Highly disturbed by events in Tucson this week, I realize that the shooter in this event has pushed me to my last shred of ability to uphold my belief in anti death penalty. It's people like him that "deserve" it for sure. I think of these things as spiritual matters and actually do wrestle with them, inside.
So I thought: what justification could I POSSIBLY have for not thinking this guy should get the DP? I could only come up with one. His parents.
His parents have lost their son just like all the victims families have lost loved ones.
I thought of his mother and her suffering and how the only possibly reason I could see for life for this guy was to not make his mother suffer any more. It's about innocent people not suffering more, all innocent people, on either side of the crime.
Just this morning MSN had on it's site about his parents, describing their indescribable pain and break down. His father sitting right down in the middle of the street and crying. Well... I can't wish more pain on the man. I just can't.
A while back I read an interview with the mother of one of the Columbine shooters. I wept while I read it. These are the people that get forgotten in the crimes and they too, are people, who more often than not had nothing to do with the actions of the perpetrator. In a society that loves to "blame mommy" I think we should only blame one person, and that is the perpetrator. And indeed seek the highest, hardest punishment in the land and hope that LWOP in a supermax will somehow be more of a punishment than just ending their miserable life.
-another anti DP rant by gooddog who is anti death not anti punishment-
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Well spoken and well taken. :) I think you have it exactly.
Absolutely well said gooddog...i dont know how i feel about the death penalty but am going more toward it should be abolished...it doesnt help any situation...if it was used as a deterrent it DOESNT work.
I have to agree here, the shooter definatly deserves the death penalty as his crime was henious and took 6 innocent lives one being a child. However his parents are already losing their son to the crime so should they have to pay with his life I don't think so, LWOP I think would b a far greater option for them in this case. It is always the innocent ones that pay for the crime the most though, The victims and te family's of both the victims and perpetrator.
I agree with everyone on this thread... being originally from Tucson, it brings me great sadness that this sort of thing happened in the place I still call "Home". I have to think of the suffering that his parents must be going through, the thoughts within their minds... The prosecutor in Spanky's case originally wanted the death penalty for Spanky and his co-defendant... but, the judge wouldn't go for it.
I am conflicted as to whether or not this guy should get the death penalty even though he took 6 lives even one being a 9 year old girl. My Siblings still live in Tucson and they both went to the funeral of the little girl. If I had been, I would have gone as well. Although, alive or dead this guy is paying with his life for the lives he took whether he spends the rest of his days in a cell or if they give him the gas... Truthfully, in this case there is so much 'grey area' the fine line of justice remains blinded as far as what should be done.
In so many DP cases, there seems to be an initial human reaction of HELL YES this person should suffer and die for the suffering he/she has caused others
The only reason I can defend my stance of anti DP in this and other cases like it is that I am for ending the cycle of violence and suffering in this world.
It doesn't mean I forgive and forget although one day I'd like to make myself even free from that resentment against such people, but, those kinds of wounds, especially for family members and loved ones, may take a lifetime to get over, if even that. I would never expect them to be anti death penalty and yet miraculously, some of them are or learn to be.
If killing the perpetrator would bring back the victim, it would be one thing. But it won't. Tragedy upon tragedy. I am for lessening tragedy for all families, even the families of the perpetrators.
I guess some people could argue that the tragedy then becomes the taxpayers burden... I've heard those arguements, but I guess a human life simply has to mean more in a civillized society, otherwise we become the violence and the very animals that we rail against.
-forgive me but it is a subject that I think about a lot and one that is a deep spiritual meaning and question for me- I'm glad there is a place where I can occasionally share an opinion about it.