"...If Only Good And Evil Came Only In Black And White...."

Courage comes from unexpected places.

This week, it came from a jury room in Boston.

More than just a few people were surprised that the death penalty was the chosen punishment for Tsarnaev.

And, predictably, more than just a few people were distressed by that choice.

Jay Parini is one.

( Jay Parini, a poet and novelist, teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont. His newest book is "Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal," which is forthcoming in October. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.)

(CNN) As a Christian, I can't but feel horrified at the news that a federal jury has imposed the death penalty on Dzhokar Tsarnaev, the young man who (with his brother) was responsible for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. 

This punishment only continues the cycle of violence, and it will not bring peace. In fact, the execution of Tsarnaev will transform him into a martyr, and millions around the world will find fresh reasons to dislike the United States.

I have no sympathy for him. He killed and maimed innocent people, believing that this violence would somehow make up for the violence to Islamic people wrought by American bombs. But violence is never the right answer.

Capital punishment is murder by the state; it cannot be justified. It will do nothing to comfort anyone who suffered from the horror perpetrated by Tsarnaev. If we allow ourselves to get sucked into the violence that has been done to us, we in turn become that violence. 

Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount that "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" is the old way of doing business. He asked us to turn the other cheek. And he meant it -- although that is a very complex teaching that each Christian must interpret with prayerful alertness to the responsibilities and difficulties of nonviolent responses to violence.

It is not hard to argue that Tsarnaev's case has its roots in an earlier cycle of violence: The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that left nearly 3,000 dead in 2001. It is for many of us the worst day we can recall. 

I remember thinking to myself: there will be violence for decades now, and it will follow from this act. So it was not surprising when only a few years later we invaded Iraq, even though expert voices around the world warned that there was no real connection between Iraq and 9/11.

Over 100,000 civilians and security forces would die, bombed by Americans and their allies. These deaths, and countless injuries, would create a great deal of anger, as generations would remember the day that the Americans bombed their city in this "war of choice."

Of course, it was impossible to know the full extent of the terror that would follow, and that indeed ISIS would rush in to fill a vacuum created by wiping out Saddam's army. Violence follows violence.

From this, angry, distorted men, like the Tsarnaev brothers, drew justification for their unspeakable actions.

Cycles of violence are difficult, nearly impossible, to break.

The concept of "turning the other cheek" may sound meek and mild, almost a copout. But it's a powerful teaching that could lead to genuine, even radical, transformation. It invites us to struggle to find a way out of this cycle of victim and perpetrator. 

There is no reasonable argument in opposition to what Mr. Parini offers here.

Because reasonable people, in their heart of hearts and soul of souls, would certainly have to understand, if not accept, the perspective that he brings to the discussion.

If the Tsarnaev brothers acted in retribution for what they perceived to be unjust harm to others by maiming and killing others, then execution of the remaining brother can unarguably be described as retribution for what we perceive to be unjust harm to others.

And the wheel on the bus, like the cycle Parini describes, goes round and round.

All that can be reasonably offered is oppositional opinion.

And, perhaps, a splitting of a hair.

".... Capital punishment is murder by the state; it cannot be justified. It will do nothing to comfort anyone who suffered from the horror perpetrated by Tsarnaev....."

Hmm.

mur·der

ˈmərdər/

noun

noun: murder; plural noun: murders

1.

the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another


And there,  as Hamlet would offer us, lies the rub.

Tricky definition.

Because those same reasonable people who understand, if not accept, Mr. Parini's perspective might passionately counter that the maiming and killing of innocents, including children, simply for the purpose of inflicting pain and terror and harm are not the acts of a human being.

Thereby negating the accusation that to execute here is to murder.

That, perhaps, instead, the maiming and killing of innocents, including children, simply for the purpose of inflicting pain and terror and harm are, simply, at their core, nothing more, or less, than evil.

Deserving of extermination.

And who among us would lose a second's sleep knowing that we had participated in that extermination?

Not to mention the very real possibility that said extermination might even result in  a sense of....comfort.

That while we will probably never possess the opportunity, let alone the skills, to eradicate evil from the human experience, we will, from time to time, have the opportunity to exterminate its perpetrators.

One small step, as it were.

This past week, the jurors in Boston displayed a not easily accomplished courage.

Because while it might seem that they were faced with the decision of whether or not to allow a fellow human being to continue living, what they were actually faced with was a entirely different decision altogether.

Whether they were being confronted by a failed human being.

Or evil.

And the courage spoken of here is the courage it takes to take an extraordinary chance in this life, to even step up to the table when the possible repercussions are so extreme,  let alone place the bet and gamble that the chance was worth taking, that the determination was, and is, just.

We will not learn, in our own lifetimes, what judgement will await them for their decision.

Nor will they, for that matter.

That's a judgement that comes when this life is concluded.

In the meantime, whatever else did or did not happen in Boston this past week, twelve people took an extraordinary chance and gambled that what they were confronted with was not merely a failed human being.

But, in fact, evil.

And they put their morality, and perhaps even their immortality, on the line by putting the extermination process into motion.

With stakes that high, especially in light of those possible repercussions, that gamble was courageous.