正義のかたち：死刑・日米家族の選択／４ 許し、慰問する被害者の母

(Mainichi Japan) February 24, 2009

A life for a life: For two women who lost a loved one, two roads to finding peace (Pt 4)

正義のかたち：死刑・日米家族の選択／４　許し、慰問する被害者の母

　◇憎しみの人生に疑問

Dear Mr. Mickey, 12 years ago, I had a beautiful daughter named Catherine. She was a young woman of unusual talents and intelligence. She was slender and her skin glowed with health and vitality. She had long naturally wavy hair that framed her sparkling eyes and warm bright smile. She radiated love and joy!

(When you took her life,) I knew that I had been robbed of my precious child and that she had been robbed of growing into womanhood and achieving all of her potential. I was very angry with you and wanted to see you punished to the limit of the law. You had done irreparable damage to my family and my dreams for the future. (But) after eight long years of grief and anger...I was surprised to find that I could forgive you.

　＜敬愛する　ミッキーさま

　１２年前、私には美しい娘がいました。あなたに命を奪われた子です。あなたが罰せられることを夢見てきましたが今、あなたを許せることに自分自身、驚いています。

　キャサリーンの母より＞

In April 1992, Aba Gayle, 72, of Silverton, Oregon, wrote these words in a letter to Douglas Mickey, 60, the man sitting on death row at San Quentin California State Prison for the murder of her daughter. A few weeks later she received a thankful reply from Mickey, and in August of the same year Gayle went to visit Mickey.

　米西部オレゴン州シルバートンに住むアバ・ゲイルさん（７２）は９２年４月、カリフォルニア州サンクエンティン刑務所のダグラス・ミッキー死刑囚（６０）に手紙を書いた。数週間後、感謝するとの返信を受けたゲイルさんは同年８月、刑務所を訪ねる。

Gayle was led to a part of the prison for death row inmates. She had always thought that such a place would be full of monsters, but on her visit she found the inmates to be quietly courteous. While she waited for Mickey to arrive, her heart raced. After a wait of 45 minutes, she finally laid eyes on the man who took Catherine's life and saw no monster but "a completely normal man."

　案内されたのは死刑囚ばかりの棟。「怪物」ばかりだと思っていたが、死刑囚は誰も物静かで礼儀正しかった。待つ間、緊張で心臓の鼓動が高まった。約４５分後、目の前に現れたのは「ごく普通の男性」だった。

The pair talked for more than three hours. She learned that Mickey's mother had committed suicide when he was just 16 years old. "We talked together about Catherine, I cried and he cried. I realized the night I lost my daughter, Douglas also lost his future."

　２人は３時間以上、語り合った。ミッキー死刑囚が１６歳の時、母を自殺で亡くしたことも知る。「２人はキャサリーンについて話し、一緒に泣きました。私が娘を奪われた夜、ダグ（死刑囚）も未来を失ったのです」

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When Catherine died in September 1980 at the age of 19, she had been living in a California apartment with a 30-year-old musician who had got into some drug-related trouble. It was this trouble that led Mickey to stab the musician to death, and Catherine as well. After the crime, Mickey fled to Japan, but was captured in 1981. He was sentenced to death in 1983.

　事件は８０年９月に起きた。ゲイルさんの次女、キャサリーンさん（当時１９歳）は、カリフォルニア州のアパートに音楽家（当時３０歳）と同棲（どうせい）していた。薬物を巡るトラブルからミッキー死刑囚は知人の音楽家を刺殺、キャサリーンさんも殺害した。日本に逃走したが、８１年に逮捕され８３年９月、刑が確定した。

For many years after, Gayle cried "buckets of tears" over the loss of her daughter. Later, more than sadness, Gayle felt growing hate for Mickey. She swore that when it came time for Mickey's execution she would go and see Catherine's killer suffer.

　数年間、ゲイルさんは「泣いてばかりでバケツ何杯もの涙を流した」。その後、悲しみよりも、犯人を憎む気持ちが強まる。死刑執行に立ち会い、苦しむ姿を見ようと誓った。

However, some eight years after her daughter's violent death, she began to question whether her life should be spent in hatred. Gradually, through visits to churches and other methods, she transformed her anger into a search for peace and love.

Twelve years after the murder, she heard a mysterious voice from within her heart.

"You must forgive him and you must let him know!" it said. Gayle wrote the letter to Mickey soon after.

　しかし、事件から８年がたち、憎しみで終わる人生に疑問を持った。教会などを訪ね、怒りの感情が、平和や愛を求める気持ちに変わった。事件から１２年、ゲイルさんは不思議な「心の声」を聞く。「許し、それを相手に伝えなさい」。その直後に手紙を書いた。

　　　　◇

It took 12 years for Gayle to forgive Catherine's killer, but some family members of murder victims find any length of time too short to grant forgiveness.

In the northeastern state of New Jersey, the parents of Sharon Hazard-Johnson, 52, were brutally murdered in their home by a robber. The culprit was caught and sentenced to death, but avoided execution when New Jersey abandoned the death penalty at the end of 2007. Hazard-Johnson said that her heart would now "remain broken," as she lost the chance to stand in front of her parents' grave and tell them that their killer had been executed.

　ゲイルさんが犯人を許すまでにかかった時間は１２年。一方、米東部ニュージャージー州で８年前、強盗の男に両親を殺害されたシャロン・ハザードジョンソンさん（５２）は、０７年暮れに州が死刑を廃止したため、犯人の死刑を墓前に伝える機会を失う。「私の心は壊れたままだ」

As the New Jersey State Legislature debated the need for capital punishment, Hazard-Johnson continued to argue in favor of the death sentence.

　州議会で死刑の是非が議論されている間、死刑維持を主張し続けた。

"Personally, I do not forgive my parents' murderer for what he did to them," says Hazard-Johnson. "Neither have I sought revenge. I did, however, expect justice. At the very least, my parents deserved justice."

「犯人を許すことも、復讐（ふくしゅう）することもできず、正義に期待するしかなかった。両親は、正義に値する人だった」

The United States is unusual in that it leaves the application and enforcement of capital punishment up to individual states. Grieving families of murder victims who hoped for the death penalty but will never see it carried out are almost certainly not rare.

　死刑の維持や執行の停止が州によって異なる米国。死刑を望んでもかなえられないハザードジョンソンさんのような遺族は少なくないとみられる。

However, "the death penalty just makes another family of a victim," says Gayle, who is now giving lectures calling for the abolition of the death penalty all over the United States. She even calls Douglas Mickey a friend, and continues to give him regular comfort.

それでも、ゲイルさんは言う。「死刑は遺族を増やすだけです」。ゲイルさんは今、死刑廃止を訴え全米を講演。ミッキー死刑囚を「友人」と呼び、定期的に慰問する。

Does Gayle ever have second thoughts about forgiving and even befriending her daughter's killer? "I heard the voice of Catherine, 'Mom, you are not wrong,' " she says. (By Takayasu Ogura, Mainichi Shimbun. This is the fourth part of a series on capital punishment)

「キャサリーンの声が聞こえるんです。『ママは間違っていないわよ』って」【シルバートン（米西部オレゴン州）で小倉孝保】＝つづく

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　■ことば

　◇米国の死刑制度

　米連邦最高裁が１９７２年、死刑を違憲と判断し各州が中止したが、７６年の合憲判断で復活が相次いだ。現在、全米５０州のうち死刑を規定しているのはカリフォルニアやテキサスなど３６州。執行停止の州も多い。死刑復活から０８年末までの執行は全米で計１１３６件。ほとんどが南部。執行は薬物注射で、家族や被害者遺族、ジャーナリストの立ち会いを認める州も少なくない。

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毎日新聞　2009年2月18日　東京朝刊