So, what about today's execution?

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Drifterwood

Drifterwood

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BBC News - Is Teresa Lewis an unusual death row case?

I'll be up front, I'm a long time opponent of the death penalty, so I would oppose this, even if the lady wasn't practically mentally retarded and probably not the instigator of the murders.

Interestingly though, as reported in the BBC article, US women commit 10%+ of capital crimes, but are only 2% of those executed. Seems that the US stomach for State murder doesn't hold up to watching ladies die slow and painful.
 
So sad. I don't know what to think. Some people I truly want dead, but the chances of someone innocent being charged and killed by the state are to scary. At the same time, the man that KNOWINGLY ran over my best friend and ran away, killing another in his wake only got 30 years. If I could kill that man I would. Again and again. I hate that someone has made me feel that way, but it's the truth. That is where it gets hazy for me.
 
The reaction, "I want to kill the fucking bastard", is perfectly natural, Big Tits. The question is whether the State should enact this passionate response.

The logic of becoming something, a murderer, in order to show that that being a murderer is unacceptable, is just fucked up IMO.
 
Judicial murder is not acceptable, whether in Iran, China or the USA.

This case illustrates many of the practical problems - there are doubts about the woman's mental capacity and doubts about her awareness of what she was doing. She also comported herself with remarkable dignity when faced with her own death. Yet even in a case where the issue of guilt is clearer it is still wrong for a state to murder its citizens - wrong in international law and incompatible with a Christian gospel of love.
 
Jason,
I agree. What is more ironic is that those who insist that the USA is a Christian nation favor capital punishment. What's wrong with this picture?
 
JustAsking said:
Jason,
I agree. What is more ironic is that those who insist that the USA is a Christian nation favor capital punishment. What's wrong with this picture?
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Big question!

IMO part of the problem is trying to read the Bible in bits. The person who claims "The Bible says ..." and then quotes a single verse is trying to read a complex text in a way that just doesn't work. To make any sort of sense of it you have to read it as a whole. I find it useful to see the OT as the story of a people coming to know God. Thus the idea of vengeance being limited to a maximum of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life" is a step along the way, but God's commandment is "thou shalt not kill". This comandment over-rides anything else.

The people most hurt by the present judicial murder are the families of the people she murdered. They have received not justice but vengeance. They might feel that this is what they want, but the legal system should be leading them not to what they think they want but what is morally right. This outcome is going to do terrible things to their psyche. Here we have a legal system which has tempered justice not with mercy but with revenge. It is deeply flawed both in the law of man (international law) and the law of God.
 
Drifterwood said:
The reaction, "I want to kill the fucking bastard", is perfectly natural, Big Tits. The question is whether the State should enact this passionate response.

The logic of becoming something, a murderer, in order to show that that being a murderer is unacceptable, is just fucked up IMO.
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Concisely and brilliantly put, DW: I agree completely. And you get 50 bonus points for making it an entirely secular argument for reason.
 
Countryguy63 said:
I am usually pro-execution / death penalty. However, I seriously question this one. Being mentally retarded, even partially, limits her judgement.
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Fuck that shit. I'm glad she's gone. She was smart enough to put out a hit on two people and offer to share the life insurance proceeds.

When she can bring back the two people she killed is the day I feel she deserves to spend the rest of her life in jail.

I am pro death penalty when there is no shadow of a doubt as to the person being guilty.

Even if a person was mentally retarded and they killed a love one of mine I would want them to pay equally.
 
Drifterwood said:
The logic of becoming something, a murderer, in order to show that that being a murderer is unacceptable, is just fucked up IMO.
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Murdering innocent people is fucked up. After that all bets are off. If you don't want to be put to death they know what to do.

Why can't people just fucking take responsibilities for their actions. If I killed someone for sport or greed and I was sentenced to death, so be it. What's the value of being locked up for life?

I saw a story about a family home invasion where the wife was taken to the bank and forced to withdraw $15,000 and then she and her kids were killed and the husband escaped. They caught the two animals that did it, but why do they deserve to live?
 
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JustAsking said:
What is more ironic is that those who insist that the USA is a Christian nation favor capital punishment. What's wrong with this picture?
Click to expand...

It has gone on for centuries whether in the United States or anywhere else the "christian" church has been allowed to get a foothold.

"Thou shall not kill"—Do as I say, not as I do.
 
chicagosam said:
It has gone on for centuries whether in the United States or anywhere else the "christian" church has been allowed to get a foothold.

"Thou shall not kill"—Do as I say, not as I do.
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Oh c'mon Sam...you know we pick and choose Judeo-Christian ethos that fit political policy...then condemn others for doing the same thing :firedevil:*cough, Iran, cough*

Yes...to murder another human being is reprehensible...but as a man much wiser than myself said, 'the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance'.
 
Drifterwood said:
Interesting question, but not the correct one. Should we become what we are punishing them for, murderers?

I had you down as such a gentle soul, Mem. :smile:
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Yes we should. They didn't give their victims a chance to make an appeal for their lives. They didn't give their victims time to say goodbye to their families. They didn't give their victims a last meal or an option for a non brutal death.

I'm not gentle or rough, I am an in between soul.
 
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