Humanism, Supreme Court Decision, and Obama's Reaction

As soon as the Supreme Court came out with the decision that rape did not justify the death penalty, Obama came out strongly saying he disagreed with the decision. I found this strange because most of the UCC folks (United Church of Christ which is very similar, and often merged with the Unitarian Universalists) I know are against the death penalty in general and so would be against it in the case of rape.

First, let me say this of rape. Yes, it is a very bad act. But it is far from the Victorian reaction of being a "fate worse than death". Especially as the law defines rape today. I have sat on a jury deciding a case of whether an older man "raped" a young girl and was surprised to find out that legally, rape does not have to include insertion of any kind. If a person just touches the vagina, it can be legally considered rape.

Personally, as a Humanist, I believe in the maxim that "we are all better than the worst we have been". I don't believe that our current practice of severe punishment of offenders is the best justice system we can have. We should be trying rehabilitation to make the person a better person over time rather than locking him away. To kill an offender is saying that there is no hope in that person which may be the case - but definitely not based on one action at any one time. We should also be considering Restorative Justice. I know that on the rape jury I was on, this was an ideal case for Restorative Justice rather than severe punishment and destroying the lives of the offender, his wife, his kids (since they would not have the income and support of this man while he was in jail for those years), etc.

We should be reforming our justice system to look for more humane approaches to reacting to offenders, not more extreme.

I'm imagining that Obama, in looking for more extreme punishment including the death penalty, is saying that in order to appeal to the politically right in hopes of wooing some of the centrists. But that would mean he is not looking to change the system of politics where what one says is because it is politically expedient rather than from an expression of one's personal system of ethics and justice. Although I'm personally in favor of Obama for President, I still think this is showing that he is capable of sinking to the level of being motivated by political expediency. And I find that disappointing.

David Kimball