Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf initiates a moratorium on the Death Penalty. What’s it about? It is about ensuring that the system is truly just. But not everyone is pleased. No surprise there, when does any decision made by any governor please all? Never!
Yet, some decisions make better sense than others. In this case, it makes sense. Why? Because, real justice is required of any community’s legal and judicial system; it therefore never hurts to take precautionary steps to ensure that a judicial system’s procedures are in fact really and truly just. For, there is nothing worse than being caught-up within an institution’s systemic injustice—especially if it is the judicial system itself that may be unjust.
Pennsylvania’s state Senate has already established a “bipartisan Task Force and Advisory Commission” that is to study the effectiveness of Capital Punishment in the state. Governor Wolf’s moratorium on the death penalty is a simple way of saying, “Let’s be patient and wait for the results of this commission’s findings before we go forward with any further executions.”
This is not a radical or extreme “position” he’s taking. It is a simple step in the direction of ensuring that our system is a just one. He’s simply giving the commission the time it needs to come up with its results, make its recommendations, and ensure that any and all items of concerns about the system’s procedures regarding the death penalty are properly addressed. That sounds very wise and balanced to me. Can one be too careful when it comes to applied justice affecting human lives? Would that all our leaders would act with such attentive deliberation as this with regard to all other issues and concerns.
No system, judicial or otherwise, is infallible. All systems need correction from time to time, and therefore require reevaluation and tweaking for improvement. Wolf wants to be sure that our death penalty system works as it should. Is it effective as a deterrent for example, is it cost effective? Is it truly just and fair in its proceedings? What can be so wrong about asking such questions and doing the necessary homework in order to answer them, before continuing with business as usual?
To accuse the governor of turning his back against “the silenced victims of cold-blooded killers,” is mere political drama. It is argument that plays on emotions and pathos. We all want justice. But the truth is that we all want justice on our terms, when it favors our perspective and our judgment as to who deserves what and how. This is why a judicial system and its proceedings must be truly just by favoring no one, favoring no side, favoring no person or group of persons (as in favoring the rich over the poor or favoring whites over blacks or favoring people of one faith over another faith).
Applied justice in its proceedings, methods, and systems, must be truly just and fair and equally applied to all in order for it to be real justice. It’s as simple as that. And so, it never hurts to evaluate the justice system, especially when it comes to the death penalty. Thus, this action by Governor Wolf is certainly not a nod toward favoring criminals, far from it. It is a nod toward respecting true judicial integrity and valuing real justice in the highest sense of the term. Let all criminals feel the full weight of justice; but let it be true and real justice when it is so applied!
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