Bruenig speaks on death penalty

By ISA SHEIKH

ssociate

a news e ditor elizabeth bruenig couldn’t make it the first time her talk at notre dame was scheduled. alabama death row inmate Kenneth smith, who bruenig had known for a number of months and referred to familiarly as “Kenny,” was scheduled to be executed the day before her lecture — and she was to be a witness.

“i made a commitment to this gentleman to witness his execution. and i couldn’t break that commitment,” bruenig said in the opening of her remarks at the eck center auditorium Friday afternoon. “so i had to break this one.” bruenig — a prominent voice on the catholic left and an opinion writer with perches at outlets including The Washington Post, The new York Times and most recently, The atlantic — was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2019.

“Liz writes about a lot of things,” law school professor rick Garnett said in his introduction to bruenig. “Theology and politics, sure, but a lot more, including ‘dangerous liaisons at Yale Law school’ and the mystery illness that felled mid-atlantic songbirds just as covid-19 looked as though it might relent.” in a nov. 2022 piece for The atlantic describing smith’s botched execution, bruenig reported on the experience. in a forty-minute talk sponsored by the center for social concerns delivered to an audience packed to the brim — many stood hugging the walls or doors for lack of seats — bruenig touched on the moral and spiritual dimensions of the debate surrounding the death penalty. bruenig said that arguments about how incarceration is so brutal that the death penalty might be preferable to convicts — or about the worthlessness of murderers who can no longer provide anything by living — miss key points: both that those sentenced to death almost entirely do not want to die, and that prisoners change during their incarceration. bruenig also described how age has shaped the prisoners since the crimes that led to their incarceration. bruenig delved into the small minority of death row volunteers, who choose execution over a life sentence, one of which bruenig witnessed in mississippi in 2021.

“There was little he could do to stop it, though his attorneys fought tirelessly against dismal odds to avert it, and his family prayed unceasingly for God to save him from what two other men had already endured,” she wrote of the moments leading up to smith’s impending execution, more than 30 years after his confession to murder-for-hire.

Though the state of alabama attempted to end smith’s life on that day, he is still alive on death row.

“What providence did hold for smith was a severe and bracing mercy: after two days of back-and-forth among three of the nation’s courts concerning his eighth amendment rights and the potential of his impending execution to violate them, smith was strapped down to a gurney for hours and tortured until his executioners simply gave up on killing him,” she wrote.

“We actually make a point to try to get a hold of the most competent, most aware, most healthy people for execution. Their humanity is not a barrier — it’s sort of the point — we want to destroy it. These are lives worth taking,” she said.

“one thing to understand about the men and women of death row is that every one of them has a doppelganger, and i don’t mean an alternate personality responsible for their crimes. What i’m referring to is just an effect of incarceration over a long period of time. For any given inmate, there exists a version of them captured in news coverage and police records and court papers, frozen in the era of their wrongdoing. and utterly defined by it,” bruenig said.

“but meanwhile, due to the length of most capital sentences — more than half of the people currently sentenced to death in the United states have currently been on death row more than 18 years — the prisoner himself can’t help but change,” she added.

“Plotting aggregate rates of crime against age reveals that there is a sharp increase in criminal activity in mid adolescence, followed by an equally sharp decline in these rates in early adulthood. People appear, in other words, to be most likely to offend as youths and young adults and less likely to offend as mature adults,” she said.

“Thanks to this sometimes decades-long gap between conviction and execution, i often meet prisoners on death row long after this change and many important changes have taken place. right, i meet them after criminal menopause. These are not the guys who they were when they committed their crimes,” she added.

“oftentimes, the language of trauma is used to describe prisoners’ emotional experiences after their crimes, and studies have documented symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in men convicted of homicide, but this is also the realm of the soul. occasionally the burden is too much, and the spiritual change that is affected is in a sense, total collapse,” she said. bruenig described the experience of serving as witness to an execution, being driven from a casino in a white van. at the casino, bruenig waited with smith’s lawyer and his family.

“so we’re just waiting on the state to call us, and i’m thinking i’m gonna have to really pull it together and be professional for Kenny’s family. i’ve done this many times before, they haven’t. i know what to expect, they don’t. i need to be able to interface with the prison staff who can really be bullies to the family, who they also treat like criminals,” she said.

“but at the same time, i was praying very fervently. i don’t know if anyone else feels like this, but i feel like when i’m praying in this kind of situation, like kind of a delinquent kid who’s got a big favor,” bruenig recalled.

“and we waited on the call, and it never came. and i have never had this happen to me and the entire time i’ve been reporting on executions. i have never heard of this happening. but the prison never even came and got us. We were never even put into prison grounds. no call, not even taken into that room. They just let Kenny go,” she said.

The execution was attempted, but ultimately botched.

“They tried to execute him for several hours. They tried to get access to his veins and they failed; they could not access his veins. They tried his hands, his arms, his feet. They took a heavy game surgical needle and put it under his collarbone. Trying to access the subclavian vein here under your neck. They missed. They missed every time,” she recalled.

“i don’t know why that is. it’s a very strange mistake for them to make.” in an interview with The observer after the talk, bruenig discussed balancing her own emotional and spiritual experience with her professional obligations as a journalist.

“i’m praying internally. i’m going through all this stuff emotionally, but you know, what the families need for me and what the guys need from me is to be a professional,” she said.

“so i’m also always taking notes, i’m recording. Last time i went to alabama, i was handwriting notes the entire time. i was with the attorney and also asking the attorney for emailed copies of supreme court decisions and appeals and stays in real time. so anytime he would get an email [notification], i’d be like, ‘can i have that? can i have that notification? can you just forward me that stays?’ because i knew, ‘i’m gonna need to document this and its timestamp in my story.’ so i’m always covering ground for the story,” bruenig said.

“but internally, you have this vast freedom to go to pieces. and i cried in the shower that night. i mean, i just sat down and cried. but you know, that’s after my obligations.” she closed her talk with the implications of these moral and human challenges — and about theories of apology and reconciliation.

“To me — much like the idea of reconciliation depends upon everyday apologies to stay alive — so too does the idea of forgiveness depend on the possibility of change. and change depends on the possibility of tomorrow. The lives of people on death row are unique, but not uniquely fit for destruction, in my view. They’re in need of reconciliation and in need of forgiveness. We ourselves are too,” bruenig concluded.

Contact Isa Sheikh at isheikh@nd.edu people don’t follow leadership, they want to point fingers at other folks,” brown explained, “i’m glad that i decided not to do that.” despite all of the awards and accolades he received throughout his football career, brown felt that something important was missing from his life. although he sometimes struggled with his faith, brown explained that no matter what, “God made a way.”

“i realized that all of this good that i thought i was doing, it didn’t mean a thing. because everything that i am supposed to be doing i should be turning this around and giving it back to God, but i am not. i’m using it for my benefit, for my enjoyment,” brown explained.

“That was a problem for me for three, almost four years,” he said. brown described how these feelings culminated in a profound spiritual experience.

“i came home one night, i couldn’t sleep, tried to sleep, wanted to sleep, couldn’t sleep. at about 3:30 in the morning, i rolled out of bed and said ‘Lord save me and save me good,’” brown recounted.

This moment completely recontextualized the way brown went about his nFL career, influenced his experience of meeting his wife and helped rekindle his relationship with his father, he said.

“it really took the spirit to show me my dad’s heart for me. The spirit clearly showed me one time that my dad was doing the best he could,” brown said.

For brown, his focus on leadership and his devout faith go handin-hand. concluding his remarks, brown urged the audience to put their faith in God as their leader.

“if you’re looking for an authority figure in your life that’s gonna always 100% lead you in the right direction, i recommend you follow Jesus,” brown said.

Contact Liam Kelly at lkelly8@nd.edu

By ROSE ANDROWICH scene Writer

As I watched “Terraferma” at s aint m ary’s c ollege ( smc ) last Thursday, I saw a beautifully woven story about the struggles of immigrants and the s icilians that try to save them. smc ’s c enter for Women’s Intercultural Leadership and the department of modern languages and cultures partnered to present a r ace and m igration Film Festival, featuring films from different cultures, including ”Terraferma.” I loved the film so much and saw quite a few similarities between the characters and my mother. I called her instantly after the film to tell her about a scene where e rnesto ( m immo c uticchio), the patriarch of the family, refused to go to the hospital. b ut more than the personal things I related to, the film highlighted the tension between what is moral and what is legal.

The landscape on the s icilian island, Linosa, was beautiful, but the preservation of a ”pictureperfect” s icily comes at a price. The residents of Linosa insist on hiding the “ugly” parts of the island for wealthy tourists, and that includes hiding immigrants.

b ut the unfair treatment of illegal immigrants in “Terraferma” doesn’t just stop at negligence — the law actively punishes those who assist immigrants. As a fisherman, e rnesto faces a moral dilemma when he sees a nearly-capsized raft of e thiopian migrants. h e initially calls the coast guard and follows the law of s icily, but when four of the migrants jump off, e rnesto follows the laws of the sea. A fisherman must help anyone who is in the water.

If e rnesto’s kind action was discovered by the s icilian police (aka the c arabinieri), he would be punished for helping illegal migrants and bringing them ashore. s o e rnesto’s friend Filippo (Filippo Pucillo) and Filippo’s mother Giulietta ( d onatella Finocchiaro) decide to take the migrant family to avoid the legal repercussions, going so far as to risk their house. Their house helps them supplement their income because they rent it out to tourists. The survival of the e thiopian migrant family and the s icilian family are intertwined in “Terraferma.”

In terms of socioeconomic status, southern Italy is much more poor than the wealthier areas in the north. d espite their differences, “Terraferma” suggests there is a clear similarity between the two groups. b oth the tourists and the fishermen wish for a better life, and this is what enables them to understand each other. Why shouldn’t that be extended to immigrants?

Within the economic struggles are emotional struggles. While Giulietta takes care of the migrants, the film notes that she is newly widowed. h er late husband Pietro is connected by Giulietta and Filippo. Filippo learned to be a fisherman like his father and his n onno. When the family’s boat is confiscated, the audience learns it belonged to Pietro. The boat takes on a symbolism of sorts. There is a disagreement about whether the boat should be sold. Giulietta wants to change things after the death of her husband and wants a new life. Filippo and n onno want things to remain the same. b ut there is a fascinating third perspective from the island’s entrepreneur, n ino (Giuseppe Fiorello), who believes the family should focus their energy on the tourism industry. For this reason, he believes that the boat should be sold. h e benefits from the system that hurt others on the island so greatly.

The film provided a unique perspective on a serious struggle as a result of the laws. It told the larger story of the 100,000 to 200,000 migrants who come to Italy every year.

Contact Rose at randrowich@saintmarys.edu.

“Terraferma”

Starring: Filippo Pucillo, Donatello Finocchiaro

Director: Emanuele Crialese

If you liked: “Roma,” “Shoplifters”

By GABI WOODWARD scene Writer

I can attest to being an extreme “ h arry Potter” fan — I have the posters in my sixth-grade bedroom and have spent an absurd amount of time on WizardingWorld.com. As a frequent video game player, I can definitely say that I have been waiting on a decent “ h arry Potter” game for many years. Though it’s arguable that the L e G o games fulfilled all our hopes and dreams, many were thrilled once “ h ogwarts Legacy” was announced. A chance for Warner b ros. to make even more money and exploit my childhood nostalgia? s ign me up.

The game is set far before h arry and his friends attend h ogwarts. Instead, the player takes on the role of a new fifth-year student sometime around the 1890s. It’s important to note that while many (including myself) have been appalled by J.K. r owling’s rampant transphobia, “ h ogwarts Legacy” is much more diverse with an array of characters hailing from around the world, including a trans character and a lesbian side-character in the first few hours of gameplay.

It’s hard to not love the magic of the game immediately. With an incredibly detailed h ogwarts castle as your sandbox and an array of magical spells to use on a whim, how can you not get sucked into the world right awat? You even get to choose your h ogwarts house! (Yes, I will be playing it at least four times to experience all four.) While the gameplay experience doesn’t change an extreme amount depending on your house, there are some minute differences. m ainly, your house distinguishes your best friend. b ut instead of enduring the shame of layered tank tops and skinny capris, your character will be given an array of pantaloons, scarves and glasses to increasingly bring down their ego. Though fashion is a minor element, be prepared to not be able to take yourself seriously at any point. h owever, aside from the few downfalls, the game has left many glued to their controllers for a reason. With an expansive open world to explore — from the castle grounds, forest and the towns around it — you certainly will be satisfied with the scenery. Though the plot isn’t life-changing, it remains entertaining enough for at least a second playthrough.

That being said, the magic in “ h ogwarts Legacy” is slightly surface-level. While the broom-flying is mesmerizing at first, it doesn’t stay that way; this seems to be a common theme throughout the game. The main character is shallowly designed and easily replaceable. Although the game gives players an array of methods to fight opponents in challenging combat, the mechanics get slightly repetitive. There are many different, exciting ways to disarm an opponent: slowing them with ice, shooting them away with an explosion spell and even the notorious “Avada Kedava” killing spell. h owever, these options slowly get repetitive and less user-friendly, as the game consistently switches out the spells possible to use. While there are many enemies to fight, be prepared to deal with intense arachnophobia with the number of spiders the game sends after you.

Also, you will be going through the awkward teenage phase of not being able to dress right.

And you fight dragons, so what more can you really ask for?

Contact Gabi at gwoodwa2@nd.edu.

“Hogwarts Legacy”

Starring: Sebastian Croft, Amelia Gething

Creator: Avalanche Software, Portkey Games

If you liked: “Harry Potter”