Introduction

The news media, pundits from all corners of the globe and the public generally have all chimed in over recent months and, for the most part, have declared Scott Peterson to be the proverbial “poster boy” in support of capital punishment.  These proponents of capital punishment intone the mantra that the determination by a jury that Scott Peterson is guilty of the killing of his wife and unborn child warrants his own death.

In point of fact, I take exception to the proposition that Scott Peterson is the face upon which support for the death penalty should rest.  Rather, I maintain that Scott Peterson and his circumstances represent the precise reason why the death penalty should be forever banned in the United States. 

The Humanity of Scott Peterson

On so many levels, no person in recent memory has been so demonized and vilified as has been Scott Peterson.  Certainly, a person is entitled to conclude that Peterson is guilty of committing an unimaginable crime.  Nonetheless, the fact that a person might be guilty of truly reprehensible, shocking, even unforgivable conduct does not alter a fact so simple that it is routinely marginalized or forgotten altogether.  No matter what Peterson may be guilty of doing, when all is said and done he is a human being. 

Despite the fact that a majority of people have come to conclude that Peterson is guilty of acting inhumanely does not thus render to us the right to strip Peterson of his essential humanity.  If human beings are anything at all, we are flawed by design.  Of course, the imperfect elements of our nature may be more evident in one person as opposed to another.  Nonetheless, flawed we all are now and will be always.

I begrudge no one the right to denounce Peterson for the crimes they sincerely believe he has committed.  Nonetheless, I challenge these people to look beyond what they believe Peterson to be guilty of and consider him as a whole person.

In doing so, we must consider Peterson not only today as he sits in a lonely jail cell awaiting his death.  Rather, we must consider Peterson at all points in his life.  No matter what happens during the course of a person's life, there remains at least a spark of that inherent innocence that imbued that person from his earliest days. 

Not that many years ago, Peterson -- Scott -- was a wide eyed little boy.  He woke up early on Christmas morning to spy and see what Santa Claus left for him under the family tree.  He was a small boy who scampered barefooted about the house to find eggs left hidden by the Easter Bunny.  He blew out six candles on a cake his mother baked the year he started school.  He prayed nightly prayers to the same God that is worshipped by those people who would now strip him of his life.

A Case of Circumstantial Evidence and Capital Punishment

Even the harshest of critics of Scott Peterson necessarily must concede that the evidence the jury used to convict him was completely circumstantial.  Indeed, much of the evidence relied upon to convict Scott Peterson was not only circumstantial, but was tangential.  There was not a shaving of direct evidence to link Peterson to the crimes against his wife and his unborn son.

Because the death penalty obviously is the ultimate sanction that the state can impose on one of its citizens, it seems appropriate to suggest that this extreme penalty should be invoked only in those cases in which it is clear that a convicted person truly was responsible personally for the underlying crime. 

The Possibility of Innocence in Capital Cases

The history of punishment in the United States and the world over is replete with examples of innocent people ending up on death row, of innocent people being put to death. 

Interestingly, in the 21^st century, one of the groups of people who profoundly endorse the concept of capital punishment are some devote and politically active Christians.  The same people that clamor to protect an unborn or pre-born life are chomping at the bit to exterminate certain people guilty of certain crimes.  These people and the elected officials they have selected contend that it is impossible to point a finger at one person who was innocent and who actually was executed. 

I shudder when I hear such an argument from these advocates and governmental leaders.  Surely, they should not have forgotten that Jesus Christ himself was an innocent man condemned to death.  Frankly, if even the Son of God could end up in such a position, it stands to reason that mere mortals in the strident and vociferous times of the 21^st century most definitely could find themselves in such an unenviable plight.

A Parting Reflection

Perhaps the day will come when Scott Peterson will be vindicated.  Perhaps not.  In any case, taking the life of Scott Peterson will not serve the ends of justice nor will it right some sort of ethereal balance in the cosmos.  Rather, executing Scott Peterson simply will be the taking of a solitary life … the life of a person who was once a little boy who woke up early to see what Santa left him under his family's Christmas tree.