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Page Two THE SKYSCRAPER March 10, 1965 IHE SilKIIKI Tend Toward Positive fS I I 11 L U II I U U IIIII L II will grip current issues and events and f hold them before the campus in order that members of the Mundelein community may sense and direct history rather than bob in its wake. Death Penalty Betrays State's Outmoded View The debate over abolition of the death penalty in Illinois is a contest between plus and minus. Abolitionists seek posi tive, rehabilitative imprisonment rather than the death pen alty; their opponents are working to perpetuate the negative extermination approach in dealing with convicted men. The latter cling to the let's put our wagons into a circle defen sive mentality of the past, while the former reflect the con structive, creative mentality of those secure enough to aban don the fort and build a city. There is nothing new about the problems of life and death. Nor is crime the offspring of modern life. But solu tions to perennial problems are conditioned by the thought patterns of the era in which the solutions are sought, and ideas in 1965 approach the positive pole. No one will deny negativists those who view the ecumenical movement as the death wish of the Church, those who lament the total annihilation of the bomb, those who see life as absurd, those who consider the civil rights movement a pollution forcing society to abandon traditions and assimilate an inferior cul ture, and those who label moon exploration a colossal waste of money. Such negativism rooted in a defensive attitude is over shadowed, however, by the positive thrust of current affairs. Political commentators predict U.S.-European relations in creasingly in terms of mutual aid to achieve, rather than unity for defense. Mundelein's Inner City project, the national War on Poverty and the inter-American Alliance for Progress have all been conceived under the help-them-to-help-them- selves rationale. Science has relaxed its aggression against hostile Nature and, having subdued her, has turned its at tention to space. The Church, too, has bridged most of the taboos which had isolated her from the two dragons, non- Catholics and self-scrutiny. Support for abolition of the death pen alty comes not only from the positively ori ented climate of ideas, but also from the concept of the state itself. If government is to be more than big brother, more than that which holds a monopoly of power, it must advance something positive. This posi tive effort, nearly all modern social scientists agree, is promotion of the common good. In the capital pun ishment debate, citizens must decide whether the common good is better served by abolition or retention of the death penalty. Supporters of the status quo base their stand on alleged value of the threat of death as a deterrent to crime and, sec ondarily, on the cost to taxpayers of imprisoning a convicted man for a long period. The facts that neither prison wardens nor any professional study has found the death threat a deter rent and that the number who would be imprisoned for life is so small as to be negligible, undermine this position. Abolitionists argue that the death pen alty is inequitably administered, that it is only the poor man's death, that the periods of stay-of-execution are torturous and that rehabilitation of a man are weightier argu ments for imprisonment than the eye-for-an- eye attitude is for death. Ten states have already abolished the death penalty, most recently Iowa, Feb. 24. Illinois, however, continues to debate the issue while William Witherspoon ap proaches a March 19 execution date in county jail. It is time for a state in the world's most forward-looking nation to come out of the cave, think positively and drop its club. Promote Common Good Argue Against Inequity DL St icraoer uscrav Vol. XXXV March 10, 1965 No. 11 Newspaper of Distinction The Skyscraper is published semi-monthly, September to May inclusive except during exam and vacation periods, by the students of Mundelein College. 6363 Sheridan Rd., Chicago, 111.. 60626. Subscription rate is 2 per year. Entered as second-class matter Nov. 30, 1932, at the U.S. Post Office. Chicago. 111., under the act of March 3, 1897. The Skyscraper Is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and the Catholic School Press Association. Letters to the editor must be signed. The Skyscraper reserves the right to cut letters in case of limited space. Editor in Chief Mary Etta Talarico Associate Editor Rae Paul Warden, Condemned Man View Criminal Executions by Mary Etta Talarico In the jail of the only county in the United States that executes its own cases warden Jack Johnson and Mr. Bill Witherspoon, an in mate condemned to die in the Cook County electric chair March 19, ex pressed their views on capital punishment. Though the capital punishment debate is a perennial one, tension in Illinois, and especially in Cook County, mounts each time an execution date approaches. The Crump, Ciucci and Carpenter cases are recent examples. The contest in Illinois exists between penal officers who rec ognize a need for a positive, corrective approach in legal penalties and the police who consider the punitive, restric tive approach (including the death penalty) as a necessary deterrent to crime and a pro tection for law enforcement of ficers. In his office at 26th Street and California, Warden Johnson com mented on the situation in Illinois stressing the deterrent and reha bilitation aspects. Rehabilitation means to put together again that which was, making whole a statue that has fallen from a pedestal, he asserts. However, many we find here were not really whole to begin with, Johnson explained. Re habilitation hasn't been possible and we must remold them. This re-formation is Johnson's concept of reform. How can penal officers be sure an inmate has been changed in either of these two ways? No one can say he is this or this, Johnson admitted, but if there is a change in his philoso phy of life ... we have the right to say there is rehabilitation or reform. We don't try to sell the idea that we can get at this 100 per cent, Johnson said. We have about 60 per cent that we can touch. This is no cloud nine ap proach, he continued, we're talk ing about a basic approach, about finding the cause. On the issue of capital pun ishment as a deterrent to crime, Warden Johnson stated clearly, I firmly believe that there is no punishment that is a deterrent after the age of 13 or 14. After that, punishment alone has a tendency to agi tate. We have only dealt with con victed persons in the punishment of crime, he said. I haven't had any professional killers to deal with, and don't know what effect capital punishment has on the citizen on the street. But we do know that punishment out of fear is not a deterrent. Warden Johnson has thick fold ers of confidential personal infor mation on inmates of the jail and insists that there is no proof that there was thought of the crime or punishment before commission of the crime. Some form of passion, notably greed or anger, triggers the crimes according to Johnson. Most people obey the law because of their moral fibre, the result of early training, the warden believes. We do know the greatest public de terrent is public criticism . . . Everyone has fear of what the others will say, he said. Moving from the theory of capi tal punishment to the personal lives of those it touches, Warden Johnson said that one of the greatest problems is selling the inmate the idta that authority can help as well as suppress. Many look upon authority as something aware of the death penalty and of pushing a man up to an execution date and then pushing it off. This is inhuman; either execute or give a stay until hearings in all courts on all levels are complete, he said. People should look into this AN ATTEMPT TO REHABILITATE inmates is part of the program of Warden Jack R. Johnson. The administrator of the Cook County Jail favors abolition of the death penalty in the capital punishment debate. 'that's going to get me anyway.' The warden's description of morale at County jail as an execu tion approaches parallels sections in Arthur Koestler's Darkness at N0071 rather than the long, dark path with the sound of clicking heels in most Hollywood movies. The notable change, according to Johnson, is that the jail becomes very quiet about 4 p.m. on the day when an execution will occur at midnight. The warden described small groups, especially women, praying and singing hymns that have a touch of power. It is not a front, he affirms, but rather quietly sincere. By the next morning, however, the usual hum of the jail is re stored, the warden said. Warden Johnson sees no possi bility for a national code abolish ing the penalty in the foreseeable future because of the great diverg ence in its use and method in vari ous states. (Ten states have an nulled the penalty but others still use hanging, gas chambers and the electric chair.) Warden Johnson would agree to the death penalty only in the case of treason and suggested that a military tribunal decide such cases. From the warden's office it is only a few yards down an aisle, past a security booth, and behind bars to a visitors' cubicle where Bill Witherspoon sat behind a chest-high partition and talked about himself and capital punish ment. Witherspoon is sentenced to die in the electric chair March 19 for the 1959 murder of Mitchell Stone unless Governor Kerner commutes his sentence. Commenting on the police contention that abolishing the death penalty would jeopardize the lives of prison guards, Witherspoon said, What many people don't realize is that un der Illinois law you can be re leased in 11 years and four months. Why would anyone want to jeopardize this? Witherspoon feels that the pub licity of his own case made the public aware of the crime of capi tal punishment. It's making them deeper, not just as a political is sue, Witherspoon asserted. This is the age of sensational ism, he continued. If people see an accident on the highway there is a jam; they don't offer aid, everybody just stops and looks. What is the attitude of a condemned man toward death? You look at life and death at different points, Witherspoon said. At first it seems that you're not under emotional pressure. You don't feel any pressure. He explained that one must live each day separately. This is to day; that's tomorrow. This is the whole concept of life. Be prepared to die any time. Maybe I learned this while I was in the Navy on a sub. For Witherspoon, life in County jail is filled with writing pub lished articles, two books and let ters to supporters of his commuta tion. His articles have appeared in such magazines as Argosy, in the Sun-Times, and in Chicago U. Maroon. A publisher is currently handling his two books, Citizens of Chance Street, a novel which is also being considered as back ground for a weekly TV series, and an autobiography. In writing about life you learn about life, Witherspoon said. You learn to analyze people. You dig into reasons and go inside peo ple to find their impetus. He has also given advice to men and women working with delinquents and youth in gen eral. I tell them how to talk to kids and meet them on their own level, Witherspoon ex plained. A burglar won't lis ten to the chief of police, but he will listen to a burglar. Just before returning to his cell, Witherspoon explained that a con demned man may invite one guest to the execution and remarked that he has considered inviting a television crew. If people could see just one man die, they would stop it (capital punishment), he explained. It's the entire state that puts its hand on the button. It's every voter not just the war den.
title:
1965-03-10 (2)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
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Mundelein College Records
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language:
English
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Mundelein College