
          Winthrop Rockefeller and Executions
          By Kirby, MartinMartin Kirby 
          Vol. 11, No. 2, 1989, pp. 10-11
          
          In the continuing debate over the death_penalty, it is fitting to
invoke the name of Winthrop Rockefeller, who was Governor of Arkansas,
my home state, from 1967 to 1971. He managed to overcome the awful
moral burden of immense wealth and lesser burdens of personal
weaknesses to become, as Governor, a genuine moral leader, whose
record looks better and better as the years go by. His career took

place in a small state, and he has been dead a long time now, but his
position on the death_penalty presented the rare spectacle of a public
of official actually living up to the Golden Rule, against
opposition.
          No one was executed in Arkansas while Rockefeller was Governor, and
before he left office he commuted all thirteen existing death
sentences. He also appointed a committee to review each case and
recommend the apparent best alternative to a death sentence.
          Rockefeller then issued a statement, saying: "What earthly
mortal has the omnipotence to say who among us shall live and who
shall die? I do not. Moreover, in that the law grants me the authority
to set aside the death_penalty, I cannot and will not turn my back on
lifelong Christian teachings and beliefs merely to let history run out
its course on a fallible and failing theory of punitive
justice...failing to take this action while it is within my power, I
could not live with myself." (Quoted in The Arkansas
Rockefeller by John L. Ward, LSU Press, 1978.)
          This position seems self-evidently clean, pure and worthy of
emulation, but in fact scarcely any public issue brings out the craven
and trollish in both politicians and voters like the death_penalty
issue. Many politicians seem to perceive the voters uniformly as
lusting after the blood of criminals like sharks in a feeding frenzy
and to think, therefore, that the way to gain office and stay there is
to throw them as many victims as possible. Too often these politicians
are right. The situation reminds me of that which formerly existed in
the South when politicians used to compete in the force and cleverness
of their efforts to persecute black_people. Winthrop Rockefeller was
not willing to cater either to Southern racism or to the national
predilection for capital punishment.
          He died in 1973, not long after losing his third-term election,
which he might have won if he had been willing to wreak some official
violence, and he had many opportunities to do so. But his stand on the
death_penalty was consistent with his attitude toward violence in
general. He could have permitted executions, and most of the voters
would have cheered. He could have sent the State Police to shoot up
the prisons on several provocatory occasions, and most voters would
have applauded. He could have dealt violently with any number of
public demonstrations, and a significant percentage of voters would
have fawned on him. But he did none of these things.
          Still, there was an irony inherent in Rockefeller's career. In
volatile times, he was successful at keeping the lid on violence of
all kinds in Arkansas, and was therefore generally perceived not as
heroic, but as soft. Why? Consider this snatch of song: "Texas John
Slaughter / Made 'em do what they oughter. / 'Cause if they didn't,
they died."
          This prescription was part of the theme song of a Walt Disney
television series which I watched as a teen-ager. I've never been able
to forget it. It is a near-perfect expression of the attitude that
efforts at compassionate reform must overcome--the immense popular
appeal of whatever seems practical, simple and tough. The last factor
is often decisive. No compassionate reform is "tough" in the popular
sense, which is a major reason why governors as well-intentioned as
Winthrop Rockefeller are as rare as Bachman's warblers.
          Rockefeller was tough enough to use his office to do good; his
stand on the death_penalty was only one part of an administration that
was humanitarian and ethical to a degree unprecedented in the history
of Arkansas, and not exactly common elsewhere.
          Someday, the death_penalty not only will be abolished but generally
regarded as something barbaric that people used to do, like
worshipping oak trees and segregating races. In that future, I suspect
that the moral heroism which was Winthrop Rockefeller's will be
recognized only as normal human decency, a mild confusion which I
think would have pleased him.
          
            Martin Kirby was a newspaper reporter in Arkansas during
the last years of Winthrop Rockefeller's governorship. He now lives in
North Augusta, South_Carolina.
          
        
