Buddhists protest death sentence

·期刊原文

Buddhists protest death sentence

by Tim, Vanderpool

Progressive

Vol. 58 No. 3 Mar. 1994 P. 14

Copyright by Progressive

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Dateline: Phoenix, Arizona

Last July, the Maricopa County Attorney's office convicted a pair of
teenagers in the 1991 slaying of nine Thai Buddhist monks in their Phoenix
Wat Promkunaram temple. One of the boys dodged the death penalty by
pleading guilty and testifying against his friend. The other,
nineteen-year-old Johnathan Doody, now may face execution.

Rather than being pleased with this outcome, the international Buddhist
community is advocating mercy for Doody. "We do not believe in the death
penalty of any kind," says Mettanando Bhikku, a monk and visiting professor
at Harvard. "We don't believe in revenge. We believe that corrections can
be made in person."

That position has placed Arizona's law-and-order types in an ironic bind.
Maricopa County Prosecutor Richard Romley, who continues pushing for
Doody's execution, has seen his usual bloodlust constituency evaporate.
Under Arizona's Victim's Rights law, friends and family of the victims can
appear in court to call for harsh justice, buttressing the prosecutor's
position. This time, however, the aggrieved are urging just the opposite,

Romley's position nonetheless remains firm, according to spokesman Bill
FitzGerald. "We're not discussing our motivations with the media right
now," he says. "We'll discuss that before the court. But we listen to
everybody. The Buddhist monks who represent the temple back in Thailand as
well as in the United States can express their opinion."

For his part, Bhikku says a sense of loss doesn't justify further
suffering. "It was a very scary thing that happened to my colleagues," he
says. "But a respect for life is the first precept in Buddhism. We
fundamentally oppose the taking of life."

Wat temple members both here and abroad are scouting a new defense team for
Doody, and have asked the United Nations to review possible humanrights
violations. "We've even pressed the Thai parliament into sending a letter
to President Clinton," Bhikku says. "We simply don't think this boy should
be killed."

PHOTO: Buddhists are calling for clemency for the boy convicted of shooting
nine monks in order to rob their temple in Arizona.