We Can Live Without It

Last Wednesday, the Massachusetts House defeated a bill that would have reinstated the death penalty here. The margin was the widest it's been in years: 110-46, compared to 99-53 in 2005, 92-60 in 2001, 80-73 in 1999, and the dramatic tie vote in 1997 that occurred after one member changed his mind (at first the bill had passed 81-79). Ten years ago, we came within a hair's breadth of having the death penalty in Massachusetts again; today, the vote wasn't even close.

Also interesting is the way that families of murder victims were mentioned in the remarks by lawmakers during last week's floor debate before the vote. Although a couple of the legislators speaking in favor of the bill made the customary remarks about doing this for victims' families, other legislators acknowledged that some victims' family members oppose the death penalty -- and even legislators who were arguing in favor of the bill made that public acknowledgment.

There will always be diversity of opinion among victims' families on the subject of the death penalty. What's notable here is that it is no longer automatically assumed that all victims' families support the death penalty, and pro-death penalty lawmakers cannot unilaterally invoke the name of victims to buttress their stance.

Sometimes it can seem that opposing reinstatement in states that don't currently have the death penalty is a low priority. In one sense, it is -- there is understandably a greater feeling of urgency when lives are immediately at stake and when death sentences are being handed down at an alarming rate. But it's important to be able to show that some states -- and many nations -- are able to live without the death penalty. It's important to keep moving toward total abolition of the death penalty, and not reverse that direction by bringing the death penalty back to a state that's been without it for years. That's why we were active in the campaign to block reinstatement of the death penalty in Wisconsin last year, and why we made the effort to organize the panel of victims who would testify at this year's Massachusetts hearings. Each of those victims cared enough, and still felt strongly enough about the issue, to take the time to come down to the State House and testify that day. I think we can all feel it was worth it.