a little funny that his (relative) is coming forward? He supplied four names to the university that would corroborate his story. None of them did…there is only one side to this story. He is lying"  Kind of makes you wonder how Boeheim could know, with such certainty, that all the allegations are completely false, doesn't it?

At Penn State, Sandusky has been - rightly, in my opinion - demonized, but, during the Nebraska game last week, the stadium showed plenty of "This one's for JoPa" type signs, supporting the man who Could have stopped the abuse a decade ago, but chose to do nothing.  Assistant coaches and players were quick to support Paterno, regardless of the role he played in this crime.  By Paterno's own admission, he was told there was some contact of a sexual nature between Sandusky and a young boy.  That, to me, means he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. 

National commentators have expressed shock and outrage regarding the Penn State mess.  How many times have you heard someone say, "I would have stopped it, if I knew"?  No, you wouldn't.  The sad truth is, this is exactly what so-called responsible adults do when faced with the knowledge or suspicion that a friend, relative, or co-worker is guilty of sexually assaulting a child.  They wimp out.  They look the other way.  They pretend it didn't happen.  They help to cover it up.  God forbid they stand up to protect a child - it could be embarrassing.  Their friend (or relative, or co-worker) might get mad.  Maybe they'll stop.  Maybe it will just go away.  In all the coverage regarding this scandal, I've yet to see someone make this point.  Think about it - all too often a parent won't stand up to protect their child from being assaulted by another household member, so what makes us think they'll stand up to protect someone else's child?

In the Syracuse University case, you have a long-time, successful basketball coach saying flatly that the accuser is lying.  There's no wiggle room in that - no possibility that something happened over that period of time.  Nothing.  "He's lying."  Well, I guess there's no reason to investigate, is there Coach?  Do you suppose Joe Paterno said the same thing?  Since you're so positive, are you willing to be held accountable if the allegations turn out to be true?

The truth is, if you're not directly involved in the situation, you don't know what happened at Syracuse.  I certainly don't know whether Bernie Fine is a pedophile or not.  I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure.  One thing I do know for sure, though - Jim Boeheim also doesn't know with absolute certainty.  Since that's true, he should keep his mouth shut.  When you're talking about child sexual abuse, there's a time to talk.  That time is when you can speak up and make it stop.  If all you have to offer is support for those who enable abusers, just shut up.