Donald Cabana, the for­mer war­den of the Mississippi State Penitentiary who died recent­ly, spent many years active­ly oppos­ing the death penal­ty. Having super­vised sev­er­al exe­cu­tions, Cabana was par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­turbed about one in which the inmate may have been inno­cent. He said, “[H]owever we do it, in the name of jus­tice, in the name of law and order, in the name of ret­ri­bu­tion, you … do not have the right to ask me, or any prison offi­cial, to bloody my hands with an inno­cent person’s blood.” He spent many years speak­ing about his views on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in class­rooms, pub­lic forums, and before state leg­is­la­tors. Cabana believed the death penal­ty is not a deter­rent, is expen­sive to main­tain, and is an inhu­mane form of pun­ish­ment for those who face it and for those who have to car­ry it out. He not­ed, ​“There is a part of the war­den that dies with his prisoner.”

(B. Weber, ​“Donald Cabana, Warden Who Loathed Death Penalty, Dies at 67,” New York Times, October 13, 2013). See New Voices.

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