Much of the reaction to the departure of Frank Keating from the national review
board of lay Catholics charged with enforcing the charter against child sexual abuse
adopted by America's Roman Catholic Bishops has focused on the credibility of the
bishops, implying his leaving makes them less credible.
I, and other Catholics dedicated to ending the death penalty in this nation — a goal
that aligns perfectly with Catholic teaching — thought early on that Keating would
become the embarrassment he is and that his very appointment undermined the
hierarchy’s credibility. I believe his departure provides the bishops an opportunity to
recover some credibility as the review board carries out its mission without Keating.
Keating’s complaint that some bishops “turned to their lawyers when they should
have looked into their hearts” is ironic for us who remember his past.
As governor of Oklahoma, he had at least 50 chances to search his heart and quit
listening to attorneys and he always listened to the attorneys. As a result, 50 persons died.
One of them, Sean Sellers, was a 16-year old child when he committed the crime for
which he was executed. Like a former Roman governor named Pilate, Keating served
Caesar, and refused to listen to his heart when asked to show mercy and dismissed the
teaching of his Church, saying John Paul II is wrong about the death penalty.
Not long after his misguided appointment as chair of the national review board, he
had the opportunity to sign into law legislation that would forbid the execution of
mentally retarded defendants. It offends the conscience to think one would execute
someone whose mental capacity does not fully comprehend what death is. Keating
became a shallow and hollow spokesperson for the prevention of child abuse by vetoing
this important legislation. Just days later the United States Supreme Court declared,
finally, that the execution of mentally retarded persons is unconstitutional.
He took all these actions while governing a state tied with Texas in the number of
persons exonerated and released from death row for reasons of innocence. Also,
Professor James S. Liebman of Columbia University found in a study of capital
sentencing errors that Oklahoma had a 75% error rate through 1995. In 2001, a federal
court overturned the sentence of Oklahoma death row inmate Alfred Brian Mitchell
because of the false and misleading testimony by Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce
Gilchrist at trial. She was fired later that year for mismanagement and flawed casework
analysis. Unfortunately, many of the defendants whose cases she worked on had already
been executed under Keating’s signature.
Had Keating followed his own advice and listened to his heart, perhaps he would
have imitated another conservative governor and done the right thing. George Ryan of
Illinois has traveled the country describing his discovery of the flaws in the Illinois
system that could lead to executing the innocent. Unable to separate the innocent from
the guilty, he first ordered a moratorium so the system could be studied and, after Illinois
lawmakers ignored recommended corrective measures, he commuted every death
sentence to life without parole.
Certainly, Keating, also faced with a flawed system, had similar options and
chose to continue to sign death warrants.
With Keating gone, the bishops and the work of the members of the board can
now be truly credible.
Sincerely yours,
Rev. Patrick Delahanty
