Every year has a defining issue.  The years 2001 and 2002 will be remembered for terrorism.  The years 2003 and 2004 will be remembered for the War in Iraq and "moral values."  But what issue will stand out as the key issue of 2005?  It has become clear that many situations this year have subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) called attention to a single issue.  It is my belief that 2005 will be remembered as the year of “death penalty awareness.”  It is also my belief that if someone were to simply pay attention to certain key events, he or she would have no choice but to believe that the death penalty is, quite simply, wrong.

The first of these events occurred in March 2005, when the Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons, eradicating the juvenile death penalty.  Reasonable and conservative justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in which he explained that not only was the juvenile death penalty not aligned with the national consensus of the American people, but also severely out of tune with the rest of the world.  Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, stating that the Court should not make decisions based on other nations’ laws.  I believe most would disagree with Scalia after seeing the facts. Of 132 nations and self-governing territories, 208 do not regularly use the death penalty.  With the exception of Belarus, the entire continent of Europe has, in practice, abolished the death penalty.  The nations that do support the death penalty are primarily impoverished third-world countries in the Middle East and Africa.  On a list of the top 20 nations by executions per 100 million residents, the United States is accompanied by such nations as Yemen, Iran, and Vietnam.

After a study of the facts, it becomes apparent that Justice Kennedy was correct in his belief that the United States stands alone in the developed world when it comes to the death penalty.

The second event pointing to 2005 as the year of death penalty awareness was the death of Pope John Paul II.  Despite major coverage of John Paul's beliefs on contraception and homosexuality, many news outlets forgot to mention one of the Pope's most revolutionary actions.  In his 1995 Evangelium Vitae, the Pope officially declared the death penalty immoral.   Alongside euthanasia and abortion, it became the third part of the Vatican's sanctity of life policy.  Unfortunately, Republican lawmakers only vote with two of the beliefs and, despite preaching pro-life values, they support the death penalty.  Justice Scalia has pushed the Old Testament "eye for an eye" set of beliefs in many of his pro-death penalty speeches while forgetting to mention Matthew 5:38-39, in which Jesus himself stated, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."  Also, Christians should not forget that their own savior was a victim of capital punishment for a crime he did not commit.

Fortunately, the fight against the death penalty continued in the Virginia gubernatorial election with candidate Tim Kaine making a risky move by openly declaring himself against the death penalty.  The fact that this conservative state elected a man with these beliefs is a step in the right direction.  Despite jumbled and unclear situations in other moral value issues, the one axiom that is evident this year is that all persons claiming to be pro-life should denounce the death penalty.

It appears that, by almost divine coincidence, we were tested on what we have learned about the death penalty this holiday season.  Stanley "Tookie" Williams was executed 12 days before Christmas.  He exemplified all that is wrong with the death penalty.  Most people in favor of the death penalty feel comfortable with their belief because they believe that a bad person is being executed.  Tookie Williams was not a bad person, at least not when he was executed.  He might have been at one point in his life, but he had undoubtedly changed.  He wrote 10 children's books and filmed two PSAs instructing children to not join gangs.  He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times.  He was given a President's Call to Service Award for his good deeds and received a letter from President George W. Bush congratulating him for showing "the outstanding character of America."  No one can truthfully say that the State of California executed a "bad person" on December 13. 

The people were truly being tested on December 13.  We, as represented by Governor Schwarzenegger, had to decide if we wanted to legally kill a changed man.  We had to decide if we wanted to be a nation that includes all lives, including those of killers, under the title of "pro-life."  We had to decide if we wanted to align ourselves with the rest of the developed world.  We had to decide if we wanted to be a nation that kills or a nation that protects.  Unfortunately, the California governor denied clemency and let Williams be put to death, a morally heinous choice in my opinion.

Still, we, as the future of our nation, still have the power to make the right choice and end the death penalty.  If we succeed in making the right choice, then the year 2005 will not only be remembered as the year of awareness, but also as the beginning of the end of a horrible institution.