According to the website pro-deathpenalty.com (Imposition of the death penalty is extraordinarily rare. Since 1967, there has been one execution for every 1600 murders, or 0.06%. There have been approximately 560,000 murders and 358 executions from 1967-1996). Think of all the families effected by these murders that never had justice served. In some of these cases I'm sure that the families would have liked to see their child, or mother, of fathers murderer put to death for a terrible crime committed on their family member.
Put yourself in the shoes of a family member that has a loved one killed, intentionally by a man or woman. Now you go to trial with the killer, and they get 20 years in prison or life. Will you sleep at night knowing that they are being fed, working out, reading, watching television and socializing even if it is in prison. This to me is not justice.
Works sited
Pro-0death penalty.com
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I cannot even imagine the pain of losing a loved one at the hands of a murderer. I also cannot imagine another life being lost helping me sleep any easier. I don't find comfort in a cycle of violence. Personally, my opposition to the death penalty lays less in the statistics weve presented in this blog, and in what I identify as my sense of morality. Murder is wrong, because it is no ones right to decide who lives and who dies. No matter what the circumstance. As human beings we are able to create these rules because of our ability to be rational, and apply logic. This is what makes human life so valuable, why we yearn to protect it. But, in designing these rules, we must also be able to apply them consistantly, by using those very gifts of rationalization and logic. We are the creater of these universal laws, but the question remains are we strong enough to follow our own rules? To me, no one has the authority to decide who lives and who dies. Regardless of what has been done. Those who have taken matters into their own hands, ie murders, obviously should be punished, but we should not stoop to their level and further devalue human life. Accompanying this, is that ever present risk of a mistake in judgement. We risk taking innocent life in our quest for justice. How do we reconcile this? Are those wrongly sentanced to death mere casualities in the name of justice? Are innocent lives now expendable in our attempt to acheive revenge? It seems contradictive, that in our pursuit to honor and protect life, we would be willing to run the risk of disposing of it unjustifiably. To me, death is coming for everyone. I just dont see the need to risk error, and possibly sentence an innocent person to death, in order to accelerate the process for those who have killed. In a sense, we really are just enabling the killer to take more innocent lives. The idea of the death penalty makes me uncomfortable. I understand the position of those who support it, I just find it to be contradictive and ineffective. We should always,without exception, honor, respect and preserve life, even in the challenging situations, where it seems as though somone has surrendered their humanity, and their right for us to do so.
ReplyDeleteWow - That was an amazing comment, Amanda. It is really touching!! I am HIGHLY impressed with this writing... EXCELLENT!
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