In a cultural era when society argues that words can have whatever interpretation one pleases, the term “justice” has likewise transcended its true meaning. Justice, it seems, is loosely defined as “whatever I personally think is fair.” In other words, it’s “my truth” as applied to punishment.
But justice is a complex ethical principle, derived from an objective value of righteousness. The moral virtue of being justified literally means to stand rightly, correctly, and with legitimacy. The Bible speaks of justification, the state of being made righteous in the sight of God, through faith in Jesus. The Book of Romans says,
Justice is inextricably intertwined definitionally with righteousness. We cannot have genuine or meaningful justice without objective moral rightness.
Justice is required from a legitimate society that acts ethically. We have a justice system for a reason: to promote good and restrain evil. A legitimate society protects and preserves individual rights, and when one person substantially and harmfully infringes on another’s rights, government has legitimate authority to designate that conduct as criminal and seek to prevent it and punish it where it does occur. Our criminal justice system is designed for this purpose. It also includes the important element of restitution or victim compensation.
Thus, when people are convicted (importantly, after being afforded complete due process) of committing wrongful, criminal acts, then society must impose justice. We know this intuitively when we see cases such as Jeffrey Epstein, whose decade-old plea agreement reignited outrage for its lack of justice. The punishment did not fit the crime. Headlines and commentators repeated, what about the child victims? That’s a call for justice.
Crimes range in degree and severity of harm and infringement on the victim’s rights. The most basic and foundational right is the right to life. When a person knowingly and intentionally takes the life of another human being without justification, this is the gravest of crimes.
Meaningful justice in this instance can be the imposition of the death penalty.
In his statement reinstating capital punishment, Attorney General William Barr referred to “bringing justice” and “carrying forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.” Immediately, this protocol affects five specific cases where heinous murders occurred and where the lengthy appeals process had been exhausted after comprehensive due process. Read the summary of the facts in these cases from the Department of (what else?) Justice:
- Daniel Lewis Lee, a member of a white supremacist group, murdered a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl. After robbing and shooting the victims with a stun gun, Lee covered their heads with plastic bags, sealed the bags with duct tape, weighed down each victim with rocks, and threw the family of three into a bayou. On May 4, 1999, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas found Lee guilty of numerous offenses, including three counts of murder in aid of racketeering, and he was sentenced to death. Lee’s execution is scheduled to occur on Dec. 9, 2019.
- Lezmond Mitchell stabbed to death a 63-year-old grandmother and forced her 9-year-old granddaughter to sit beside her lifeless body for a 30- to 40-mile drive. Mitchell then slit the girl’s throat twice, crushed her head with 20-pound rocks, and severed and buried both victims’ heads and hands. On May 8, 2003, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona found Mitchell guilty of numerous offenses, including first degree murder, felony murder, and carjacking resulting in murder, and he was sentenced to death. Mitchell’s execution is scheduled to occur on Dec. 11, 2019.
- Wesley Ira Purkey violently raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl, and then dismembered, burned, and dumped the young girl’s body in a septic pond. He also was convicted in state court for using a claw hammer to bludgeon to death an 80-year-old woman who suffered from polio and walked with a cane. On Nov. 5, 2003, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri found Purkey guilty of kidnapping a child resulting in the child’s death, and he was sentenced to death. Purkey’s execution is scheduled to occur on Dec. 13, 2019.
- Alfred Bourgeois physically and emotionally tortured, sexually molested, and then beat to death his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. On March 16, 2004, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found Bourgeois guilty of multiple offenses, including murder, and he was sentenced to death. Bourgeois’ execution is scheduled to occur on Jan. 13, 2020.
- Dustin Lee Honken shot and killed five people: two men who planned to testify against him and a single, working mother and her 10-year-old and 6-year-old daughters. On Oct. 14, 2004, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa found Honken guilty of numerous offenses, including five counts of murder during the course of a continuing criminal enterprise, and he was sentenced to death.
Our society is right to value human life. Every human being is made in the image of God and distinct from all other creation and life. Because we value human life, we also value justice for the wrongful taking of human life. Use of the death penalty is the most severe punishment government may impose and certainly we do not want to impose it on the truly innocent (those wrongfully convicted), in disparate proportionality, or out of vengeance.
But a morally upright society legitimately exercising meaningful justice will do exactly what the attorney general did: promote good and restrain evil. This is precisely what our Constitution intends for our government’s purpose within the words of the preamble: establish justice.
Jenna Ellis Rives (@JennaEllisRives) is a member of the Trump 2020 Advisory Board. She is a constitutional law attorney, radio host, and the author of The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution.
