2005-12-06 - 3:10 p.m.
�Are we going to feed me poppy seed muffins?�
Ok Ok, It�s actually only been four days. Two of those days I was traveling, and yesterday, well I�ve got no excuse for yesterday.
But like the masses gathered in St Paul square, my readers await.
Had a good time at Unevent, almost entirely because I went with Mari Dunstan and Elayna.
The meetings were actually not that bad, though (and God forgive me) some of them needed to be longer so we could actually get some things finished. We also need to find a way that the great order meetings are not at the same time.
They are talking about death penalty issues on NPR so I can�t resist the temptation to weigh in so�
OK, here is the deal. If you are a prisoner waiting on death row, and you suddenly get religion, you still need to accept the consequences of your actions. I don�t even support the death penalty, but I�ve got no patience with people who try and pull the �But they are a changed person!� line in defense of death row converts.
On the death penalty issue in general, I�ve got to ask, what is the big hurry? Do you really think that another death is going to make you feel better?
�But I need closure�
What the hell does that mean?
�I need to know that the killer is punished so I can get on with my life�
Ok whatever. I hate to tell you this, but you are not going to feel any better after they throw the switch, you just think you will. You are grieving for the loss of a loved one, and you are placing that grief on the guy who your pretty sure did the crime, but you�ll find out shortly that your loved one is still gone, and the death of the killer is no comfort.
Not to mention that the average death row inmate spends 15-20 years waiting to die, (not much closure in the appeals process that you have to sit through)
There is a simple remedy to this, Life without parole. I mean life without parole for real, not some mamby pamby get out in 20 years thing.
The �closure� is much more immediate, the trial is over, the killer is facing the rest of their life in a small concrete and steel box with a group of people only separated from the lower animals by the fact that they walk upright.
And if in 15 years the courts find that they have sentenced the wrong person to death, which has only happened 148 times, they can let the now innocent person back out. Not much reprieve for someone who is already dead.
And you want to talk about closure, how abut finding out the person you were so anxious to have put to death was innocent and the real killer is still out there.
God fearing folks know that vengeance is the lords�
Be patient and let him deal with the punishment.
For those that don�t believe in the afterlife, spending the rest of your life in prison is not exactly a trip to club med, many more people are killed in prison each year than are put to death by the state. �Death Row� inmates are actually safer than the general populace as they are segregated in most facilities.
Just saying�
-Justus
