Begging Forgiveness for Punishing the Innocent

I like policy. I like those who study policy. I wish those in charge of policy would exhibit more interest in the effectiveness of policy, in the impact of policy on actual people.

Government is about policy, but it also involves personality.

Policy is built on the firm ground of values. Values are largely a reflection of character. Personal action that comes from character often has an effect that transcends policy.

Many of those who embraced the direction toward which Richard Nixon was moving national policy recognized that his personal actions represented an unmistakable danger to the Republic.

In President Nixon’s case, that danger eclipsed any redeeming qualities he possessed, and he did have what I interpret as moments of grace. Those moments remind me that human experience is seldom confined to the caricatures we see.

Two of my political heroes illustrate the complexity of political life. One-time Governor Marvin Mandel (D-MD) battled entrenched interests to establish the nation’s very first Shock Trauma unit. It has been replicated around the world. We can only guess at the number of lives saved. Former Governor George Ryan (R-IL) reversed his life-long support for the death penalty and pretty much ended executions in Illinois.

Both of my heroes were crooks. George Ryan later spent six years in prison. Marvin Mandel served a year and a half before President Ronald Reagan commuted his sentence. He should have been behind bars for much longer.

Sometimes, official actions reflect a personal set of values that do more than make my teeth itch. Sometimes my interest in policy vanishes even when no public scandal is involved.

What is involved is life, death, and punishment.

Democrat Martha Coakley was Attorney General of Massachusetts when a case of child molestation fell apart. Children had testified against a family of child care providers after being coached. As the stories were reviewed and matched with a lack of physical bruising the case began to be seen as little more than railroading. Coakley asked the governor to refuse any review. After eight years behind bars, the convicted-but-innocent family were all released, in spite of the efforts of the Attorney General to keep them in prison.

Martha Coakley’s logic was interesting. She reasoned that one of the defendants was male and that such cases usually involved “a primary male offender.”

Martha Coakley later ran for the Senate and lost to Republican Scott Brown.

In Illinois, two men were found guilty of the kidnapping and brutal murder of a little girl. They were sentenced to death. Over time, that case also collapsed. DNA evidence eventually cleared the two. A few investigators involved in the case had faked evidence and later went to jail. The lead detective campaigned for the release of the innocent convicted murderers.

Democrat Roland Burris was Attorney General of Illinois at the time. He very much wanted to be governor in a law-and-order year. He ordered his staff to fight hard to get the two innocent men executed. His reasoning was that a jury had ruled and that decision had to be respected no matter what. His second in command, the Deputy Attorney General, resigned rather than try to kill two obviously innocent people.

Burris lost the case and never became governor. After twelve years on death row, the two were released by the courts.

Burris was later appointed to the US Senate by the comically corrupt Governor Rod Blagojevich. After the Governor went to jail, Burris did not try for re-election.

I am not saddened to hear about the financial troubles experienced by the national campaign to make Rick Perry President Perry.

As Governor of Texas, Rick Perry was a very busy man. A top forensic expert delivered a document to him proving pretty conclusively that a man convicted of setting a fire that burned his children to death could not be guilty. The expert testimony showing arson in that case turned out to be junk science, composed of myths and suppositions. Those experts had been untrained, not experts at all. Arson was ruled out by the top scientist in Texas in the physics of arson fires.

Governor Perry was too busy to read the report.

Cameron Todd Willington’s last words before his execution were to say once again that he was innocent of killing his children.

A few years later, the Texas Forensic Science Commission conducted a review. They hired another top scientist who also concluded Willington had died an innocent man. A hearing was set to consider those findings.

Governor Perry finally found the time to act. He fired most of the commission and appointed a new chairman, who then cancelled the meeting, the study, and all mention of the case.

Christians pray each Sunday for forgiveness of our sins.

I do think we should extend our prayers to Martha Coakley, who considered gender a determination of guilt. And I will do that, as I walk with her in human frailty.

We should include Roland Burris who wanted political office enough to sacrifice the lives of innocent men. I will do that as well, as I walk with him, too.

I am far from a perfect man and would not want anyone to mistake me as a model Christian. So, as I pray, I may hold off on all that inclusiveness for a few moments until anger cools a little. And I will ask for forgiveness for that anger. Self-righteousness is so often the sword of Satan.

Then I will have to ask for even deeper forgiveness for an abiding contempt, since I know that is wrong.

For there remains Rick Perry who let an innocent man die because he was too damn busy to care.

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %