The death of Alan Matheney

Alan Matheney died at 12:27 a.m. Sept. 28.\nSixteen years earlier, an Indiana jury convicted and sentenced Matheney for a brutal and unforgivable crime: bludgeoning his ex-wife, Lisa Bianco, to death with a shotgun. His last-minute appeals were passed over, and after admitting remorse for his crimes, he was executed by lethal injection. He became the fifth person executed in Indiana this year, the most in a single year in since the state resumed the death penalty in 1977.\nMurder and the death penalty exist on a different plane than other crimes and punishments. Thus, the death of Alan Matheney is not something to ignore, but a problem we must confront.\nThe debate about the death penalty has raged since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it constitutional in 1976 in the Gregg v. Georgia decision. Many argue the death penalty is deserved; it's an eye for an eye. Yet, we don't rape rapists or beat batterers. Others argue that if it offers the victims' families solace and closure, defendants should die. If, however, families of the victims determined all punishment for the offenders, every rapist would end up as dead as a murderer. That's why we have law in the first place. \nThere are many who try to logically argue for the death penalty. They cite the drop in violent crime since the reinstatement of the death penalty. Yet the drop in murder and violent crime has occurred in all states, not only the ones that have executed capital offenders. The bulk of statistical evidence suggests homicide rates and the death penalty are unrelated.\nAlso, capital cases have found themselves notoriously riddled with factual errors. Illinois, my home state, imposed a moratorium on the death penalty after several inmates were freed from death row on DNA evidence. If a state will use the gravest of punishments, there can be no margin for error. Nevertheless, as humans, we will inherently produce such error, and the death penalty is an act that cannot be taken back. What are we to make of our seemingly justified state-sponsored killing?\nWe aren't sure where we stand (according to 2004 Gallup poll data.) Seventy-one percent of Americans, an overwhelming majority, are "in favor of the death penalty." Yet, when the question is worded just a little differently, presenting the option of life in prison, the results are a near-even split, with about half supporting each side. Hardly a ringing endorsement.\nIt seems that we've become resigned to the fact that the death penalty is just what you get for murdering someone else, and we must have better reasoning than that. We absolutely have to start thinking hard, legally and morally, about why we execute people and why our state executes its citizens.\nNext week, IU will sponsor a series of events about the death penalty, and I recommend everyone on campus attend at least one event. Whether you believe the death penalty should be exercised far more often or God doesn't want us to execute criminals, or even if you don't know what to believe, the fact remains that Alan Matheney died Sept. 28.\nAnd we killed him.