Digital Ink Los Angeles

On July 14, 1789, the French citizens represented by the Third Estate had arranged themselves into a militia capable of enforcing their new National Assembly‘s laws, mostly in response to growing dismay over their blossoming national debt. The storming of the Bastille created the Bastille Day holiday, equivalent to the United States’ Fourth of July Independence celebration.

Of course, the reason the French nobility had broken their national coffers and bankrupted their country — they were trying to help the American colonies gain their independence and freedom from England.

The Sans-culottes (French for “without knee-breeches”) were the poorer members of the Third Estate, and also the most likely to exact violent repayment of social debts by the aristocratic nobility who they felt responsible for the poor state of France. Within this broiling realm of hatred and revenge, a notion for “humane” execution had emerged — oddly, from Louis XVI, who sought a way to appease the angered masses and their protests over the inhumane Catherine Wheel.

From this emerged an instrument of “humane” execution: The Guillotine.

According to Wikipedia, between July 1793 to July 1794 in France is known as the Reign of Terror, the upheaval following the overthrow of the monarchy, which hurled France into chaos, and the newly formed government into frenzied paranoia. Most of the democratic reforms of the revolution were suspended and large-scale executions by guillotine began. Former King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were executed in 1793, and this was just the beginning of the bloodletting.

Robespierre had emerged as a speaker for the people in the new government, and his history associates him with much responsibility for the vulgarity and absurdity of the Terror. The “Revolutionary Tribunal” sentenced thousands to the guillotine. Every shape, size, class, color, and shade of people were charged and beheaded on suspicion of “crimes against liberty,” leading them down the short path with a big blade waiting for them — often referred to as the National Razor. Estimates of total guillotine deaths range between 20,000 and 40,000 sliced necks.

Vive La France!. Of course, coup d’etat has always had a different meaning since then. Slicing their way to freedom, one head at a time.

Sliced baguette anyone? Sacre Bleu!

On the 1976th anniversary of Jesus Christ‘s ascension from the execution fields of Mt. Calvary to the almighty heavens, the subject of the Death Penalty is introduced for consideration. This post is about provocation of ideas, a turning of stones to see what lies beneath. As we continue to practice “an eye for an eye” justice, we continue to fill up our nation’s Death Row cell blocks.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 1,156 convicted murderers have been executed in the United States (as of April 1, 2009). It’s inevitable, we all consider the subjective desire for justified execution — think 9/11 terrorists, pedophile murderers, and other diabolic souls without regard for life or their taking of it. If your son or daughter is felled at the hands of such an abominable heathen, you’d probably be the hand on the switch. “Fry ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out,” has been a popular mantra in the state of Texas for the last 30 years, with 435 executions in that time frame.

The question is asked, wherein does our burning desire for revenge begin to take shape and how might it distort the criminal process. Just like we imagine the criminal process to work as a machine, we must recognize the human hands on the levers. Thus, errors are inevitable, and perversion of justice follows without exception. There are innocent people on Death Row, just as there are some of the most hated, demonically charged beasts to ever share our gene pool who will spend the rest of their nefarious existence awaiting their final breaths in the confines of some maximum-security institution. Such is the nature of this emotionally charged issue.

The scales of justice have been rendered blind because we believe they should act without emotion or measured intent. However, to accurately understand our Lady Justice, one must know that by blending the icon, Roman blindfolded Fortuna (luck), with Hellenistic Greek Tyche (fate), and sword-carrying Nemesis (vengeance), we get the full realization of this symbolic figure. In effect, according to Occidental standards, justice becomes a melding of luck, fate, and vengeance.

This is meant to provoke the notion, on this Easter Sunday 2009, that execution is wrong if for only one reason: that we are incapable of truthful, objective adjudication.

However, it must be said that my cousin, Jason Lormand, was spared the death penalty — with trade of consecutive life sentences — for his conviction in the murder of two young people in Louisiana. I’m sure their families had some profound thoughts about how his sentencing could have been properly carried out. The point of this? I believe he’s innocent, and his video-taped “confession” was the product of a weak, miserable, drug-addicted youth who thought he was something he was not. Is it possible? Absolutely.

The last thought for this post is the tilting scales pointing toward the southern United States for the number of Death Row convictions. Draw forth your own interpretations, but the numbers are listed below:

Keep in mind, as we sleep peacefully in our beds this evening, that if there’s to be an effective deterrence to anarchy and senseless murder, the death penalty probably acts as the current favorite choice. But if violence begets violence, where does the cycle end? And most importantly, when faced with the fact that the U.S. penal system is facing an uncertain future, how do we begin to fix the problem? If there is any, that is. Evidently, the States of Illinois and New Mexico have discovered some truth to a new interpretation of justice, given their recent decisions to abolish the death penalty.