When I first began this post, I had just read news about a Mexican national being put to death in the U.S.A. Of course the world, and many in the U.S.A. are in an uproar.
Let me just openly say I have no moral qualms with executing a guilty person, if our society has chosen to make it a capital offense. Whatever that means in this day & age. I don't know of the specifics of this case. I am painting with a much broader brush.
If I see someone harming another, especially a child or a woman, there is a fair chance they will meet a piece of lead and subsequently, their maker.
I have never directly killed another. If I did, I might have nightmares. I don't know what it feels like, I don't pretend. I am not thumpy-chesty. I am blessed in my ignorance. Even the most hardened soldier usually regrets what he has done.
Where my doubt emerges, regarding the death penalty, is in the form of proof.
I am no bleeding heart liberal, yet I am opposed to the death penalty as it exists in our current system.
I have no problem with a guilty person being executed. But how does one determine that a person is guilty?
We are human; we are fallible. We have constructed a system... by extension, it too is fallible. And sometimes, even though the facts seem immutable, our interpretation may be incorrect.
This was a turning point in my view of the death penalty.
Conceivably, this woman could have been sentenced to the Death Penalty, depending on jurisdiction.
Can you imagine the hell she went through?
Her child died, she went to prison, her other child was taken, her marriage was destroyed.
I can not begin to fathom.
"Flame On" against me. As long as a person is still drawing air... there is hope, and we can correct a mistake.
Again... I have no problems with a guilty murderer, pedophile, or child rapist being executed... but how do we determine that? Not just beyond a reasonable doubt... but beyond a human constructed system's doubt?
Short of "Minority Report" how do we do it?
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