Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The Day I Decided It is Necessary

Wednesday March 7, 2007

This is the day that I decided that some people need to be killed for things they have done. For several years I have been idealistic and opposed the death penalty. My mindset was influenced by pacifism and not realistic. I have known for a long time that sin has consequences. I have known that some sins have harder consequences than others. I never attributed the death penalty as a consequence to sin. I do now. You may be asking what in the world has caused such a change. If not, I am going to tell you anyway. A 48 year-old pervert kidnapped, sexually abused, and buried alive a nine year old girl. As I was waiting in the doctor's office I saw the verdict being read to the low-life. He showed no remorse, no emotion at all as the charges were being read. I was finding out about the case as the court proceeding was going on. I felt angry, then sick at my stomach, then angry, and so on. Oh, I may have failed to mention that this guy was on "probation" for prior sexual offenses. The probation system in Florida is another story. I am not sure why this case has moved me like it has; the thought of the poor girl being buried alive really gets to me. For more on the story click here.

Interestingly, I read a book only three months ago that told the true story of a man who was on death row wrongly accused of a murder. He eventually was released. Justice prevailed. I hope justice prevails in this case. John Couey deserves to die.

If you disagree with me, if you are not in favor of the death penalty, imagine your child, husband, wife, mother being sexually abused and buried alive. Gruesome thought isn't it? Does that person deserve death?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting post. Not sure on the death penalty. Saying a person deserves to die and saying we have the right to make it happen are two different things. Yet I totally agree in your assessment that of all the heinous acts possible, this one ranks high.

Justin P. Lewis said...

I thought a long time about whether or not we have the right. We being the US government in this case obviously. I kept trying to figure out if it was just revenge I wanted to see, if somehow my anger was causing my feelings toward the death penalty.

I have come to this conclusion. I believe that sins have their consequences and this sin deserves death. The US has the right to deny a man's freedom. Does the punishment right stop before the death penalty?

I am not sure if I am expressing myself well. I am trying to hurry so I can check the mail with my wife. Maybe I can express it better in person.

Jason said...

Although I don't know much about the story or the man, I think society should kill him. I certainly wouldn't want to get carried away and just start killing people in prisons, but there do seem to be cases of people who seem to have no consciences. Maybe the conscience can be healed, but in these kinds of cases even if the conscience were healed, it would be an act of mercy to kill. If I were out of my mind and did similar acts, I would want society to kill me.