by Pasquale Bottiglieri

Created on: May 16, 2010   Last Updated: May 17, 2010

On the battlefield or in the halls of a penitentiary, the sanctioned taking of a human life does not occur without predictable impact on everyone directly or indirectly involved. A primary factor in establishing the level of intensity of that impact is proximity to the person whose life is taken.

A second but no less critical factor in determining whether guilt is involved in the aftermath is clear and direct responsibility for the killing.

Over the years since the Civil War, military experts first recognized the reluctance of a very high percentage of soldiers to actually fire their weapons directly at an enemy soldier.

In fact, the percentage of soldiers who actually did so in WW II has been evaluated at approximately 20%. After Viet Nam and now in the Middle East, the rate is in the vicinity of 90%.

This increase in the firing of weapons at and with intent to kill or injure the enemy was brought about through training focused on spontaneous reaction rather than thinking or logic.

The goal was to avoid the human instinct to avoid the taking of life. Proximity to the enemy proved to be a major factor in this training and in actual combat. In addition, acting under direct orders to fire at the enemy proved to have a direct impact on the ultimate rate of fire.

It has also been noted that there, within the human population, a small but distinct group of individuals who thrive in the combat environment and who acquire an increasing adrenaline response to actual sanctioned killing in a combat situation.

Aside from the obvious issues surrounding the death penalty and its implementation, there is the set of issues related to the people who work in the corrections industry, specifically those who are in direct contact with inmates on a daily basis, and, more to the point, those who work on death row.

A commonly held opinion related to those people is that they are doing time on the installment plan. In many cases, they eat the same food, literally live in the same house, and, for the most part, breath the same air as the inmates they are paid to supervise.

Correctional staff in most large scale facilities have access to the criminal records and institutional incident reports for all of the inmates they come in contact with.

They are responsible fro screening mail to and from inmates and for supervising family visits. In short, whether intentional or not, correctional people get to know their charges very well, including, in some cases, family members.

With that

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