The death penalty is not about prevention..it’s about punishment. Punishment for certain crimes, so heinous that you have forfeited your right to continue.
Not knowing anything about the case at hand, it certainly sounds as though this is one of those persons who have forfeited his right to continue. My only reservation is that the certainty of the states’ case against him. If he’s the guy, and the prosecutor can prove without question that he did it....time for him to die.
I agree. Though the death penalty seems barbaric, ask, if you only could, the victim about the mercy they experienced at the hands of the murderer. We should never transfer compassion for the absent one who will not draw breath again to the criminal who is still alive and present.
If a person takes an innocent life in a truly cruel and calculated fashion and the guilt can be proven beyond a shadow of doubt in a court of law then, through that monstrous act, they’ve forfeited their own right to live. The punishment fits the crime. All that is left is for society to have the courage to carry out the sentence.
Kenneth McDuff is a perfect example of how the prison system failed and compassion for the criminal cost the lives of future victims. Several young women would be alive today if McDuff had died in the electric chair when he was scheduled to instead of receiving 2 stays of execution and eventually being released. The State’s lack of courage is directly responsible for those broken young lives.
1) Makes you and I judges of who should live and who should die.
2) It bolsters a culture of vengeance and death.
3) And what if five years later (as sometimes happens) new evidence shows up that someone else was the guilty party? Too late - can't fix it.
4) "Punishment" is a useless exercise. It doesn't solve anything, it doesn't fix anything and it absolutely heals nothing or no one. Vengeance is clearly not a healer. Only forgiveness heals.
Does that mean the guy should go free? As long as he remains dangerous, no - it is government's job to protect society from threats to life & liberty from both outside or within the country.
Dare I put out the Shakespearean quote? It's worth repeating here I think:
The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I [The quality of mercy is not strained] by William Shakespeare