Death penalty's unlikely opponents

[Bombero1956]

Charisse Coleman has no real compassion for the man who walked into the Thrifty Liquor Store in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1995 and put three bullets in her brother, Russell.

But she doesn't want Bobby Lee Hampton -- one of more than seven dozen killers on Louisiana's death row -- executed, either.

"My opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do with Bobby Lee Hampton," Coleman said. "He's a bad dude. He's never going to be a good dude. If I got a call that said Bobby Lee Hampton dropped dead in his cell last night, I don't think it would create a ripple in my pond."

She added, though, "I will be goddamned if I will let Bobby Lee Hampton make me a victim, too, by taking me down that road of bitterness and revenge."

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/23/justice/death-penalty-opponents/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Not so unlikely, actually

For many years I've read of instances where family members of a murder victim expressed opposition to the execution of the perpetrator. Keeping capital punishment around because it satisfies bloodlust among some in the general public is not a good enough reason. Ask those with a vested interest in the outcome.

[Jumping John]

2. And some people do not wish to codone the tactic upon others that were used to cause them so much

grief.

They may feel that it places them somehow in the same category as the criminal who committed murder.

[customerserviceguy]

5. Tactic?

So, it's the very same thing to execute a guilty murderer after a fair trial and many years of endless appeals as it is to pop someone off just because he's a witness at your liquor store heist?

The latter is a tactic, the former is justice. If the murdered man's sister doesn't want any part of it, then she can wash her hands of it, the justice is being done on behalf of the rest of us who want society to value our lives.

[socialindependocrat]

3. Just a thought ...

When I was in high school I would think, sometimes, after the first bell, if I have to look at this place for one more week I'm going to go nuts. The closer to graduation, the better things got.

Some days, at work, would drag and I felt like I was never going to get to go home.
After 5:00 I felt a relief and I could finish what I needed to and visit with a few
people before I left to go home.

Maybe when people have a wrong committed against them, at first, they just want to catch the perpetrator. They need to get the person who wronged them or their family but once they
have the power they don't need the revenge anymore. they have their control back and that
was what was taken from them by the crime.

I don't mean to simplify or demean anyone's pain, I'm just trying to make sense
out of life.... just a thought.

[McCamy Taylor]

4. Agreed. If you execute him, then his whole family becomes the victim. Plus, the real victim's family

is then expected to shut up and look happy as if another death has magically restored their lost family member to them.

[Name removed]

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