Thoughts After Bonin
by Charla Greene
April, 1996
With the execution of Bill Bonin, California killed its third target of government vengeance since 1992, an act applauded by some, not all, of victim's families and some, not all, prison officials; and by all politicians, because the death penalty is their guaranteed vote getter. The politicians love the death penalty because it gives the illusion of doing something to combat violent crime, and gives the duped public a blood ritual to confirm "something is being done". But the politicians know, as do all the others in the official "justice business", that the death penalty is not a deterrent, yet it is a misconception they keep active, hoping the great, unquestioning voting populace will go along with the deception and not notice certain contradictions.
If the death penalty did stop citizen killings, then the execution of Bonin should have stopped the kidnapping and murder of young men, yet when I was driving to work that Monday after Bill's death the news on the radio was talking about the body of a 15 year old boy found by the side of the road, tied up and murdered, much in the same way Bonin was to have done. Perhaps in an act of emulation?
If all those executions in Texas (and there have been over 100 since 1976) were making the streets safer there, then why was that little girl grabbed off her bike in broad daylight, in front of her grandmother, her murdered body found later? Florida is the second most executing state yet, so why are so many tourists murdered there? And why was Jimmy Ryce, a Florida boy, kidnapped, raped, shot and dismembered when he was walking home alone from the school bus stop? These are terrible crimes, committed in the states with the largest death rows and the largest score of government sanctioned killings! The nation's crime rate rose 5% from 1982 to 1991; however in Texas, where they have executions weekly, the crime rate rose 24% in that same period, the violent crime rate 46%.
There always seems to be an increase in homicide, but studies have proven that the degree of increase is affected by the death penalty, and after an execution there is a rise in deadly violence that is attributed to the "brutalizing" effect of a publicly witnessed and condoned killing. The execution of Robert Alton Harris in 1992 was a high media event. In a study of the effect of executions in California done by Schiraldi and Godfrey the four months before and after Harris' execution were compared; they found a 9% increase in the murder rates, going from 306 per month before to 333 after the execution. To appreciate the significance of these figures, compare this to the annual average of 10% increase in murders between 1952 and 1967 when California was executing every other month, and the drop of the annual increase to 4.8% between 1967 and 1991 when there were no executions in California
The politicians are aware of these statistics, they're not hidden, except from the general public. So when the politicians endorse the death penalty and even actively campaign on a ticket that promises more executions, it is not in the interest of decreasing murder rates, but rather a ploy to keep the voters angry and cast their "hate vote". A man who used to work for the Justice Department for 25 years tracking serial murderers came to the conclusion that the common denominator for these crimes was ANGER. So when the politicians incite anger in the voters in order to get their votes, they are encouraging violence, not trying to stop it.
There is another very sad misconception connected with the death penalty, and that is the idea that an execution will bring healing and closure to the surviving members of the victim's family, and this too is encouraged to remain intact. People expect the victim's surviving family members to cry for the blood of the murderer. Sam Sheppard, member of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation, says it is very difficult to openly express the conviction that further death will not heal the wounds because of the public's expectations. MVFR is an organization of families who have had a loved one killed and have chosen forgiveness as the non-violent path to closure; this is the group that did not applaud the ritual sacrifice of Bonin. Sam said the ones most negatively impacted are the children in the surviving families. If adults want to, they can ask the questions and make the choice not to pursue a path of revenge, but children are told what to think, and if the message is hate, anger, fear, then that's what they will grow up with. Studies have shown that these children are more prone to violence and substance abuse when they become adults, which is no surprise. If the time spent between a murder and an execution is 10 years, that means the surviving family that wants revenge spends that time going over the pain and anger of their loss and represses any inner healing because they are waiting for the great day of the execution to solve all their problems. But that means that the whole family lives in extreme pain during that time, so of course any children who have to grow up in this atmosphere are going to be scarred. It isn't the murder that does the scarring as much as the years of hate and anticipation of the blood ritual. If the murderer had been given life without possibility of parole, that would have been the end of the process and the family would then be able to move on and do some inner healing. MVFR members have chosen this path at the beginning, saving the years of pain, knowing that the only healing that is going to work is the inner kind, knowing that another death will not do it.
Because of the public pressure to want revenge, it is rare to admit that the state killing didn't bring peace. Recently the SF Chronicle ran an article about the hope for relief that Bonin's victims' survivors were holding on to, and at the end there was a comment by Janine Saake, the granddaughter of one of David Mason's victims. Mason was executed in 1993. She told the Bonin survivors not to bet on any cure-alls. "I don't know if it will take away the pain for them. (The execution) didn't for me. The recovering is lifelong." Public insistence on the execution to bring healing is conjecture, not based on experience. I think we should listen to the voice of experience, and look for a real way to heal the wounds of the survivors. Maybe instead of spending millions of dollars to execute one man we could divert some of those funds into counseling for the surviving family?