'What if it were my son who killed someone ...'
Within the span of 48 hours, three men were killed in state-sponsored executions within the span of 48 hours.
The Associated Press stories followed this way:
From Georgia: “Strapped to a gurney in Georgia’s death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail. Just a few feet away behind a glass window, MacPhail’s son and brother watched in silence.”
From Texas: "White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas.":
From Alabama: “A man described by a police informant as trying to make a name for himself was executed Thursday evening for the 1994 shooting death of an Alabama store clerk during a robbery. Derrick O. Mason, 37, was administered an injection and pronounced dead minutes later at 6:49 p.m. local time at Alabama’s Holman Prison.
Mason was the fifth prisoner to die in an Alabama execution this year.
Even as a Christian, I was somewhat undecided about the death penalty until I read about Carl Songer in a 1989 Charisma magazine column by the late Jamie Buckingham.
Carl Songer was a 20-year-old drug addict when, according to court documents, in 1973 he walked away from a prison work-release program in Oklahoma. Several days later, on Dec. 23, hunters watched as a Florida highway patrolman was gunned down after approaching a car in which Songer and a companion were sleeping.
The hunters captured Songer and he was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to die in Florida’s electric chair.
Songer lived on death row as the usual appellate process moved through the courts: Sentence affirmed in 1975; remanded for a new sentencing hearing in 1977, where death was again handed down and affirmed; an appeal in 1979, denied; and a new sentencing hearing ordered in 1985, with death again imposed.
Each time, Buckingham says, Songer was returned to the death watch cell, which was only 30 feet from the death chamber.
Buckingham says it was John Spentkelink, the first man to be executed by the state of Florida, who gave Songer his Bible while on the way to the electric chair. Songer put the Bible on a shelf in his cell.
“It seemed irrelevant to his situation,” Buckingham writes. “Why was he on death row when others, who had committed far worse crimes, were being paroled — or acquitted. Why did those who had money to hire expensive lawyers seem to get out of prison, while the blacks, mentally retarded, and poor whites like him rot away in dismal existence?”
And then an agent of transformation entered Songer’s cell and heart.
Seven years after being convicted, Songer was sitting on his bunk when “suddenly he was aware of a ‘light’ in his cell, above and behind his head.”
“‘When I tried to look up and see what it was, it moved back,” Songer told Buckingham. “I knew it was more than a light. It was a presence.”
Songer was confused and frightened.
“‘God,” the condemned prisoner whispered, “Is that You?”
Buckingham writes, “Instantly the light swept down in front of his eyes and in a silent explosion entered his chest. Carl Songer dropped his head into his hands and wept.
“The weeping continued for three days.”
Buckingham describes a scene that is filled with remorse and conviction — not only over the events of his life, but the misplaced blame and the denial of guilt. Songer knew he was a murderer who had “taken the life of a woman’s husband, a child’s father, a mother’s son. He was a sinner. He was a murderer.”
And Songer turned to the one he read about in the Gospel, and the one he believes visited him in that cell: Jesus.
Buckingham goes on to tell how several years later he met Carl through a woman at his church — a woman who had been on the jury that convicted Songer. The woman wrote the condemned man, asking Songer’s forgiveness and later sharing Buckingham’s books with the prisoner.
Songer wrote Buckingham and made an incredible request: That the writer come and stay with Songer in his cell the night before he was to be killed — and to witness the execution.
Once more, Buckingham’s words, in July 1989:
“I made several trips to see him. I spent the week with him before his scheduled execution. I met his parents, poor but godly people who had driven their pickup truck to Florida so they could return his body to Oklahoma for a ‘Christian burial.’
“I enlisted my church in prayer, and, 10 hours before he was to be executed, the U.S. Supreme Court granted another stay.
“That was four years ago. Few things have shaken me as that experience. I had always been a passive believer in capital punishment. But this time it was evident the state of Florida was killing the wrong man. The old Carl Songer died nine years ago. The man they planned to execute is a new creature. ...
“Some ask: ‘What if it were your son that he killed?’ But that’s not the right question. The question is: ‘What if it were my son who killed someone?’
“The basic question is not, ‘Did Carl Songer deserve to die?’ No, we all deserve to die. The real question deals with Jesus. Would Jesus pull the switch? He came to fulfill the law of retribution with the higher law of transformation. The question that must be asked with capital punishment — as with all social issues — is, ‘What would Jesus do?’”
On May 25, 1989, Songer’s sentence was commuted to life in prison.
A pastor friend of mine once reminded me that it is only because of time and culture that we Christians are not walking around with little electric chairs around our neck.
Knowing that, they really need to keep me off of any jury hearing a case involving a capital crime.
I just can’t see God smiling when someone is executed.
The Associated Press stories followed this way:
From Georgia: “Strapped to a gurney in Georgia’s death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail. Just a few feet away behind a glass window, MacPhail’s son and brother watched in silence.”
From Texas: "White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas.":
From Alabama: “A man described by a police informant as trying to make a name for himself was executed Thursday evening for the 1994 shooting death of an Alabama store clerk during a robbery. Derrick O. Mason, 37, was administered an injection and pronounced dead minutes later at 6:49 p.m. local time at Alabama’s Holman Prison.
Mason was the fifth prisoner to die in an Alabama execution this year.
Even as a Christian, I was somewhat undecided about the death penalty until I read about Carl Songer in a 1989 Charisma magazine column by the late Jamie Buckingham.
Carl Songer was a 20-year-old drug addict when, according to court documents, in 1973 he walked away from a prison work-release program in Oklahoma. Several days later, on Dec. 23, hunters watched as a Florida highway patrolman was gunned down after approaching a car in which Songer and a companion were sleeping.
The hunters captured Songer and he was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to die in Florida’s electric chair.
Songer lived on death row as the usual appellate process moved through the courts: Sentence affirmed in 1975; remanded for a new sentencing hearing in 1977, where death was again handed down and affirmed; an appeal in 1979, denied; and a new sentencing hearing ordered in 1985, with death again imposed.
Each time, Buckingham says, Songer was returned to the death watch cell, which was only 30 feet from the death chamber.
Buckingham says it was John Spentkelink, the first man to be executed by the state of Florida, who gave Songer his Bible while on the way to the electric chair. Songer put the Bible on a shelf in his cell.
“It seemed irrelevant to his situation,” Buckingham writes. “Why was he on death row when others, who had committed far worse crimes, were being paroled — or acquitted. Why did those who had money to hire expensive lawyers seem to get out of prison, while the blacks, mentally retarded, and poor whites like him rot away in dismal existence?”
And then an agent of transformation entered Songer’s cell and heart.
Seven years after being convicted, Songer was sitting on his bunk when “suddenly he was aware of a ‘light’ in his cell, above and behind his head.”
“‘When I tried to look up and see what it was, it moved back,” Songer told Buckingham. “I knew it was more than a light. It was a presence.”
Songer was confused and frightened.
“‘God,” the condemned prisoner whispered, “Is that You?”
Buckingham writes, “Instantly the light swept down in front of his eyes and in a silent explosion entered his chest. Carl Songer dropped his head into his hands and wept.
“The weeping continued for three days.”
Buckingham describes a scene that is filled with remorse and conviction — not only over the events of his life, but the misplaced blame and the denial of guilt. Songer knew he was a murderer who had “taken the life of a woman’s husband, a child’s father, a mother’s son. He was a sinner. He was a murderer.”
And Songer turned to the one he read about in the Gospel, and the one he believes visited him in that cell: Jesus.
Buckingham goes on to tell how several years later he met Carl through a woman at his church — a woman who had been on the jury that convicted Songer. The woman wrote the condemned man, asking Songer’s forgiveness and later sharing Buckingham’s books with the prisoner.
Songer wrote Buckingham and made an incredible request: That the writer come and stay with Songer in his cell the night before he was to be killed — and to witness the execution.
Once more, Buckingham’s words, in July 1989:
“I made several trips to see him. I spent the week with him before his scheduled execution. I met his parents, poor but godly people who had driven their pickup truck to Florida so they could return his body to Oklahoma for a ‘Christian burial.’
“I enlisted my church in prayer, and, 10 hours before he was to be executed, the U.S. Supreme Court granted another stay.
“That was four years ago. Few things have shaken me as that experience. I had always been a passive believer in capital punishment. But this time it was evident the state of Florida was killing the wrong man. The old Carl Songer died nine years ago. The man they planned to execute is a new creature. ...
“Some ask: ‘What if it were your son that he killed?’ But that’s not the right question. The question is: ‘What if it were my son who killed someone?’
“The basic question is not, ‘Did Carl Songer deserve to die?’ No, we all deserve to die. The real question deals with Jesus. Would Jesus pull the switch? He came to fulfill the law of retribution with the higher law of transformation. The question that must be asked with capital punishment — as with all social issues — is, ‘What would Jesus do?’”
On May 25, 1989, Songer’s sentence was commuted to life in prison.
A pastor friend of mine once reminded me that it is only because of time and culture that we Christians are not walking around with little electric chairs around our neck.
Knowing that, they really need to keep me off of any jury hearing a case involving a capital crime.
I just can’t see God smiling when someone is executed.
Labels: Musings justice
posted by Pastor Buzz at 3:59 PM
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