Imagine someone you love plugged into a machine which keeps them alive. How would that make you feel? Imagine being the one who has to pull the plug to end their life? Could you do it? Would you want to do it, or would you search for some alternative? Heartfelt decisions are hard to make and are thought out thoroughly before being acted on.
There are groups of people around the world who are against the death penalty, trying to abolish its very existence. These people thought long and hard about the inhumanity in sentencing someone to death, considering it a merciless act. They would rather have a person sentenced to the rest of his or her life incarcerated. Which of course sounds better than being put to death. However a life sentence is not a lesser evil in this scenario. Actually it is almost exactly the same thing, give or take some fundamental differences. Having been sentenced to L.W.O.P., which in most states is until death, I know first hand that a life sentence is merely a slow and agonizing wait to die. Imagine being told that you have an option of being buried alive, and have to wait to die, or you could be killed now and then buried. Which would you choose?
A life sentence is another death sentence, just worded in a fashion that sounds less horrific, but by no means is it any less stressful, tormenting, or psychologically trying. I would never attempt to make light of being sentenced to death. I can only imagine the spiritually depleting feeling of those faced with such an atrocity. It is too serious a matter to ignore, yet in that same breath a life sentence is its close relative, sometimes just as inhumane, atrocious, mentally exhausting, and plain cruel. Yet this harsh sentencing is an often ignored topic of conversation when speaking of unjust punishments. Ultimately you are still waiting to die in a ready made tomb. Decades pass while you’re watching life without really being a part of it. What is worse is since there are not many activists speaking out about this other death penalty, you can easily become lost and forgotten in the system.
Now imagine having nothing to eat and slowly starving to death, then imagine having nothing to eat and slowly starving to death while watching other people eat. A life sentence means until death…no matter how much you’ve grown, matured, and changed for the better. You still sit in agony waiting for death to release you from this soul crushing ordeal. How much more inhumane is that? Imagine what must go through one’s mind? Counting calendars and seeing the world change around you but not being able to participate in it. Being told indirectly that what you have to offer is not good for society, peers, friends, or family. Imagine being put on punishment forever, watching life through a window yet never being allowed to live outside of that reality.
Again I am in no way making light of the cruelty in having a death sentence. I could not fathom such a plight. It is well beyond my thoughts, but close to my heart as I understand the hopeless feeling one often must fight against. I know very personally the heart aching pain of never seeing certain loves ones again in life. The attempts at rearing children with words of encouragment, without being present. Being affectionately malnourished and emotionally distant from all you care about. I also need to be reminded that my existence still matters to those who love me, being seen as a man, a human being and not just another body to fill a bed for some financial gain. In the midst of all that I wonder who cares for those of us serving the other death penalty????
By Mr. Aaron Major #CJ-6184, Pa. L.W.O.P. 1992-?, The Other Death Penalty