Lawmaker’s desire to return to ‘hanging by a tree’ is outrageous plus execution secrecy must end | Opinion
As the president of the Tennessee Pastors Network and a constituent of Rep. Paul Sherrell, R-Sparta, I am outraged over his call to include “hanging by a tree” as a method of execution in our state.
Hanging by a tree was an execution method used by white mobs to lynch Black people throughout the South for perceived crimes and infractions throughout the 20th century.
Representative Sherrell’s comment showed a lack of respect for an important dialogue concerning the awesome power of the state to take a life and the real life history that should inform decisions.
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Can the state carry out the death penalty fairly?
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has documented 236 lynchings of Black people in Tennessee between 1877 and 1950, including one in Warren County. The hangings in our state included Black journalists, business leaders, and teachers. The decline of lynching in the early 20th century relied heavily on the increased use of the death penalty, with public hangings intended to appease would-be lynch mobs.
Tennessee’s use of the death penalty is deeply intertwined with its history of lynching. It is despicable to call for a return to executions using a method that was responsible for robbing hundreds of innocent Black people of their lives in this state. Representative Sherrell’s comments should give us pause as to whether the government can be trusted to carry out a fair and accurate death penalty policy.
Such a cavalier attitude toward executions is also reflected in the scathing findings of a 2022 investigation, requested by Gov. Bill Lee, about problems with Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol, which are veiled in secrecy. These problems led the governor to stop a 2022 execution only one hour before it was to be carried out and to pause all executions in the state in 2022.
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Treat capital punishment with the utmost seriousness
The lethal injection report starkly reveals the lack of concern shown by the Tennessee Department of the Correction (TDOC) around the execution process.
The TDOC did not bother to follow its own lethal injection protocol for years, and state prosecutors admitted in a document filed in federal court in a lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol, “that they have learned that there may be factual inaccuracies or misstatements” in their prior filings. In other words, the state wasn’t honest with the court. Execution drugs were not properly tested, and the compounding pharmacy providing the drugs gave incomplete information to the TDOC, among other glaring problems.
The death penalty is the ultimate demonstration of government power and must be treated with the utmost seriousness and concern. Offensive suggestions of reviving methods of execution like hanging by a tree and investigations demonstrating the carelessness with which our state approaches the death penalty should concern every Tennessean.
If Tennessee is to use the death penalty, then the government must ensure that the process is transparent in order to hold our officials accountable. Government secrecy breeds sloppiness and creates a slippery slope of unchecked government power.
Tennesseans and residents of the 43rd state House District deserve better.
Pastor Dale Walker is the president of the Tennessee Pastors Network and a resident of Tennessee’s 43rd District.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Lawmaker’s desire to return to ‘hanging by a tree’ is outrageous
