Death for Michael Addison?

It was a dreadful deed done by a young man with a violent past. He shot the police officer, and he had been thinking of shooting cops for days, if not longer. Is death the answer for this crime?

I think of lynchings, of course, when I think of the death penalty. And I think of the many mistakes made in the many courts where death was meted out only to be overturned when more evidence was gained. This one is not one of those. But lynching is still on my mind, since this criminal is black, being tried in the white state of New Hampshire.

There is no clear answer in the Bible, though for Christians, the example of the life of Jesus certainly points toward punishments that do not result in death. His way was one of nonviolence.

In John 8:3-11, Jesus intervenes in the case of a woman about to be stoned to death for adultery, saying "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Depending on what you believe about apostolic witness, this is pretty straightforward. But this story is not attested by any other gospel, nor does it appear in the earliest manuscripts of the Book of John. Is it truly the teaching of God? No matter how much I like it, I find it a slim support for not casting stones.

In Romans 13: 1-5, the Apostle Paul writes of the importance of submitting to the authority of government. But this is the teaching of someone who leads a community that does not govern. Paul's people are not able to choose whether government will impose death on some criminals or not. So his advice is to accept what cannot be changed. We, however, live in a world where there is some choice about what government requires, and in this case, the jury has a choice about what sentence to impose.

In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus clearly teaches that Christians should not kill, or even be angry with others. But at the same time, in the very same chapter of Matthew, Jesus affirms the rightness of the Law of Moses, saying "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets...Not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished." And the Law of Moses affirms the death penalty.

Then there's the much quoted "all who take the sword will perish by the sword" in Matthew 26: 51-52. Michael Addison is one who has taken the sword, so to speak, and some would argue that Jesus calls for such a one to perish by the sword. But this is circular unless the sword is in the hand of God, for someone else must "take the sword" to kill him -- and presumably also suffer the same condemnation. I'm inclined to see this teaching as offering the lesson that violence only leads to more violence.

So that's where I end in a reflection on Christian scriptures and the death penalty. Violence only leads to more violence. If we deplore the violence that cost Officer Briggs his life, then it is only appropriate to find a way to punish without violence. We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

The jury will decide, regardless of what Scripture or other authority may say. I think it's time we gave some thought to adjusting the laws of our state to take this decision out of the hands of future juries. Let us punish without violence, I say, for those who take the sword will perish by the sword.