GANDHI IN THE HOOD
“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars . . . Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
A powerful New York Times Opinion Piece alerted us to the fact that Lezmond Mitchell, a full blooded Navajo tribesman, is scheduled to be put to death next Wednesday, August 26, in a Federal Prison in Arizona. Elders from the Navajo Nation, including their president, vice president and legislative branch, and even the relatives of the victims who were murdered, are all pleading with President Trump to commute Mr. Mitchell’s sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole.
If Trump has a heart, and if the Justice Department has a sense of justice, such a commutation should be granted. Haven’t we killed more than enough Indians in the last 400 years?
Mr. Mitchel will be 39 years old. He’s been in prison for this crime for 19 years, since he was twenty years old. He was convicted along with a juvenile a few years younger than him, for killing another Navajo woman and her granddaughter. The prosecutor admitted it was the juvenile who was mostly responsible for the murders, but as a juvenile, he could not be prosecuted for a capital crime. So they focused on Lezmond.
There are many reasons that President should commute Lezmond’s sentence. First, the Federal Government signed a treaty with the Navajo people that they would not interfere with “Navajo on Navajo” crimes that occurred on the Navajo reservation. Such an agreement recognizes and honors the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.
Second, The Navajo Nation has been against the death penalty for as long as they have been recognized as a Nation.
And finally, and most importantly, the death penalty itself is a backward, barbaric, unjustifiable old (old) millennium punishment that does not reduce crime, does not “mollify” the victims, does not make society safer, does not educate or uplift or inspire anything other than more of the same. We should do away with the death penalty as almost all modern democracies have done.
Fortunately, twenty-five states here in the United States have outlawed the death penalty. (Four of these states, including Colorado, have outlawed the death penalty by means of a moratorium by the Governor.) Alas, the other twenty five states and the federal government itself (after a 17 year moratorium) are perpetrating this crime against humanity. (See this great world map by the Cornell Law School.)
With the exception of Belarus, all the European countries have outlawed the death penalty, for scientific, humanistic and practical reasons. Even struggling, undemocratic countries such as Turkey, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Namibia and Angola (yes, Angola!) have done away with the death penalty.
The countries who still execute—murder—their citizens for various reasons are in order, 1. China; 2. Iran; 3. Saudi Arabia; 4. Iraq; 5. Egypt; 6. United States; 7. Pakistan and 8. Somalia. We don’t have figures for Vietnam, North Korea or Syria. But still, look at the company we are keeping by keeping the death penalty.
Here’s the deal: Yes, many, perhaps most of those on death row do indeed “deserve” the death penalty. Their crimes were horrific, their remorse often non- existent, their redemption possibly impossible. And for many, their guilt beyond dispute.
That said, we as a society do not need to likewise engage in such horror, such irredeemable trespass —the taking of a human life. By doing so, we “trap” our societal consciousness, communal consciousness at the lowest level. By engaging in the death penalty, we are allowing the lowest human impulses—fear, revenge, non-compassion—to direct our social policy. We are better than that.
So let’s don’t kill one more Indian, or African, or Asian, or Eskimo or deranged idiot or kill anybody at all. Again: Let’s don’t kill each other any more, okay? That’s a pretty low bar, but we have to start somewhere.
“I can make reparation to the man upon whom I inflict corporal punishment. But once a man is killed, the punishment is beyond recall or reparation. God alone can take life, because He alone gives it. Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, 8th November 1925.
“An eye for an eye leaves us all blind.”—Gandhi
Navajo, I understand, prefer to do ceremonies to return a person to ‘harmony’. Since all parties were Navajo (?), it would seem the Navajo people should be the decision makers on this one. Unfortunately, Trump has not shown he has a heart.