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As a rule, I stand opposed to the death penalty on various grounds. In and of itself, as it is practiced today in the United States, the death penalty is a miscarriage of the very justice its supports claim it metes out. Time and again, the racist, sexist and politically-motivated nature of the penalty itself, not to mention errors that have led to at least one state abolishing it for good, have warranted outcry not just from the so-called bleeding hearts, but also from families of those death-penalty supports absolutely swear want or need such justice-people who understand that killing in response to killing, when the means are available to stop the killing cycle, is unjustified and unnecessary.

With treason, however, there are different mechanics in play. For starters, a charge of treason is laid at the federal level, not at the state or local level, where regional politics and machinations tend to get in the way of true justice. That means the Department of Justice, under the watch of the Attorney General, or military tribunals set up under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or UCMJ, are ultimately responsible for the charge. There is a higher standard involved for such a charge to be laid when those bodies are involved, and I'm much more confident that they will make the right decision in relation to such a charge.

Second, treason is a crime that puts the entire nation at risk. It's not just one cute little girl or one upstanding police officer or a small set of people whose lives are on the line. Every citizen, regardless of what he looks like, how much money he makes, who he knows or where he's been, is in jeopardy when someone commits treason. For that reason, treason is truly the only crime for which anyone in this great country should ever have to fight for his life.

I have always considered what Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols did in Oklahoma City in 1995 an act of treason, not an act of terror. These two men once swore to protect the very Constitution that allowed them due process under both federal law and Oklahoma state law. Had they still been in uniform, death would have come for them much more swiftly.

I would like to see the death penalty abolished nationwide in my lifetime for all other crimes. Fourteen states have seen fit to do that, and no U.S. territory on its own merit imposes death sentences. But treason should retain the possibility of death. The Department of Justice should have it at their disposal for civilian cases, and for the military it should be required, because a man or woman in the uniform of the U.S. Armed Forces has no reason to turn his or her back on this country.

Learn more about this author, Claxton Graham.
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