December 23

No Place for Death Penalty In a Civilized Society

John Walker, the Californian-turned-soldier for the Taliban, and Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther Party member who has spent 20 years on Pennsylvania's Death Row, have quite a bit in common: the misdirection of their youth, which led to their separate wars against American values to which they objected.

Abu-Jamal, 45, was convicted of murdering a 25-year-old Philadelphia police officer in 1981. At the time of the killing, Abu-Jamal was a cab driver. In previous years, he had been a radio journalist and a member of the Black Panther Party. Cops were not exactly his idea of heroes.

Walker, a 20-year-old in quest of spirituality � or something � left this country to study Islam in Asia and somehow ended up with the Taliban. When he was captured this month, there was speculation that he might face capital punishment.

But he and Abu-Jamal received good news last week: A federal judge ordered a new sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal, and the word out of Washington is that Walker probably won't be charged with any crimes carrying the death penalty.

While I have little sympathy for either man, I believe these decisions to be right. A knee-jerk reliance on the death penalty to solve all problems � especially to exact revenge � is as misguided as are Walker and Abu-Jamal.

Abu-Jamal, who has delivered commentaries from behind bars on public radio stations and has written a book, "Live From Death Row," styles himself as some sort of freedom fighter � a delusion fed by the embrace of his case by Hollywood celebrities like actor Ed Asner, the city of Paris, which made him an honorary French citizen, and Amnesty International, which champions him as a political prisoner.

That goes too far for me. It is my experience that most of the men and women who find themselves sentenced to die are no angels. At the same time, it is also true that they often aren't accorded fair trials with all the rights guaranteed to us under the Constitution.

Lawyers I respect who have studied the Abu-Jamal case for years have concluded that his original trial was rife with errors and prosecutorial misconduct and, thus, was a travesty of justice. They demand, and I think they are right to do so, a new trial.

A federal judge gave them half a loaf last week: He let the conviction stand but threw out the death sentence and demanded a new sentencing hearing or a life sentence for Abu-Jamal. However the state proceeds, that death sentence is not now hanging over Abu-Jamal's head.

I don't have to believe in Abu-Jamal to demand due process. I just have to believe in the American ideal of justice.

And I don't have to buy into Walker's parents' plea for understanding of their son to see that the death penalty won't fly in his case. No one even knows what Walker is culpable of, and it is nearly impossible to prove treason, which would carry a death sentence.

Where are the two witnesses to an overt act, as required by the Constitution? Then there are questions about Walker's mental faculties. Former President George Bush calls him "demented" and may not be far off on that score. Even after he was taken into custody, bedraggled and caked in mud, Walker insisted that the jihad in which he engaged was "definitely" the right cause.

President Bush has vowed to bring those responsible for Sept. 11 to justice � or justice to them. So there will no doubt be many more instances where questions about the death penalty are front and center.

Some pre-Sept. 11 polls showed declining support for capital punishment, influenced in part by the recent release of several dozen men from Death Row who, through DNA testing, were proved innocent of the crimes that landed them behind bars.

But even some who are wary of the death penalty being meted out on a regular basis hold out the possibility of its being reserved for the worst of the worst.

This is where I stand: A life for a life is the way of the ancient world, not of the 21st century � and it should not be the way of this country, which claims to be the standard-bearer of all that is civilized.