The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

penalty position. Sadly, Gladden, billed as the “moderate” on the panel, appears to represent the vast majority of Virginians, whatever their atti- tudes toward capital punishment. As Tip O’Neill might have put it, in America all death penalty issues are local. That evening I presented six major arguments. In addition to the death penalty’s immorality, susceptibility to bias and error, removal of possibilities for redemption or forgiveness, promotion of a culture of violence, and the better alter- native of life imprisonment without parole, I contend- ed, America’s continuing attachment to capital punish- ment puts us far out of step with most of “the civilized world.” Well over a hundred countries — including all the E.U. members as well as both our NAFTA partners — have given it up in law or practice. Even if those examples do not sway us, we should at least be con- cerned that it undermines core foreign policy objectives such as promoting human rights and securing the extra- dition of terrorist suspects and other criminals. After the session, even my supporters in the audi- ence said they considered the foreign attitudes argu- ment the least potent of my six points. Though I could- n’t disagree with them, I found the conclusion disturb- ing. After all, capital cases with profound international implications are all around us in northern Virginia: the current trial in Alexandria of “20th hijacker” Moroccan- French Zakarias Moussaoui for his alleged complicity in the 9/11 attack; the trial of Jamaican Lee Boyd Malvo, one of the two alleged “snipers”; and the November 2000 execution of Pakistani Aimal Khan Kasi (aka Mir Aimal Kasi) for his 1993 murder of two CIA employees outside that agency’s Langley headquarters. It seems that Virginians, like most other Americans, have little patience for the back and forth of true international dialogue. I didn’t previously feel we were that kind of a country. Throughout my 40-year career “telling America’s story” as an FSO with USIA and then State — despite the ups and downs of our national experience during those decades — I proudly rep- resented and portrayed a great nation striving to set a standard worthy of emulation by others. In explaining our unabashed promotion of democracy and human rights, I stressed that as we seek to improve our own often imperfect performance, we honor the sentiment laid out in our Declaration of Independence that Americans pay “decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” When the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972, I naively considered the deci- sion a natural, almost inevitable, benchmark in our nation’s forward progress. Disheartened when it was reinstated only four years later, I resolved that once I was permanently back in the U.S., I would try to help get our country back on the right track. The Asian Perspective Working overseas, however, I found that my con- cerns about capital punishment were rarely shared by even the most well-educated of my contacts in the four Asian countries where I served as public affairs officer. Seldom did I meet a Thai, a Malaysian, a Japanese, or a Chinese with any serious qualms about it. Unlike their counterparts in Europe and elsewhere, most Asians consider the death penalty a necessary deterrent and an appropriate retribution for heinous crimes by undesir- able individuals who simply “deserve to die” (a view of course widely held in our own country). Nor do their governments feel pressure from us to re-examine their policies; the U.S. dwells on capital punishment in human rights reports only when there are perceived deficiencies in legal processes. In Thailand, capital punishment has been applied throughout the country’s long history, though its fre- quency has waxed and waned. In 2002, 17 people were sentenced to death, and five were executed (by F O C U S 44 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 3 Paul Blackburn, an FSO for 40 years with USIA and State, served as public affairs officer in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Tokyo and Beijing. He currently chairs the Task Force to Abolish the Death Penalty at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington and is a member of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Over a hundred countries, including all E.U. members as well as our NAFTA partners, have given up capital punishment in law or practice.