Discuss.
How do we feel about the death penalty? Do you feel that its justified per the Bible's "an eye for an eye" argument, or do you believe that killing is NEVER okay--than if it's wrong for the convict to do it, then it's still wrong for the government to respond in kind?
There's a 76-year-old man in California who is scheduled to be executed tonight. He's "legally blind, nearly deaf and in a wheelchair," according to the Yahoo article. Then again, he's also in prison "for having his teenage son's 17-year-old girlfriend murdered for fear she would tell police about a grocery-store burglary. While behind bars, he tried to have witnesses in the case wiped out, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to death in 1982 for hiring a hit man who killed a witness and two bystanders."
So I guess I'm kind of torn about the whole thing. Yes, what he did is abominable, and he should never be allowed to walk free again. But...to execute an old man? I don't know. After reading John Grisham's "The Chamber," I'm not sure I'll ever quite like at the death penalty quite the same again.
3 comments:
Oh, touchy subject. i am pretty much with LOB on this one, but with Renee on the whole finding out later they are innocent and if they are going to do an execution, why does it take so long? I mean, 23 years, that is too long for someone to sit there, he might as well finish out his "life in prison" sentence. it is a tough one. and i can't put myself in someone's shoes of how I would feel if someone killed someone in my family, so this topic isn't like "close to home" or anything if you knwo what I mean?
You should DEFINITELY read The Chamber.
And I don't know how I feel about it, either. I'm against it in principal, but kind of like LoB said, if someone killed one of MY family members or friends, my attitude would probably change. I almost think that the death penalty is too easy, that they should have to suffer in prison the rest of their lives.
And I just don't see what GOOD came off executing this blind, deaf old man when he probably would have been dead soon anyway.
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