Ammon Hennacy (1893-1970) on Capital Punishment - December, 1966
Petition to the Board of Pardons and Goveror Rampton:
The execution of Darrel Poulson is scheduled to take place on January 9, 1967. I am picketing at the Capitol from Monday through Friday during the noon hour until he is reprieved or executed. Steps must be taken to place him under custodial care in a mental institution. It is criminal to consider execution or life imprisonment as just treatment for the mentally retarded or the emotionally disturbed.
POULSON'S GUILT IS SHARED!
1. The HOME is guilty in that it provides the basic training for good or evil that guides a man throughout his life.
2. The CHURCH is guilty of arguing theology and forgetting to practice the Sermon on the Mount, which says to return good for evil instead of evil for evil, and to forgive seventy times seven. Christ taught love, not retribution.
3. The SCHOOL is guilty of being overcrowded and thus stressing subject matter instead of meeting the needs of students as they seek an education and the tools with which to face society and find their own way.
4. The STATE is guilty when its institutions are crowded, when its prisons are schools for crime, and when it apes the Church by stressing punishment in its courts, prisons, and wars rather than treatment in hospitals and mental institutions.
5. Poulson is also guilty. But if we had given him the treatment he sought instead of sending him out into the world he could not understand, the crime would not have taken place. In attempting to recommit himself to the state mental hospital, Poulson has mitigated his share of the guilt.
THOSE WHO DO NOT PROTEST THIS EXECUTION ARE GUILTY OF A LEGALLY COMMITTED MURDER!
Ammon Hennacy, Director
Joe Hill House for Transients
P.O. Box 655
Salt Lake City, Utah
Catholic Worker odds & ends - Ammon Hennacy on Capital Punishment
Thank you to personalist for posting this. This was almost 50 years ago, but as relevant (or more so) now.
The execution of Darrel Poulson is scheduled to take place on January 9, 1967. I am picketing at the Capitol from Monday through Friday during the noon hour until he is reprieved or executed. Steps must be taken to place him under custodial care in a mental institution. It is criminal to consider execution or life imprisonment as just treatment for the mentally retarded or the emotionally disturbed.
POULSON'S GUILT IS SHARED!
1. The HOME is guilty in that it provides the basic training for good or evil that guides a man throughout his life.
2. The CHURCH is guilty of arguing theology and forgetting to practice the Sermon on the Mount, which says to return good for evil instead of evil for evil, and to forgive seventy times seven. Christ taught love, not retribution.
3. The SCHOOL is guilty of being overcrowded and thus stressing subject matter instead of meeting the needs of students as they seek an education and the tools with which to face society and find their own way.
4. The STATE is guilty when its institutions are crowded, when its prisons are schools for crime, and when it apes the Church by stressing punishment in its courts, prisons, and wars rather than treatment in hospitals and mental institutions.
5. Poulson is also guilty. But if we had given him the treatment he sought instead of sending him out into the world he could not understand, the crime would not have taken place. In attempting to recommit himself to the state mental hospital, Poulson has mitigated his share of the guilt.
THOSE WHO DO NOT PROTEST THIS EXECUTION ARE GUILTY OF A LEGALLY COMMITTED MURDER!
Ammon Hennacy, Director
Joe Hill House for Transients
P.O. Box 655
Salt Lake City, Utah
Catholic Worker odds & ends - Ammon Hennacy on Capital Punishment
Thank you to personalist for posting this. This was almost 50 years ago, but as relevant (or more so) now.