General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 46yr old man raped and murdered an 11month old baby.. [View all]liberalhistorian
(20,906 posts)having empathy/sympathy for the condemned and is certainly not about minimizing his or her crimes or not having any concern or sympathy for the victim and his or her family. It is about wanting a civilized society that does not exact barbarian-style revenge, and that does not engage in such blood just revenge that ultimately does no good and certainly does not bring back the victim. It only causes the same pain to other families, who had nothing to do with it.
And yes, I've signed a "do not murder my murderer" document that my state's anti-death-penalty group has developed in conjunction with other states and if anyone else has a problem with that, as some people have, too damned bad. The death penalty is barbaric and wrong and we are one of the very few developed nations that actually still use it. Does it make you proud that we are on a par with North Korea and Iraq as far as the numbers of those we execute? Does it make you proud that minorities who are accused of crimes against whites receive the DP disproportionately, far more than the other way around and certainly far more than wealthy whites, in this country?
"Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?"