The Death Penalty

Are you willing to die for something you did not do?

Would you like this to be where you spend your last night on earth?

Would you like this to be the path taken on your last walk?

Would you like to go to sleep here and never wake up?

Would you like to be buried overlooking the prison where you were executed? (Even while dead you are in prison.)

I am willing to bet that more than 400 inmates on death row in the United States are innocent. That is only a hair over 10%.
It could be a much higher number. That means that there are probably more than 400 murderers out there. That is one reason why states with the death penalty have a much higher murder rate that states without the death penalty.

DNA testing has freed at least 110 death row inmates. There are many who have tried to have the testing but the evidence has been "lost" or they are not being given the tests. What about those where DNA does not apply?

The death penalty is more expensive than life in prison. The death penalty does not work. When someone kills they do not think about the death penalty. When they are facing the death penalty they will not hesitate to kill to keep from being captured. That means that the death penalty not only kills the inmate but it is responsible for the death of innocent people. There are more victims because of the death penalty. To many serial killers the death penalty is the ultimate high. That is what tells them they were successful in their chosen career.

The families of most victims are probably for the death penalty. How will they feel when the wrong person is executed and the real killer is still out there? Is the person executed the same person that killed their loved one? People change, even bad people. I see it all of the time.

If a man kills someone at 18, ten years later he may be a different person. He may be truly sorry for what he did. A different person is being executed than the one who committed the crime. The same body but a different mind. We are not our body but we are our mind or soul. An execution executes the body not the soul (mind).

How many rich people are on death row? If you find one please let me know. The death sentence is the poor man's sentence. It is also a black man's sentence. In many cases it is an innocent man's sentence.

I can see how a victim's family and loved ones would want the murderer to get the death penalty. The length of time that it takes from the assessment of the death penalty until the time it is carried out I feel they are going through hell. When the murderer is finally executed they probably feel better. If the murderer would have gotten life would they have been spared years of hell knowing that it is over.

Two wrongs do not make a right. Murder is wrong when the individual commits it and when the state commits it. If the victims family want the killer to go to Hell then life in prison is hell on earth. Now some think it is worse than Hell.

Sister Helen Prejean's Report from the Front

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