Another convicted murderer was executed today by our Attorney General, Bill Barr, a noted Roman Catholic, at the behest, I’m sure, of that unbending zealot for justice and candidate for re-election, Donald Trump. Apparently, Wesley Purkey was pretty far gone with progressive dementia, schizophrenia, and severe mental illness, nonetheless justice, delayed since Purkey’s sentencing in 2004, had still to be done. 

Olivia Long, the stepmother of the child he killed, is quoted as saying: “It just took way too long, … We just shouldn’t have to wait this long.” But one Kerri Kupec, a spokesperson for the DOJ, concluded “… Purkey has finally faced justice.”

Could anything mitigate the life-destroying grief of the Long Family? What could calm society’s fears and vent its indignation at sociopathic behavior? So I have to ask: What were the Long Family awaiting for sixteen years? What is that “justice” the DOJ says Purkey finally faced? I would guess that the Long Family were waiting for closure, i.e., vengeance for the murder of their daughter, and the DOJ’s “justice” means simply the conclusion of a murder trial that will be satisfactory to the frightened, vindictive, and self-righteous. 

The DOJ and pseudo-christian enthusiasts for the death penalty will quote to us Exodus 21:23-25: “… thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth” etc. They will not quote the rescinding of this law in the Sermon on the Mount Mt 5:38-39: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any strikes you on the right cheek ….” or in Romans 12:19: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

So the capital-punishment crowd choose the Old Law over the New and claim for themselves a divine prerogative. But we must challenge their use of the term “justice.” Human justice is too often the creation of limited minds confused by unrealized fears and of that ancient enemy, the libido dominandi, the desperate craving for dominance over other human beings. So let’s do an experiment and in our discourse substitute “revenge” for “justice.” I predict that we would be amazed at the number of instances in which “revenge” is clearly the correct term to use.