"I have no room in my heart for vengeance"

Currently listening to: A Dying Sailor to his Shipmates - Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys


In the mornings, after my bike ride to school, I have a big breakfast in the student lounge, a smallish room with a TV. Usually I read the NY Times but this morning it hadn’t yet arrived, so I turned on the TV. This was around 8:00am. I didn’t leave till well after 9:30.

The reason for this was Link TVs broadcast of Deadline, a documentary about wrongly-convicted defendants on death row throughout the United States and, particularly, in Illinois. It paid particular attention to Governor’s Ryan’s blanket commutation of 167 death sentences, culminating in a final scene that left me in tears.

I wish I’d had my notebook with me for the viewing; there were many, many, many gems I’d have liked to have written down. Many names, many projects, foundations, and thoughts. Absolutely everything struck a chord.

Of interest was the group Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, an organization of those whose “members has lost a loved one to murder -- through homicide or execution -- and every one opposes the death penalty.” The documentary filmed these members standing at a podium, each reciting the horror committed upon their family, and then stating, “and I oppose the death penalty.” It was extraordinarily moving.

Also: Governor Ryan, before all the families, reporters, everyone, quoting Abraham Lincoln: “'I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice' . . . And if the exercise of my power [here] becomes a burden, then I will bear it.”