Texas Continues to Execute the Developmentally Disabled Despite Supreme Court Ruling.

It is unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded prisoners in the United States. The state of Texas, however, appears to have found a loophole, according to a published report. In the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling on Atkins v. Virginia, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, "Because of their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment, and control of their impulses ... [the mentally retarded] do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct." Because of this, the justices found it "cruel and unusual" to put the metally deficient to death, leaving it to the states to establish a framework by which such individuals could be identified in capital cases. Psychologist George Denkowski, an expert witness oft-used by Texas prosecutors, has been utilizing "junk science" to elevate the intelligence evaluation scores of mentally deficient death row prisoners, according to a new report in The Texas Observer.

However, Texas Governor Rick Perry rejected a bill that would have established rules to determine who is mentally retarded. Left grasping, courts invented their own criteria, turning to psychologists for the complicated evaluations. Having played a key part in two-thirds of the state's Atkins appeals, Dr. George Denkowski has built a lucrative practice off ensuring the mentally retarded are executed, his critics say. Denkowski's reputation for declaring prisoners fit to die has earned him "almost Dr. Death status," attorney Robert Morrow told reporter Reneé Feltz.

Since complaints were lodged against Denkowski, the Texas Board of Examiners of Psychologists has found that at least three of his cases were littered with scoring errors. Now Denkowski is facing a review by the state licensing board on Feb. 16, when his career as a psychologist could end. Already, three of the Atkins appeals he testified on have been placed on hold pending the outcome of the hearing. Denkowski evaluated 29 men in total; some have already been executed.

James: No surprise it's in Texas. They should change their name from "The Lone Star State" to "The Death State." There is absolutely no reason why we should be executing mentally retarded people. In my view that is no different than executing a young child who accidentally killed their parents. The mentally retarded don't know what they did was wrong, so put them on medications and monitor them in a mental institution. The world isn't black and white but has many shades of gray and mentally retarded criminals fit into one of those shades of gray. So, being able to keep society safe doesn't necessarily mean we have to resort to killing these mentally retarded prisoners. We have in America, a "death cult" and it seems to be centered in Texas. We are a war-like people who also kill people (via the death penalty) to show other people that killing is wrong. Now, does that sound like a logical thing to do? I'm starting to wonder who the real mentally retarded ones are, the prisoners or the citizens?

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New Mexico, USA will Abolish the Death Penalty.

The New Mexico Senate voted to abolish capital punishment, a measure already approved by the lower House that Governor Bill Richardson must sign before it goes into effect, the Senate said on its website. Supporters of the measure argue that replacing the death sentence with life in prison without parole would save the state more than one million dollars a year. There are about 10 US states currently considering repealing the death penalty, which is applied in 36 of the 50 states in the union.

James: The death penalty has no place in civilized society and in my opinion not in Buddhism either. Consider this tale from the Rajaparikatha-ratnamala, which was advice given to King Udayi from the great Indian-Buddhist philosopher Nagajuna:

The Rajaparikatha-ratnamala or The Precious Garland of Advice for the King is a treatise attributed to the famous South Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna (2nd or 3rd century AD). In this work on Buddhist statecraft, Nagarjuna gives King Udayi of the Satavahana Dynasty advice on a variety of matters. Here is how Nagarjuna handles capital punishment:

O King, through compassion you should always< style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Even for all those embodied beings Who have committed appalling sins. Especially generate compassion For those murderers, whose sins are horrible; Those of fallen nature are receptacles Of compassion from those whose nature is great.... Once you have analyzed the angry Murderers and recognized them well, You should banish them without Killing or tormenting them.

Banishment or exile has been employed as a form of sanction in various pre-modern Asian legal systems. Indeed, banishment has also been employed at times in the West. Although banishment obviously entails psychological and physical hardships, it is certainly to be preferred to death. Moreover, it can protect the convicted defendant from the possible wrath of friends or family of the victim.

James: I see banishment and exile today as life in prison without the possibility of parole, which is a very humane yet punitive way to deal with murders and other serious felons. I think whether we kill prisoners or not says more about us than the prisoners. As I've said here before the death penalty is excessive and continues the cycle and energy of anger, hatred and lust for violence and revenge.

Attention must be focused upon the person having to do the actual killing of these prisoners--the executioners. It is probably nearly impossible to kill people over and over and not be negatively effected emotionally and possibly karmically. I have seen several anti-death penalty videos showing former executioners who are still tormented with the visions of a botched electricution of a prisoner or of seeing their faces before being the one to administer the punishment. In these videos many of these executioners are now against capital punishment.

The Dhammapada states:

Everyone fears punishment; everyone fears death, just as you do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill. Everyone fears punishment; everyone loves life, as you do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill.

Knowing this, how can we Buddhists support state sanctioned killing in our names? Being o.k. with someone having to be the official executioner is "causing to kill." We go about our lives often not thinking of the burden that someone has of killing people in our names. Just because we don't think of it nor are we personally involved in the killing doesn't mean that we as a society are immune from heavy, less skillful karma.

~Peace to all beings~

P.S.~To the Michael who was selected from the drawing for the Enso-Zen t-shirt. I need to hear from you so that I can send it to you. If I don't hear from you by this coming Friday then I'll have to give it to someone else.

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Josef Fritzl, Buddhism and Angulimal.

Incest monster Josef Fritzl says he's turned to Buddhism - and wants doctors to help cure him so he can be reunited with his wife Rosemarie. Fritzl spends much of his 23 hours a day in his cell studying the peaceful Far Eastern philosophy and is considering formally changing his religion in prison.

Speaking through his lawyer Rudolf Mayer, Fritzl said that he has found a lot of comfort in reading Buddhist literature and finds the religion "fascinating". Fritzl first discovered Buddhism on a family holiday in Thailand but has only started studying the religion in depth while behind bars.

Fritzl's facing the rest of his life in jail after imprisoning his daughter Elisabeth as a sex slave in a home-made cell under the family home in Amstetten, Austria. She was locked up for 24 years where she gave birth to seven of his children. An eighth child was miscarried.

James: Clearly Mr. Fritzl is extremely mentally disturbed and needs to be imprisoned to protect innocent people from his horrific impulses. However, as a Buddhist who stands against killing human beings I stand against the death penalty for even this deranged man. It's hard to find any good in a human being such as this Fritzl but he is afterall a fellow sentient being and as I am a believer in karma I feel that his punishment has already but laid out by his actions, which will extend probably into several lifetimes.

I've never done anything nearly as horrible and disgusting as this man but I do know something about how Buddhism can heal and bring about personal change and growth. I use to be a very bitter, angry nihilist who wasn't taking medication for my severe mental illness and at my lowest wanted to blow up the entire world with nuclear weapons. Living in a psychoticly deluded state of mind I thought such a destruction would be doing everyone a service because of all the suffering. This was of course before I discovered Buddhism and now I'm as peaceful as I have ever been in my life and I literally don't hurt a fly.

I hope that Mr. Fritzl will benefit from the greatness that Buddha and the Dharma have to offer. I hope that none of my readers assume that this man has no more value to this world because of his horrific crimes. If so consider the example of the seriel killer Angulimal and Buddha:

Angulimal means a man who wears a garland of human fingers. He had taken a vow that he would kill one thousand people; from each single person he would take one finger so that he could remember how many he had killed and he will make a garland of all those fingers. In his garland of fingers he had nine hundred and ninety-nine fingers--only one was missing. And that one was missing because his road was closed; nobody was coming that way. But Gautama Buddha entered that closed road.

The guards said to Buddha, "Don't unnecessarily take the risk." And do you know what Buddha said to them? Buddha said, "If I don't go then who will go? Only two things are possible: either I will change him, and I cannot miss this challenge; or I will provide him with one finger so that his desire is fulfilled. A very beautiful man of such immense charisma was coming towards him [Angulimal]. Who could this man be? He had never heard of Gautama Buddha, but even this hard heart of Angulimal started feeling a certain softness towards the man. He was looking so beautiful, coming towards him. It was early morning... a cool breeze, and the sun was rising... and the birds were singing and the flowers had opened; and Buddha was coming closer and closer.

Finally Angulimal, with his naked sword in his hand, shouted, "Stop!" Gautama Buddha was just a few feet away, and Angulimal said, "Don't take another step because then the responsibility will not be mine. Perhaps you don't know who I am!" Buddha said, "Do you know who you are?" Angulimal said, "This is not the point. Neither is it the place nor the time to discuss such things. Your life is in danger!" Buddha said, "I think otherwise--your life is in danger." That man said, "I used to think I was mad--you are really mad! And you go on moving closer. Then don't say that I killed an innocent man. You look so innocent and so beautiful that I want you to go back. I will find somebody else. I can wait; there is no hurry. If I can manage nine hundred and ninety-nine... it is only a question of one more, but don't force me to kill you."

Buddha came very close, and Angulimal's hands were trembling. The man was so beautiful, so innocent, so childlike. He had already fallen in love. He had killed so many people... He had never felt this weakness; he had never known what love is. For the first time he was full of love. So there was a contradiction: the hand was holding the sword to kill the person, and his heart was saying, "Put the sword back in the sheath." Buddha said, "I am ready, but why is your hand shaking?--you are such a great warrior, even kings are afraid of you, and I am just a poor beggar. Except the begging bowl, I don't have anything. You can kill me, and I will feel immensely satisfied that at least my death fulfills somebody's desire; my life has been useful, my death has also been useful.

But before you cut my head I have a small desire, and I think you will grant me a small desire before killing me." Before death, even the hardest enemy is willing to fulfill any desire. Angulimal said, "What do you want?" Buddha said, "I want you just to cut from the tree a branch which is full of flowers. I will never see these flowers again; I want to see those flowers closely, feel their fragrance and their beauty in this morning sun, their glory." So Angulimal cut with his sword a whole branch full of flowers. And before he could give it to Buddha, Buddha said, "This was only half the desire; the other half is, please put the branch back on the tree." Angulimal said, "I was thinking from the very beginning that you are crazy. Now this is the craziest desire. How can I put this branch back?"

Buddha said, "If you cannot create, you have no right to destroy. If you cannot give life, you don't have the right to give death to any living thing." A moment of silence and a moment of transformation... the sword fell down from his hands. Angulimal fell down at the feet of Gautam Buddha, and he said, "I don't know who you are, but whoever you are, take me to the same space in which you are; initiate me." By that time the followers of Gautam Buddha had come closer and closer. They were all around and when he fell at Buddha's feet they immediately came close. Somebody raised the question, "Don't initiate this man, he is a murderer!"

Buddha said again, "If I don't initiate him, who will initiate him? And I love the man, I love his courage. And I can see tremendous possibility in him: a single man fighting against the whole world. I want this kind of people, who can stand against the whole world. Up to now he was standing against the world with a sword; now he will stand against the world with a consciousness, which is far sharper than any sword. I told you that murder was going to happen, but it was not certain who was going to be murdered--either I was going to be murdered, or Angulimal. Now you can see Angulimal is murdered. And who I am to judge?"

James: I don't want nor have the right to deny someone looking for help the Dharma and I truly hope that this man will find relief and clarity from Buddhism and begin to make ammends for his horrific crimes.

~Peace to all beings~

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New Jersey Abolishes Death Penalty

TRENTON, N.J., USA (AP) — Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law Monday a measure that abolishes the death penalty, making New Jersey the first state in more than four decades to reject capital punishment.

The bill, approved last week by the state's Assembly and Senate, replaces the death sentence with life in prison without parole.

"This is a day of progress for us and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder," Corzine said.

The nation has executed 1,099 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976. In 1999, 98 people were executed, the most since 1976; last year 53 people were executed, the lowest since 1996.

James: As someone who as opposed the death penalty for years, I am rejoicing today. One of the main pillars of Buddhism is the concept of non-violence. Yes these criminals must be isolated from society because of their choices by spending life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, executing them lowers our collective consciousness to the level of these killers and other criminals and we lose our innocence and peace as a society. In addition, the person who's job it is to execute the prisoner faces their own suffering. You can not engage in killing without losing a certain degree of peace. I can't imagine having to be the executioner and face the terrible dreams that must come with the job. We become desensitized to the very violence we are trying to prevent by killing these offenders. It is up to us to rise above the violence and break the cycle of suffering.

I feel deep sadness for the families who have lost loved ones and for the victims who have suffered immensely from the crimes of these individuals. I have compassion for their suffering and cry with them. That being said, I do not think that exacting revenge helps them heal. I say this because killing these criminals doesn't do anything to bring those loved ones back from the dead. It would seem to me that a person embraces more suffering than happiness by taking joy from watching one be executed. After the execution the criminal is gone but they still haven't dealt with their grief and anger which leaves one feeling hollow inside. Anger prevents us from healing and letting go of the chains that keep us imprisoned. How ironic that the victims and their families end up in a sort of prison themselves by clinging to their anger and bitterness. Anger shackles them (just as it does all of us) and the angrier they (and we) become the tighter the chains dig in.

It reminds me of a great story told by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh which I have mentioned here before. Imagine your house is set on fire by an arsonist, you escape but instead of trying to put out the flames you chase after the criminal fueled by anger and a blinding lust for revenge. You run and run and perhaps you catch the person who did this but in the mean time your house has burned down. The point being that holding resentment and anger in our hearts slowly kills us (literally). We know that all things are connected and medicine has proved that elevated stress levels (which occur from extreme anger and anxiety) can shorten ones life. Anger can build and build until often it is released through violence and by committing violence we have turned into the person that we hated so deeply in the first place.

How can we convince others that killing is wrong by killing people?

The very real chance of executing an innocent person is another big reason why we shouldn't have a death penalty. There are many, many cases of people who have been proven innocent through DNA testing but often only after spending decades of their lives in prisons. It seems quite likely that there have indeed been those wrongfully executed.

Also, the Buddhist principle of impermanence implies that all people have the capacity to transform themselves and we must allow these criminals the possibility of redemption. Perhaps the criminal kept alive could one day write books and give interviews/speeches to help others avoid a life of crime. The example of Stanley "Tookie" Williams comes to mind.

A reformed gang member who committed murder but then wrote books to keep kids out of gangs and help them avoid the terrible choices that he made. Instead we executed him and in doing so lost a credible voice in preventing future crime and that is our burden to carry. We were so consumed with our anger and lust for revenge that it blinded us to the greater good that was unfolding. Allowing the criminal life in prison gives them a lot of time to think about what they have done and think of ways to redeem him/herself. We just never know what benefits change can bring and by executing someone we take that possibility not only away from the families and the offender but also from society as a whole.

While I haven't faced the tragedy of losing a loved one to murder or watched a family member suffer from the pain of being the victim of other heinous crimes, I do know that eventual forgiveness and acceptance is the key to healing.

I hope that I never have to face such a terrible choice but I would hope that through meditating upon compassion and forgiveness that I would be able to let go of such horrible anger and pain. I have told my family that should I be killed that I do not want them to advocate the death penalty for the criminal.

It is time to focus on working toward getting to the roots of violence and therefore help reduce it rather than perpetuate it.

~Peace to all beings~

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