Article

The following is a recent editorial from the Concord Monitor.

Sunday, April 16, 2000
Concord Monitor

Editorial: Change of heart
A lawmaker listened - and learned - on the death penalty.

State Rep. Maxwell Sargent was as surprised as anyone to find himself making a speech for repeal of the death penalty. He had addressed the House only twice before in eight years. And he had always voted for the death penalty, not against it.

"I'm not one who is eager to stand before the House, giving speeches," he began, "but I am proud to join Rep. Flora in the 'ought to pass' motion."

The story behind Sargent's conversion is worth considering, because if the death penalty repeal is to pass, as it should, others will have to open their minds on this issue as he did.

The repeal passed the House on the day Sargent spoke, 191-163, but so far supporters in the Senate can count on only 10 of the 13 votes they need. No doubt some senators are influenced by Gov. Jeanne Shaheen's vow to veto the repeal.

Sargent can understand where death penalty defenders are coming from. It's where he came from, too.

A 57-year-old Republican from Hillsboro, he believed in being tough on crime. He didn't think taxpayers should foot a criminal's bills for life. And some crimes struck him as being so atrocious that society was right to exact the ultimate penalty in revenge.

"I never really gave it any independent thought," he says now. "Never did."

Four years ago, however, Sargent was named to the House Criminal Justice & Public Safety Committee. Last summer, he chaired a study committee exploring issues related to sex offenders. These responsibilities exposed Sargent to reading, testimony and sights that reshaped his views.

"I don't say that I have a deep distrust of the judicial system," he said, "but I think our system really bears looking at." Consider, Sargent says, a study that found the "right guy" ends up behind bars 99.5 percent of the time. Pretty impressive - until you do the math and realize that 10,000 people are wrongly imprisoned each year.

Sargent's duties also carried him inside the state prison, where he spent time with as many as 15 inmates. Some have shaken their addictions and grown in maturity to the point that they would be assets to society. "You begin to realize," Sargent said, "that everybody's a human being."

That realization cuts both ways. Sargent has met, for example, many correctional officers who impressed him - and a few who didn't. This left him reflecting on how mistakes, even maliciousness, could produce wrongful convictions. "People are people," he said, "and people have attitudes."

Finally, even as a visitor Sargent came away from the prison impressed by what the denial of freedom really means. To live in a cell narrower than your arm span, to have your mail and your phone calls monitored by others, to have no control over your time, your activities, your food, even your companions - all this amounts to a painfully diminished life, dominated by many dimensions of punishment.

The night before the House debated the death penalty repeal, Sargent got a call asking him to prepare a speech. He normally turns in early, but he went right to his computer to begin writing, because he knew he wouldn't sleep.

Soon the phone rang; it was his sister calling from Vermont. When he told her what he was doing, she said, "Well, I wish I was going to be there to speak for you."

This was more than an expression of sisterly support. Two of her children - Sargent's niece and nephew - had been murdered in separate crimes. She had sat through the trials of both their killers. And she had emerged from that experience convinced that execution amounted to premeditated murder by the state.

When Sargent rose to address the House, he told his colleagues of the statistics, of his sister and of his journey. "In the past," he said, "I voted without any background in the criminal justice system. This time, I vote with a great deal more knowledge."

Later a dozen colleagues approached to compliment him on a powerful address. Two told him his words had helped make up their minds. "I really went home that night and said, 'Wow!' " Sargent remembered. "Because quite often no one's listening, you know."

Now the same opportunity to listen and learn awaits the Senate. May its members make as much of it as Maxwell Sargent did.