Just what is a justice system for?

As I see it, there are three reasons we have a penal system in our society. Our communities should be protected from those who have demonstrated an inability to keep themselves from harming others. Those that do harm others should have the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves. And there have to be demonstrable consequences to bad acts to give those who might be thinking of harming others reason not to.

The execution of Philip Workman in Tennessee and the unconscionable handling of his request for a last meal points out a failure on all three fronts of the American justice system. The fact that the best news link I could find on the subject was a British news source points out the stunning failure of the American media and public to give a damn.

Workman was a strung-out junkie when a policeman was fatally shot in a confrontation with him (we’ll ignore for a moment that the bullet that killed police lieutenant Ronald Oliver was likely fired from a fellow officer’s gun). Twenty years later, Workman had evolved at least enough to think only of others’ suffering in the hours before his execution, at a time when most would understand if he were completely self-absorbed.

Workman had been, at least to some degree, rehabilitated, but his final demonstration of this was thwarted by prison bureaucracy. Rehabilitation is evidently not valued by our prison system.

Workman wanted to reach out to the least among us and provide food for those who need it most. By thwarting this, the prison system actually harmed society rather than protecting it.

Workman demonstrated that even someone condemned to die still has the capacity to do good, that no soul is unredeemable. By squelching this, the prison system told young offenders that any changes they might make in their lives would not be valued by the law and society.

I see the death penalty as a great wound on our national conscience. Being Texans, it is particularly raw for us. The death of Philip Workman must be seen for what it is: yet another failure of our justice system to reach any of the goals we’ve set for it.