You're the one with the crisis of conscience

There's an episode of "Law & Order" where a young woman commits a savage murder, shows zero remorse at first and then is born again while in jail (a la Karla Faye Tucker). She'd be a classic death penalty case if it weren't for the apparently genuine religious conversion. Various church groups file suit on her behalf, arguing that her newfound Christianity should earn her a commutation into a life sentence. While ADA Jack McCoy struggles with the precedent this sets, his assistant Jamie Ross tells him, "You're the one with the crisis of conscience. I'm against the death penalty."

That's the kind of answer I would've given at one point. I am still opposed to capital punishment very generally, but I also recognize that there really are true monsters out there who commit crimes for which there's only one justified punishment. So I suppose I would say I oppose the death penalty applied capriciously. It should be reserved for those - thankfully very rare - monsters.

But I also get frustrated with the "law and order" "tough on crime" types who think there's a one-size-fits-all solution to every problem. It's a fact that there are disparities in the way the death penalty is applied, particularly with regard to race. It's a fact that rich murderers typically don't end up on death row (or in prison, for that matter). It's fact that innocent people have been sentenced to death. You can't be a proponent of capital punishment and not acknowledge that the system needs work.

I hadn't heard of Teresa Lewis before today. Lewis was executed earlier tonight in Virginia, the first woman put to death there in nearly a century, after being convicted of the murder-for-hire of her husband and step-son. Her defenders argued that she wasn't mentally competant, and that she wasn't really the ringleader of the crime. If true, either is a good reason to commute her sentence.

But "she's a woman" isn't a good reason. "She's a Christian now" isn't a good reason. Neither are fair reasons, because they can't be applied equitably to everyone on death row in Virginia. (Or nationwide, but this is a state-by-state thing.)

Do people who find religion in prison and become Muslims, or Jews, or members of the Church of Body Modification, also get this consideration? No? Then pardoning a Christian just for being a Christian is unfair and unconstitutional.

The "but she's a woman" people really get me, though. Either women are full citizens with all the rights and responsibilities that implies, or it's 1900 again. We can't have both. Treating women - even murderers - as though their lives are more valuable than any of the men on death row doesn't make any sense to me.