When I was young, many years ago, I didn’t support the death penalty. I thought that an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, would as Tevye says, “leave everyone blind and toothless.” I didn’t see much point to execution over life imprisonment.
As I grew a little older, more religious and hopefully wiser, I changed my views. Since I firmly believe in this life being just a tiny part of our eternal life, letting them move on instead of keeping them in a place of hell seemed the humane thing to do. There are worse things than death and to be held captive in a small cage is one of them. At least it is to me.
But now I’m much older. I might not have more wisdom but I certainly have more knowledge. I find myself still supporting the death penalty but for different reasons. I now know how much money a life imprisonment can cost. I know how few inmates ever truly change. I know how rampant murder has become without the death penalty as a deterrent. And thanks to the details of ID television I know a lot more about how gruesome many murders can be.
As a matter of fact, I not only support the death penalty, I want to see it notched up a bit. After a decade of watching and reading about real crime cases, here’s what I’d like to see. Not only would I want the death penalty reinstated in all 50 states, I want it to be more personal. I’d like to see convicted murderers in certain horrific cases be executed exactly the same way that their murders were committed. Maybe just maybe some of these sociopaths would think twice if they knew they would die the same way their victims did.
I think of the man that kidnapped, raped and brutalized a young 12 year old girl. He wrapped her up in plastic and buried her beneath his mobile home. She was still alive. Years later his lawyers tried to get his execution stopped because “lethal injection” was cruel and inhumane. REALLY?? Let’s rape and brutalize him, wrap him in plastic and bury him alive because that is soooo much better. Maybe he’d have thought twice if he knew what was in store for him.
How about the dad that beat and starved his son to death? The boy was kept in a cage in the living room, next to Daddy’s computer desk. He played solitaire while watching his 12 year old shrivel up to nothing. Let’s take dad’s three square meals away while he is in his prison cage. Everyone can ignore him as he slowly starves to death. Maybe he would have found some mercy in his heart for his son if he’d known what his own death would be like.
There are unfortunately, way too many horrors like these to share here. An elderly couple duct taped and thrown in a pit to be covered with mud and muck just for the pin number to their account. When their bodies were discovered, they were holding hands while they drowned in dirt. Woman kept as sex slaves and tortured to death. Babies left to die in hot cars. People set on fire for the “fun” of it………
And if the murderers had know without a doubt that they would die the same way when caught, well, I think it would be a huge deterrent or at least enough motivation to kill their victims mercifully (if there is such a thing). And we would stop hearing the complaints about the cruelty of injections and electrocution. They seem downright gentle in retrospect, don’t they? That’s the (somewhat gruesome) view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
As I grew a little older, more religious and hopefully wiser, I changed my views. Since I firmly believe in this life being just a tiny part of our eternal life, letting them move on instead of keeping them in a place of hell seemed the humane thing to do. There are worse things than death and to be held captive in a small cage is one of them. At least it is to me.
But now I’m much older. I might not have more wisdom but I certainly have more knowledge. I find myself still supporting the death penalty but for different reasons. I now know how much money a life imprisonment can cost. I know how few inmates ever truly change. I know how rampant murder has become without the death penalty as a deterrent. And thanks to the details of ID television I know a lot more about how gruesome many murders can be.
As a matter of fact, I not only support the death penalty, I want to see it notched up a bit. After a decade of watching and reading about real crime cases, here’s what I’d like to see. Not only would I want the death penalty reinstated in all 50 states, I want it to be more personal. I’d like to see convicted murderers in certain horrific cases be executed exactly the same way that their murders were committed. Maybe just maybe some of these sociopaths would think twice if they knew they would die the same way their victims did.
I think of the man that kidnapped, raped and brutalized a young 12 year old girl. He wrapped her up in plastic and buried her beneath his mobile home. She was still alive. Years later his lawyers tried to get his execution stopped because “lethal injection” was cruel and inhumane. REALLY?? Let’s rape and brutalize him, wrap him in plastic and bury him alive because that is soooo much better. Maybe he’d have thought twice if he knew what was in store for him.
How about the dad that beat and starved his son to death? The boy was kept in a cage in the living room, next to Daddy’s computer desk. He played solitaire while watching his 12 year old shrivel up to nothing. Let’s take dad’s three square meals away while he is in his prison cage. Everyone can ignore him as he slowly starves to death. Maybe he would have found some mercy in his heart for his son if he’d known what his own death would be like.
There are unfortunately, way too many horrors like these to share here. An elderly couple duct taped and thrown in a pit to be covered with mud and muck just for the pin number to their account. When their bodies were discovered, they were holding hands while they drowned in dirt. Woman kept as sex slaves and tortured to death. Babies left to die in hot cars. People set on fire for the “fun” of it………
And if the murderers had know without a doubt that they would die the same way when caught, well, I think it would be a huge deterrent or at least enough motivation to kill their victims mercifully (if there is such a thing). And we would stop hearing the complaints about the cruelty of injections and electrocution. They seem downright gentle in retrospect, don’t they? That’s the (somewhat gruesome) view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
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