Monday, December 12, 2005
death as penalty
As another possible/probable execution approaches, I am again troubled by conflicting feelings and thoughts. On the one hand, I believe murder is wrong. If so, then is it even worse for a State to kill in the cold light of day or night than for an individual to kill in the heat of anger? On the other hand, sometimes government must do what is essentially wrong in order to preserve the common good, which is its fundamental purpose. In this case, this man was found guilty of despicable crimes. He acknowledges establishing a gross and hate-filled gang but that is not the issue, difficult though it is to overlook. In twenty-four years he has been unable to establish the validity of a re-examination of the facts. In recent months he claims to have 'reformed' and yet he lied about writing books and fails to say positive things about what contributions he would make if not executed. He has not expressed remorse for the crimes he is said to have committed but there is logic on his side since he says he did not do them. On the other hand, he could have expressed profound regret and sadness for the deaths, but has not. He is not an upbeat or positive guy and being on death row can't have helped him develop a winning personality and that is entirely beside the point, too. If executions don't prevent crime, according to decades and heaps of statistics, they do make some people feel as if the score is a little more even. And perhaps there is no afterlife and no other time or place to punish him. But I wonder if it is government's prerogative to inflict this ultimate punishment and kill someone and assert with moral conviction that since we can therefore we will.
Labels: politics, reflections, writing
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