Broken

Catherine Ryan '24

The sentence for rape is not rape. The sentence for arson is not arson. Yet here in America we murder those who murder.

Since nineteen seventy-six, one thousand five hundred forty six people, executed. Five hundred seventy-four people from Texas, one hundred sixteen from Oklahoma, ninety-nine from Florida.

The federal government has its own cases too. Only three executions from Nixon to Obama. But thirteen under Trump’s watch alone. The highest rate in over one hundred years.

Legal death has a way of sticking around in this country.

Under the thumbs of state officials, judges, even the highest court, people have been silenced. We need to execute our promises. Not our people.

Because who is the real the killer when both the state and the convicted are murderers?

America is trapped inside its nightmare of hypocrisy. We want it to be quick and neat.

So the image of death does not stain the mind.

Calm and clinical is best.

It's easier to watch if the prisoner is going to sleep.

Because if the killing takes too long, or its too barbaric, too gruesome, It makes us uncomfortable.

LOOK THE CRIMINAL IN THE EYE. We can’t.

Lethal injection, we worry, will take too long. Clayton Lockett tried to pry himself from the table. After 43 minutes the drugs beat him to it.

Stress shattered his heart.

South Carolina had a solution, Fifty-three thousand dollars to build an anachronistic death chamber, Because bullets are swifter than a lethal cocktail of chemicals.

If you think the firing squad is more humane, You aren’t the one in the metal chair.

Three people aiming their rifles at you, The Target. Fifteen feet away, they stand.

Far enough away to keep a distance, but close enough to leave a mark.

Your ankles, legs, chest, arms and head restrained

A hood covers your head.

An X drawn on your heart. Ready, aim, the order is read.

Gun shots fired.

Now you're red.

Witnesses frozen, Numb behind the glass.

Sitting idle.

Where were the witnesses who said you were innocent?

The doctor declares you dead. Once you are dead, you are free. America is the land of the free. America also gives you choices.

In Missouri, you have the choice between lethal injection or the gas chamber. In South Carolina, you have the choice between getting shot at a dozen times or being electrocuted.

We debate about which of these methods to use.

Some say the electric chair does the job. I say it's “frying someone to death.”

The eighth amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Is this not cruel or unusual to you?

Where’s the due process?

Where’s the equal protection?

Where are their rights?

We say it makes us feel safer, To have a government tough on crime. Yet it doesn't even work

No evidence that it acts as a deterrent. No evidence that it reduces crime. In fact, the evidence works against it.

Crime rates in capital punishment states are no less than those without it.

Spotlights shine bright on the families and loved ones of the victims who are “owed closure.” But closure is not in the placid, Calm dead body of the criminal, But in the cage, behind the bars, alive, living, breathing, In the thoughts that won't give up, In the self mental mutilation, Existing with it everyday in solitary confinement. More painful than death, but never permanent – only permeable.

We let them transcend to where metal bars are made out of water and guns only shoot red rose petals that scatter like confetti over blankets of viridescent meadows.

I know there are feelings of resentment, hatred, disdain –

A “I want them dead for what they did” kind of mentality when a horrible crime is committed, But we can’t let our aversion toward the criminal stop us from seeing the truth. We can’t let mob rule win. The state should not be in the business of taking a life.

More than half of my country favors these death sentences. No one is on my side.

Just like no one was on Carlos DeLuna’s side

Except for his defender. But even he was called a phantom. The prosecutors, the judges, the police, the investigators, The whole darn legal system was on the other side of the glass.

It’s too late when we finally see him, executed for another man’s crime.

Irrevocable. Irreversible. Irreparable.

There is no room for mistakes when someone’s life is on the line. Yet errors are still made, Some are hidden, Some go untouched, One execution of an innocent man is one too many.

It's not just Carlos DeLuna.

Eddie Lee Howard also knows how mistakes get made.

The Mississippi Supreme Court threw out the false forensic evidence. Twenty-six years on death row for a crime he did not commit Last year he was released from the state’s chains. He’s considered one of the lucky ones. But those chains are still wrapped around his hands. The key thrown away.

Who will give him back those years?

Killing is “good” in America when a jury of your peers decides No matter who showed up that day, Or who didn’t, Your lawyer sleeping, The policeman lying, The confession coerced.

Capital punishment is for the people who don’t have capital. Its practice discriminates, arbitrates. The rich, they hire the best. Lawyers, psychiatrists, private investigators, To explain that drunken rage.

The death penalty is the poor man’s privilege. Because of where they’re from, because of their class, because of their race, What crime did they commit again?

It's like a lottery. Not applied uniformly. Results are up for grabs unlike the guillotine blade before it slices.

When the case is in court, juries tend to point their fingers at the same type of people They are men who likely killed a white person, but they are not white One hundred eighty-seven wrongful convictions on death row. Look who's pointing fingers now.

America likes to be on top, But is this a ranking we want?

Sixth behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Stuck between Egypt and Pakistan.

Western democracies reject executions We are out of step.

Proponents say that killing is cheaper than locking up for life. But appeals take years.

It's not saving money. It's not saving time. It's not saving lives.

Incarceration works. So then why do we keep doing this?

An eye for an eye retribution. We want our revenge. Pulling the trigger, Injecting the drugs, Relishing death, Who are we to say it is just?

A society that embraces life does not kill human beings. We are no better than our own convicted criminals. Maybe even worse.

Shaggy Tripp Clark '25 Photography