Today, I read an article called “Victims’ Family Members Want Capital Punishment Repealed” on Courant.com. This immediately caught my eye because the death penalty has always been a controversial issue that I’m interested in. I am a believer in the death penalty, even though so many people disagree with it. I understand that it’s cruel, but so is purposely taking a life. I think that getting a lethal injection is less pain that many victims have endured. It wasn’t fair that they were murdered and I think the only retribution is to sentence those murderers to death. I know it’s unethical for the justice system to play God, but looking at our history, people have been killed for crimes less than murder. Of course that wasn’t right, but it just seems logical to me that if someone rapes and murders a child then they don’t deserve their life. We all know that the justice system can be wrong at times, but it takes a lot of factors and evidence for someone to actually get the death penalty. And in some cases, like the Cheshire murders, we know that Steven Hayes knowingly committed a heinous crime. For that he was given the punishment of losing his life as well. How could we allow him to live?
I bring up the Cheshire murders because people who have lost loved ones to someone’s cruelty, like William Petit, will be affected by the article I mentioned above. According to the article, over two dozen families (76 people) of murder victims signed a letter asking for the death penalty to be repealed. Their reasons include that the money we spend to put criminals on death row and execute them would be better spent on victims’ services, that life is sacred, and that the excessive appeals for criminals will only cause victims’ families more pain. The opponents of the death penalty also argued that most families of murder victims will never actually see the murderer receive lethal injection because the appeal process takes so long.
I understand the points that the families brought up on why the death penalty should be repealed, but I also think that it’s unfair for them to try to represent every family of a murder victim. Just because they don’t like the death penalty doesn’t mean that it doesn’t bring solace to others whose loved ones were slain. Petit believes that the death penalty is a just punishment for his family’s murderers. Of course, he shouldn’t represent every victim’s family either. However, it should be taken into account that each case is different and that the death penalty helps some people heal and feel that there is such a thing as justice.
If the death penalty is repealed at some point, I think this will change the face of the justice system as well as cause uproar in our society.
Interesting article.
ReplyDeleteThe Death penalty is, of course, rooted in old-fashioned "eye for an eye" mythology, a relic of America's days as a Theocracy. (Not that they are necessarily over, but that's a different article...)
The real question when it comes to these evil, monstrous people, is "What else can we do with them?" Rehabilitation works great for drug addicts, or people whose lack of education led them to crime. But what about people who are just broken in the head? What else can we do except put them down like a rabid dog?
I don't pretend to have a better solution, but the Death penalty, in my personal opinion, ought to be looked at very carefully. To those of us who don't believe in a punitive afterlife, death seems like a fairly easy way out, and the last thing these monsters deserve is peace.
Exactly, I think the aggravating factors required for the death penalty are there for a reason. If you commit certain crimes in a particularly heinous way then you are either a sick, twisted person and there's no help for you, or you are just a danger to society. Locking them up may keep others safe, but if they get parole then they get a second chance to kill people. If they don't get parole, they still have a life and a community, clothes on their back, food in their belly, entertainment...some prisoners even like it and that's not punishment. I don't know what we could do with capital criminals besides giving them the death penalty.
ReplyDeleteA friend told me last night that a man who drove drunk and killed someone was forced to write a check to the victim's family every week for $1 just so he would never forget what he did. That's not punishment enough for say, Steven Hayes, but maybe if he had to do something painful every week to pay for what he did then he would understand it was wrong? Who knows. Everyone is different and some people don't have a remorseful bone in their body.