Alvin Lee Message & Discussion Board
Thanks for joining in the conversation!
Eric, I am strongly against the death penalty for a range of reasons. It accomplishes nothing but revenge to put a person to death. The legal system should not have that kind of power over any citizenry. Further still, our legal system is not perfect and there are plenty of examples of innocent people being wrongly convicted. Even if we know for sure of one's guilt I do not believe in the death penalty. Putting someone to death is archaic. Not all people in America are for the death penalty, but sadly there are those that are.
Would a sane person commit this kind of act? This is why I think we do need to ask why and what happened. We need to try to understand the minds of criminals, psychotics and schizophrenics, not just call them evil, put them to death and stop trying to think about it. I feel it's partially through research and questionning that we may come to clearer understanding and potentially save lives in the future.
Eric, I totally agree with Lynn's post opposing the death penalty. She's already done a great job of making a case for that position, so I'll just add a few personal observations shortly in another post.
I'm also against the death penalty. It's archaic and cruel and our legal system is too imperfect - far too many innocent people have been wrongly convicted; in recent years, at least two have been put to death with questions of their guilt or innocence unresolved.
Mostly, though, it's a simple moral issue for me. I look at it this way - if I'm not willing to be the one to pull the lever or inject someone with that lethal dose of medications, then I have no right to ask the state to do it my name.
I completely agree, Toni. I could never kill someone in cold blood, or participate in their killing, unless it was the assassination of a mass-murdering tyrant like Hitler. Not that the desperation involved in such an act is really cold-blooded. It's absolutely defensive. But as part of one's job coldly to pull a lever, inject a needle, or fire a rifle, and suddenly end someone's life on a schedule, NO. The mere idea is horrific, barbaric, and I'll never understand how some people can do it. Stepping "off the cliff" into the Great Mystery Beyond before one's time is a fearsome, awesome thing. We should have a proper sense of the absolute enormity of it. I believe we should not dispatch someone to that fate without absolute necessity, which to me means genuine thou-or-I self-defense, defense or liberation of the innocent, as in a just war with those purposes, and tyrannicide. Execution of convicted criminals is nothing but revenge on people who are sometimes not actually guilty. I wouldn't want that on MY soul. Two wrongs don't make a right, and an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, as the sayings go.
Mostly, though, it's a simple moral issue for me. I look at it this way - if I'm not willing to be the one to pull the lever or inject someone with that lethal dose of medications, then I have no right to ask the state to do it my name.