With Governor Dannel Malloy’s signature in April 2012, Connecticut became the fifth state in five years to abolish the death penalty. Connecticut makes seventeen states that do not have capital punishment, along with the District of Columbia, as more states are realizing that the death penalty is expensive, unfair, arbitrary, unnecessary, and risks executing the innocent.
Similarly, recently the man who wrote California’s death penalty law and the man who led the drive for that state to adopt capital punishment have changed their position and said that life without parole is a better option than the death penalty. For various reasons, the civilizing trend around the country is leading to more states abolishing the death penalty.
Capital punishment is still used as a political issue, though. Even as Connecticut abolished the death penalty for future cases, it did not overturn the death sentences of the few people currently on death row in the state.
Johnny Cash’s Last Song: “Hangman”
Speaking of executioners, in this video, Marty Stuart tells about his final meeting with Johnny Cash. Stuart recalls how Cash helped him write the song, “Hangman.”
Stuart was inspired to start writing the song after visiting Folsom Prison and seeing where Cash had performed for the inmates. While working on the song, he told Cash about the song, and Cash gave Stuart some help.
As Stuart explains before he performs the song in the video below, it was probably the last song Cash helped write. Four days after they worked on “Hangman,” Cash passed away on September 12, 2003.
“Hangman” later appeared on Stuart’s album, Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions (2010).
The song begins with the singer talking about killing another man: “I’ve lost count at thirty, and I’ve grown too numb to grieve.” After he tells how alcohol and dope helps him get by, the chorus comes in to reveal the twist. The song is not about a serial killer but the hangman.
Hangman, Hangman,
That’s my stock and trade.
Hangman, Hangman,
Sending bad men to their grave.
But who killed who? I ask myself,
Time and time again.
God have mercy on the soul,
Of this Hangman.
In the video, Stuart tells how Johnny Cash helped him with the chorus and the poetic line, “But who killed who? I ask myself.” The line, and the song evoke the concerns of the Connecticut legislature.
Both the legislature and Gov. Malloy realized that the death penalty is not about what we do to convicted murderers. Capital punishment is about what it does to us when our government kills people already in prison for the rest of their lives. Connecticut is saving the hangman, not the prisoners.
What do you think of “Hangman”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)
. In the new album, Stuart and his band the Fabulous Superlatives present songs with a traditional country sound, with most of the songs written by Stuart. If the sound of the album is not enough to show its country roots, the last two songs bring the point home. Lorrie Carter Bennett of The Carter Family sings on “A Song of Sadness,” and Hank Williams III joins Stuart on Hank Williams Sr.’s “Picture from Life’s Other Side.”
