Dec. 3
TEXAS----impending execution
Texas set to execute CO's killer today
An inmate who caused the death of a corrections officer during an escape at a
Huntsville area prison unit 6 years ago is set to be executed today. Jerry
Martin, 43, has waived his right to appeal his death sentence for his role in
the death of 59-year-old Susan Canfield, of New Waverly. The lethal injection
is scheduled for 6 p.m. today.
Martin, who was serving 50 years for attempted capital murder at the time of
Canfield's death, and fellow inmate John Falk Jr., ran away from a work detail
at the Wynne Unit on Sept. 24, 2007. Martin stole a truck from the Huntsville
City Service Center on Highway 75 North, and used it to strike a horse Canfield
was riding while trying to prevent the escape.
Canfield died from severe head injuries she suffered when she was thrown from
the horse and hit the roof of the truck. Martin and Falk were captured later
that day.
Martin, who declined The Item's request for an interview before his execution,
was granted a request from senior District Judge John Delaney in June to drop
appeals for his 2009 capital murder conviction. Martin said at the time "it was
the right thing to do" because he felt that if his attorneys moved forward with
the appeal he would be granted a new trial, which he did not want.
"Earlier this year on Feb. 18, my father passed away," Martin said. "... For
the 1st time in my life I felt what it was like to lose a loved one. ... I
think Mrs. Canfield's family deserves that closure."
Testimony at trial showed that Martin and Falk overpowered a former Texas
Department of Criminal Justice field officer and stole his weapon while working
in an onion patch adjacent to the city service center. The 2 inmates scaled a
barb-wire fence and Martin stole a truck while Falk exchanged gunfire with
Canfield, who was also in the service center yard to serve as the last line of
defense in case of an attempted escape. A number of witnesses testified that
Falk had been struggling with Canfield for a rifle mounted to her saddle
moments before the truck Martin was driving collided with the horse.
The inmates fled in the truck before ditching it behind a business on Highway
30. Martin and Falk then carjacked Madilene Loosier at a nearby bank. They took
her hostage and continued the escape in her red Dodge 4-door truck before law
enforcement officials were able to stop the vehicle.
Walker County District Attorney David Weeks, who prosecuted Martin's case in
2009, said Monday he hoped today's execution could help those involved move on.
"I hope this brings closure to Mrs. Canfield?s family and all those affected by
her death," Weeks said.
Defense testimony during the punishment phase of Martin's trial focused on his
troubled past. Family members testified that Martin grew up in a broken home
and had to deal with the unexpected death of an older brother. He also battled
alcohol and drug addiction and attempted suicide on several occasions.
Earlier this year, District Judge Ken Keeling declared a mistrial in Falk's
capital murder case. He is currently awaiting a retrial.
(source: Huntsville Item)
***********************
Holberg's attorneys appeal denial of neurological testing
Attorneys for Brittany Holberg are appealing a judge's order denying a request
for her to be transferred to another facility for neurological testing.
On March 13, 1998, a Randall County jury found Holberg, now 40, guilty of
capital murder in the Nov. 13, 1996, slaying of A.B. Towery Sr., 80, who was
beaten and stabbed nearly 60 times in his southwest Amarillo apartment.
In May, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a Randall County court
hearing to take testimony from Holberg's former defense team about how they
gathered mitigating evidence in the case and to investigate claims they "threw"
the trial - claims her former lawyers, Candace Norris and Cathy Dodson, denied.
Holberg, who was sentenced to death in 1998, was arrested Feb. 17, 1997,
outside a McDonald's restaurant in Memphis, Tenn., after "America's Most
Wanted" aired multiple segments on the slaying.
During an October hearing in Canyon, Holberg's lawyers asked Visiting District
Judge Richard Dambold to allow Holberg to be transferred to a Galveston
facility for neurological testing. But on Nov. 22, Dambold issued an order
denying the request.
Holberg's attorneys are seeking to have neuroimaging tests performed to
determine whether she suffers from brain damage they say was caused by years of
chronic drug abuse, beatings she suffered and an incident the day of the
slaying in which Holberg claimed Towery smacked her on the head with a frying
pan after he complained about her using drugs use.
Later this month, attorneys are expected to submit proposed findings on the
mitigation issue to Dambold, who will issue his own findings and then the case
is expected to head to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which will review whether
Holberg should receive a new punishment trial or face the death penalty.
(source: Amarillo.com)
***************************
Remodeling the House that Closure Built
On 29 January, Texas very nearly killed Kimberly McCarthy. This would have been
the first female Texecuted on my watch, and by my (internet-less, and therefore
suspect) count only the 4th female thus disposed of by the Lone Star state in
the modern death penalty era. It made me a little sick to my stomach to think
that the goon-squad at the Walls Unit might be treating a woman in the same way
that they deal with us menfolk, but I'm not really writing about her today.
Shortly before 6pm one of the surviving family members of McCarthy's victim was
contacted by one of the vultures of the media while he was en route to the
death chamber in Huntsville. Thanks to the hyperspeed news cycle in which we
are currently rotting, I was able to listen in on the call. The man seemed
completely distraught, but I've heard such interviews before - too many damned
times - and so I didn't think to get a pencil and paper out to record his
comments. Fortunately, once I realized how important they might be, the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram had reproduced the entire affair in print. I don't really
see any reason to repeat the man's name here, save to say that he is the godson
of the victim of McCarthy, who was a retired psychology professor. I'm going to
pull a number of quotes from the article to give you a sense of what was said:
- "We were shocked and dismayed and angry and a whole plethora of emotions we
were feeling about this," [name of interviewee] said Thursday. "This is
outrageous. Nobody is considering the victims in this."
- "We have waited for 15 years patiently and quietly for justice that was
promised to us after she was initially found guilty and given the death
penalty...and the state of Texas so far has failed to realize justice for our
family."
- "After 15 years we still don't have any kind of closure. And I can say this
kind of situation has made things worse. It has created even more uncertainty
for us. We don't know what will happen."
- "My 87-year-old mother is a basket case...she is crying. If you try to talk
to her about it, she's so upset."
I think you get the picture. It is clear that this gentleman is in a lot of
pain. He doesn't sound like he is particularly irate to me, more like...more
like the murder had just happened. He seems overwhelmed about being forced to
confront a situation that he doesn‘t understand and betrayed by the
expectations the state had sold him. McCarthy committed her crime in 1997.
Sixteen years is a long time for a wound to still be weeping.
My feelings upon hearing this interview were very complicated. I'm not sure
that I can honestly untangle them here, but I am going to try. No one listening
to this man could help but feel empathy for him. Mixed with that was a
contradictory cloud of discomfort made up of a deep understanding of the
absolute brokenness of our capital punishment system and a first-hand knowledge
that a person can do a whole lot of changing in sixteen years. Add to that a
hefty dose of moral aversion to state-sanctioned killing, plus a real concern
about whether the pain experienced by someone else gives them any ethical claim
to extend that pain and broadcast it onto another (especially whether that pain
gives them the right to demand of the collective that we allow this to happen).
In this adversarial system, there have to be winners and losers. I didn‘t pop
any champagne corks when I heard that McCarthy got a stay - I don't know her or
anything about her, after all. But I was pleased that she wasn't killed. And
that seems to put me on the opposite side of the battlefield from this caller,
but I don't really feel that way either. As I said, my feelings are conflicted.
In any case, McCarthy has another date set for 3 April, so soon enough we will
again be assigning roles to the winners and the losers. I can`t help but feel
in this case, no one comes out ahead.
My relationship with the surviving victims to my crime is, to my knowledge,
unique here in Texas. I don't know everyone here on the Row yet (how is that
possible after over 2200 days?), but I don't really know anyone here who has
much of any non-adversarial contact with the survivors, much less anyone who
sees the principle representative of this party on a weekly basis. I’m not an
expert on the healing process; that should be stated up front. I did take a
Victim's Advocacy sociology course several years ago (and then a more advanced
Victimology one) so as to better understand what my dad was feeling. Mostly I
didn‘t want to say anything that would screw his process up. Or my own. Still,
this hardly makes me a professional grief counselor, though I don't know any
grief counselors that have had constant contact with the same victim for nearly
8 years. Expertise or no, I think my experiences have given me some insights
into what it means to heal from a terrible atrocity. I've always been a little
confused why so many ot the basic themes that I have learned seem to be absent
from the programs designed by victims' rights advocates here in Texas. All I
have to do is compare the tenor of that caller‘s voice to that of my dad's, and
the differences are black and white.
Still, whatever my intuitions and feelings on the matter, they amount to
nothing other than a hypothesis. I pay more attention to the comments survivors
of homicide make in the media than anyone else I know, even to the extent that
I keep a small file on the subject, divided by geographical region of the US.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that pain has no geographical barriers,
but how that pain is expressed does actually vary - and in many cases, in major
ways. Though they seldom get the limelight, there are actually many
organizations out there made up of survivors who are against capital
punishment. I have always wondered why some organization didn't do a study to
survey these people to figure out why they are able to deal with loss in such a
healthy manner, to find meaning in even the worst acts and to use them to
advance their own humanity. Why, to state it simply, people like my father
aren't put under a microscope to figure out how he has found joy once again.
Seems like the kind of thing people like that caller might want to know about.
It turns out I was not the only person curious about this. over a period of
several years, Marilyn Peterson Armour, a professor at the University of Texas,
and Mark Umbreit, a professor at the University of Minnesota, conducted a
massive, mixed methods study on the ways the sentence handed down to offenders
affects the healing process of the survivors of homicide. Interestingly, my dad
was contacted and agreed to participate in the study. In February a conference
was held at Marquette University to discuss the findings, so my dad and
step-mother got a paid vacation to Wisconsin. In...uh...February. Which is a
great time to visit the state. If, you know, you are a polar bear. Still, they
were able to extend the vacation for a few all-expenses days and visited lovely
Chicago, so that was nice. In...February. (Hey, I said my dad could feel joy
again, not that he knew how to pick a vacation spot.) You can see the program
for the conference here and here. It should probably be noted that there are
some heavy hitters on this list, so this was a fairly major gathering. Both
TDCJ and the AG's office sent people, which is a story I will save for another
day.
I usually do not have any problem summarizing and simplifying the studies I
sometimes club you over the head with, but this one presented me with such an
orgy of evidence for the positions I have been advocating for years that I
hardly know where to begin. I had better start by saying that I am going to
have to leave a bunch of really good stuff out, because the study itself is
already pared down to the essentials and my copy is over 100 pages long and no
way am I going to subject any of you to 100 pages of my writing. If you would
like to read the entire study, a digital copy will be included below (my copy
is missing the graphs, but I will try to have them attached by the time this
goes live).
The abstract for the study states: "Numerous studies have examined the
psychological sequelae that result from the murder of a loved one. Except for
the death penalty, however, sparse attention has been paid to the impact of the
murderer's sentence on homicide survivors' well-being. Given the steadfastness
of the public's opinion that the death penalty brings satisfaction and closure
to survivors, it is surprising that there has been no systematic inquiry
directly with survivors about whether obtaining the ultimate punishment affects
their healing. This Study used in-person interviews with a randomly selected
sample of survivors the totality of the ultimate from four time periods to
examine penal sanction (UPS) process and its longitudinal impact on their
lives. Moreover, it assessed the differential effect of two types of UPS by
comparing survivors' experiences in Texas, a death penalty state, and
Minnesota, a life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) state. Comparing
states highlights differences primarily during the post conviction stage,
specifically with respect to the appeals process and in regard to survivor
well-being. In Minnesota, survivors of adjudicated cases show higher levels of
physical, psychological, and behavioral health. This Study's findings have
implications for trial strategy and policy development."
Aside from having to look up the word "sequelae", I thought the abstract pretty
self-explanatory: the study analyzes the ways survivors cope with the loss of a
loved one in the shadow of the presence of the Ultimate Penal Sanction,
whatever that may be. In other words, does the death penalty really give people
"closure," as we are so often told? Or is that merely a political position
advocated by certain types of judges and prosecutors to get re-elected? This
study removes the politicians from the picture and instead goes directly to the
real experts on the matter: the victims. What is particularly revealing about
this study is that it uses victims from a DP state (Texas) and ones from an
LWOP state (Minnesota) and compares them over time to see which group has
actually been best served by the judicial process. Spoiler alert: Texas loses.
But you probably already knew that, if you've been hanging around this joint
for long.
The issue of victim satisfaction is actually more important than you know, so
forgive me a brief detour so that I can put a few things in context.
Traditionally, there have been four justifications trotted out in support for
capital punishment: cost effectiveness, incapacitation, deterrence, and
retribution. Cost effectiveness was always a sham, and none of the pro-DP
groups even bother with it any longer. Every single time an analysis of the
costs of the DP has been completed, it has shown that it is far cheaper to lock
people up for the rest of their lives than to execute them (it costs, on
average, 2.3 million dollars to litigate a capital case in Texas, the vast -
and I mean virtually the entire - share of those funds being spent by the
state). Similarly, the argument for incapacitation has been dismantled because
all of the data on death-sentenced prisoners shows the vast majority are not
dangerous in prison and when commuted into the general population serves their
time without incident. Deterrence is the justification used by the
pseudo-intellectuals, but it is worth noting that nearly all of the studies
done on the matter show the deterrent effect of the death penalty to be
non-existent. Even more devastatingly, last year the National Research Council
condemned all of the studies showing a deterrent effect, saying their
methodologies were corrupt. It remains an uncomfortable fact for the deterrence
apologists that states without the DP on average have murder rates far below
that of states with capital punishment still on the books.
That leaves us with retribution. Though vengeance is not supposed to be the
focus of the judicial process (at least not in this, the supposedly enlightened
West), the concept of offenders getting their "just deserts" underpins our
entire system. Twenty years ago, this was the primary justification for the
death penalty. Now, however, a not-so-subtle shift has occurred within the
retribution camp, one that justifies vengeance not on the basis of repayment
for error but for the constructive purpose of healing the victims. In short,
the concept of "closure" via legalized homicide is now the foundation upon
which rests the capital punishment scheme in the United States. This reality is
what makes the present study so damning: if the victims actually aren't healed
by the death penalty and are even proven to have been harmed by the judicial
system when compared to victims in cases where the UPS was life imprisonment,
then the entire house of cards begins to tumble to the ground.
I think on some level it is impossible to talk about closure in any sort of
systematic manner, because it has wildly different connotations for different
people. It might end up being something as elusive to delineate as pornography:
I don't know how to define it, but I know it when I see it. When prosecutors
talk about it, they tend to wrap it up in gold leaf and parade it about as if
it were some sort of universal panacea: a magical potion that restores all of
the lost happiness of the victims. Of course, we all know there is no such
thing. When someone dies or a relationship ends, we are left with a hole in our
lives shaped like the person vanished. You can find new loves, new friends, a
new family even, but those hollows are never going to go away. In a perfect
world you would visit those absences in order to pay homage to the memory of
those we left behind, and then return to the light and the love of the rest of
your life. You wouldn't live in the shadows of the dead forever, or get sucked
into those holes every time your mind strayed down memory lane. Life must go
on; one must find a reason for going on. That is closure in its real form: a
way to find meaning in loss, and to use the worst events imaginable to help us
and the people around us gain a new appreciation for our purposes on earth.
No one ever talks about it like this in the criminal justice sphere, however.
So it is no wonder that in news article after news article and study after
study, survivors report that the concept of closure described in the
pop-psychological field bears zero resemblance to their own journeys. The
current study notes that "interviews with victims' families and survivors of
the Oklahoma City bombing found that twenty-two out of twenty-seven victims
claimed that closure never occurs." Whatever this word really represents, we
are not doing a very good job of providing it to those most in need.
One of the central components in the healing process is the reduction of a
sense of powerlessness. Crime - and murder in particular - pierces the
carefully constructed cocoon of our modern lives, so figuring out how to
restore some of this control clearly needs to be a therapeutic goal, maybe the
most important goal of the entire criminal justice process. That said, herein
lies a bit of a problem, one that you have probably already noted. Life is
chaotic. Almost anything can happen to us or those we care about at any time.
So, to a certain extent, the entire modern American idea of a "safe" life is an
illusion. Pop it, and you see life for what it really is sans all of the
cultural spruce ups. Perceived Control Theory - which is referenced in this
study - refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control
events that affect them; higher rates of perceived control correlate with
better "physical health, self- esteem, personal adjustment, coping, decreased
stress and depression and psychological well-being." In other words, believing
that the world is your oyster makes you happier...until that bubble bursts.
When the illusion dies, studies have found that a strong prior sense of control
"may be maladaptive...leading to a sense of helplessness or personal failure."
The current study spends some time discussing the theory that by incrementally
restoring the sense of control one has over one's life, the healing process can
be made smoother, and survivors may engage in more adaptive, approach-oriented
coping strategies. And herein lies one of the starkest differences between LWOP
and DP states: in the former, the court process runs a comparatively rapid
course, while in the latter, the appeals process drags on potentially for
decades. When that caller spoke about waiting 15 years for justice, this is
exactly the problem: by pegging "justice" to "death," the survivors are never
able to regain control of their lives until that murder takes place (though I’m
doubtful any genuine sense can even be had after such an event). Had McCarthy
been sentenced to life in prison in 1997, it is virtually guaranteed that this
man and his family would be living far healthier lives today.
The hard numbers from the survey back this up. In Minnesota, the appeals
process almost always runs its course in less than two years. Their system, it
must be noted, is comparatively more expensive to run than the one operating in
Texas, with real Public Defenders handling cases instead of court-appointed
stick figures, but at least they handle their business quickly. As a result,
65% of Minnesotans were very satisfied or satisfied with their criminal justice
systems, compared to 42% of Texans. Moreover, 53% of Texans were very
dissatisfied compared to only 20% of Minnesotans. The study divided cases into
four time frames, dealing with the amount of time the case requires to move
through the judicial process. Each case was additionally labeled as being
"stuck," "moving," or "completed." Of the cases on appeal, 90% of the MN cases
had been "completed"; the remaining 10% were all moving through the process
unimpeded. Of this small subset, victims reported a 48% level of satisfaction,
with 10% neutral and 10% dissatisfied (the other 33% were reserving judgment
entirely).
The numbers paint a very different picture in Texas. 112reported as being
satisfied with the appellate system, 53% were "worried", and 37% were
"non-apprehensive." A further 42% would report that they did not feel
well-served by the system, to the extent that they felt it actually added an
additional layer of victimization. The study spends a significant number of
pages explaining these statistics, but in the interests of brevity, I think I
can say that the main reason for these levels of dissatisfaction deals with the
length and uncertainty of the appeals process. One of the victims surveyed
states:
"I don't think I'll live to see it...I feel sure [the judge] is opposed to the
death penalty. If I wrote him a letter, I'm afraid he'll say, 'Well, I'm gonna
show that fellow. I'll hold the case open longer.' And he can do it and I can't
do a thing about it...[a decision] would end it all. And that would be a
blessing, just right there. Get it out of that court and get it on the way. If
you want to say it goes back to life then so bit it. Render that decision."
The study found that:
The difference in the appeals process is particularly striking in terms of
time, potential for delay, reversal of the verdict, and participant's
responses. Whereas Minnesotans were finished with the process within two years
after the conviction, Texans were waiting, in some cases, for over fifteen
years. Moreover, Minnesotans indicated that there was almost no delay in the
appeals process or reason for uncertainty about the outcome. In contrast, 37%
of all Texas cases and 100% of cases still in appeals during Time 3 and Time 4
[later in the timeline, Ie, very old cases] were stuck. Indeed, 10% of
Minnesotans were dissatisfied with the appeals process in comparison to over
50% of Texas who were clearly worried gain that they felt they had attained in
the death sentence might be undone by a new trial, resentencing, or a
determination of the US Supreme Court. Participants' apprehension about losing
the control they thought they had over the murderer's sentence was significant
and likely kept survivors caught and suspended with little sense of who was in
charge, what laws and procedures prevailed, what impact new legal proceedings
might have on their lives, and how long their waiting to know might last."
The process itself, in other words, robs them of a sense of control. But it
must be noted that the only reason it has the power to do this is because from
the outset, these people were taught to view death as the only outcome that
would grant them relief. The easy answer to this problem (and the one no doubt
being seized upon by the AG's office) is to speed up the appeals process.
Unfortunately, this has already been done both on the state and the federal
levels. For instance, in Texas both the direct appeal and the post-conviction
writ run simultaneously, which is a ludicrous situation because the writ should
cover ineffectiveness by the direct appeal attorney...which is hard to do if
they are basically due at the same time. In the federal courts, the AEDPA
eviscerated the avenues petitioners are allowed to use to prove they didn't get
fair trials. Considering that Texas alone represents more than a third of
post-Gregg executions, I don't think that anyone can say that Texas isn't
already lethally efficient at the business of state-sanctioned killings. Take
an additional look at the fact that Texas easily ranks first in the nation at
wrongful convictions (and this despite a judiciary that has expressed zero
interest in discovering such matters), and it becomes obvious that any further
attempts to grease the wheels of justice will only result in more innocent men
and women being butchered. The system has been primed to run at optimum levels,
and it is unlikely that they can redline it any further. Even at the current
frantic pace, however, Texan victims do not seem served by the death penalty.
What is going on?
There is no single or easy answer to this question. I very much doubt that one
can be arrived at without addressing the variance in cultural traditions
between MN and TX. We are outside of the scope of the study now, and venturing
into my own theory. The very concept of "tradition" means something distinct
down here in the South, to the extent that our state government employees can,
without any apparent sense of shame, take off from work on "Confederate Heroes
Day." Tradition in Texas is akin to an authoritative guide to life. The idea
that belief and behavior should be governed by the weight of precedent is often
confused with a sense of history or truth because it involves an affection for
the past. Some traditions (keeping your powder dry, say) make good, practical
sense. Many others do not, and are basically just one specific way of spinning
history. Unfortunately, humankind has held to many of this latter sort for
millennia, especially when it comes to the subject of death. Various
pre-historic peoples felt it was necessary to open the chest cavities of other
peoples in order to ensure that the sun would rise. Old women who happened to
know which herbs cured various diseases were burnt at the stake for being
witches. When we come into contact with a tradition that objectively verifiable
facts contradict, what do we do? We educate. We try to batter back the specters
of ignorance (or we should, rather). This concept of death bringing resolution
is just another iteration of a very old idea. It belongs to an earlier era of
our species, and virtually every other civilized nation has buried the practice
because they have found it simply does not work for anyone.
The portion of the study that I found most interesting deals with how the MN
victims responded to their pain when compared to the TX ones. Texans, for
instance, had more active mental relationships with the murderer, meaning they
constantly fixated upon him/her, to the detriment of the other facets of their
lives; roughly 1/3 of MN victims did not concentrate on the murderer beyond the
necessary compared to only 5% of Texans. 79% of Texans had extremely negative
responses to the murderer versus 57% of Minnesotans. Texans placed lesser
importance on the murderer's remorse (32%) than MN victims (50%), which
signifies to me that they have been conditioned to care less about why things
happen, which of course is a major impediment to growing beyond the initial
act.
Here is the big statistic, the one that blows a hole in the entire Texas
system: only 37% of Texan victims had a positive opinion about the UPS (the
death penalty) versus 71% of Minnesotans (LWOP). We are killing scores of
people for a 37% satisfaction rating. So much for Texas being the "Victims'
Rights Paradise" claimed by Governor Goodhair.
It gets worse. When it comes to physical reactions to the loss of a loved one
due to homicide and the appellate process, 42% of Texans indicated no
manifestations. Of the remainder, 16% experienced problems sleeping, 26%
reported disease or illness associated with extreme stress; in MN, 60% reported
no manifestations, with only 10% reporting disease or illness due to stress.
The differences are even more striking when you compare the numbers on the
psychological effects murder and the judicial process have had on those
surveyed: 42% of Texans described persistent struggles, compared to only 20% of
Minnesotans. 63% of Texans reported as being depressed or emotionally dulled,
compared to 25% of Minnesotans. In terms of positive emotional growth (the
people who used the experience of murder to grow spiritually, emotionally, etc,
etc), only 42% of Texans reported as having progressed in this manner, compared
to 55% of MinnesotansRead that twice, because that is a massive difference.
There is nothing biologically different between the citizens of both states, so
what we are talking about here is purely a cultural difference. Something about
the traditions that Texans hold dear and the expectations they have for the
future makes them A) more prone to physiological and psychological damage after
life-altering events, and B) less capable of growing past them. I'm convinced
that the eye-for-an-eye-style of vengeance sold to Southerners by preachers and
politicians is the primary culprit here. Because they have never been taught
otherwise, they are blinded to the fact that no victim will ever find peace
until they learn to stop focusing on the crime itself and the culprit and get
busy living their lives.
The study points to this as well. 75% of Minnesotans used "refocusing
behaviors" (lifestyle changes, devoting themselves to a project or a cause),
compared to only 37% of Texans. 32%of Texans engaged in activities that
cemented the past in the present (constant memorials, visits to the graveyard),
compared to only 5% of Minnesotans. Most important to me were the differences
in the "sense of agency" numbers. Sense of agency refers to the subjective
awareness that one is initiating, executing, and controlling one's own
volitional acts in the world; it is the idea that one has regained some of the
control that the murder took away. 47% of Texans reported some attempts at this
behavior, compared to 85% of Minnesotans.
I could go on, but I think you get the picture. Whatever some people believe
about the death penalty being good for victims, the evidence shows otherwise.
The image here is almost like a parent telling a child on Halloween that if she
eats all of that candy, she is going to get sick. The child wants it so badly
that she refuses to listen, and before long the mother is proven correct. As
the study put it: "Although the social expectation is that avenging a wrongdoer
will relieve anger and that higher punishment will lead to a better mood,
experimental studies show the opposite." But we all knew that, right? Somewhere
deep inside each of you, a voice was telling you that the intentional murder of
a living human being could never be moral. It could never heal anyone of any
pain. The sooner we break the seeming synonymy between "execution" and
"closure", the sooner victims of crimes can actually begin to start down the
road towards real healing. This is now proven in theory, what has been proven
to me in fact for the last 7.5 years.
(source: Thomas Whitaker, Oct. 4, Minutes Before Six blog)
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