A case in which execution does not fit the crime

On behalf of the South Carolina Christian Action Council, I wrote last week to Gov. Mark Sanford to ask him to show mercy by granting executive clemency to Shawn Paul Humphries. Mr. Humphries is scheduled to be executed in the name of all the people of South Carolina on Friday in revenge for his murder of Mendal Alton “Dickie” Smith.

I want to be clear: We pray for and remember the victims of homicide and their families. We pray for and remember Mendal Smith. But an execution will not bring him back, and it will bring no comfort to his family. Instead, an execution will create more suffering, both in the family of the victim, which has been promised some sort of unattainable closure with an execution, and also in the family of Mr. Humphries.

This week, there is an execution scheduled every day, somewhere in this country. One of those will be the 1,000th execution since the resumption of executions in 1977. There has been enough killing. One thousand is way too many; one was too many.

Among leaders of the South Carolina Christian Action Council, our concern in this case is moral, but it is also pragmatic and secular. While it was a terrible crime, this case never should have been considered for the death penalty. It was an attempted armed robbery by a man who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The victim reached for a gun, and the defendant fired one time and ran.

The evidence in the case clearly demonstrates that this was an ill-conceived robbery gone awry. Humphries panicked. If he had coldly calculated and planned this murder, then why did he leave an eyewitness unharmed? Why did his codefendant just wait for the police in the store and surrender without a fight? Why did Humphries surrender without a fight when the police caught up with him later that day? While tragic, of the hundreds of tragic murders that take place every year in South Carolina, this was clearly not the worst of the worst.

Wait a second. Not the worst of the worst? I want to acknowledge that if it is your loved one who was killed, then yes, that is the worst murder. But stepping back and looking at the death penalty as a matter of public policy, there are many questions that must be asked. One of the most important questions has to do with the victims’ families. If the death penalty is supposed to be a commodity for victims’ families, then why are we using it so infrequently? And what does that say to the vast majority of victims’ families? Your loved one was not valuable enough?

In fact, of all of the people who commit murder in South Carolina, who are caught, and who are eligible for the death penalty, the vast majority do not get the death penalty. Most murderers get the alternative sentence of life without parole. In our state, as in the nation, far less than 1 percent of the killers who could be executed actually do get executed. And for the most part, it is not the worst of the worst that we kill. Those who get executed are the ones with the worst lawyers, the ones with white victims, the ones who kill in a county that can afford a death penalty trial. If we truly value fairness in our justice system, this cannot continue.

This week, the citizens of South Carolina again are asked to step forward and kill a criminal in the name of the law, and in the name of vengeance. But we can say “no,” there has been enough killing. I invite you to join me by contacting Gov. Sanford. In the name of fairness and equal justice, urge Gov. Sanford to show mercy by commuting Shawn Paul Humphries’ sentence to life without parole.

The Rev. Kneece is executive minister of the South Carolina Christian Action Council. Learn more about this case at the Web page of the South Carolina Equal Justice Alliance, http://www.sceja.org/.