DC Sniper Executed

Patrick, it's difficult to argue with this one. I saw no remorse on his part, no more than when Timothy McVeigh blasted apart the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City in 1996. But from a Christian perspective - which I do my best to let inform all my thinking - this is difficult to defend. A bedrock principle of Scripture is: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord." In this case, we just played God. Two wrongs never make a right. John Muhammed ruthlessly murdered ten innocent people, now we continue the carnage by taking life. True, he wasn't innocent, but the application of "eye for eye, tooth for tooth," in the words of Tevia from "Fiddler on the Roof," just means that the "whole word ends up blind and toothless."

Well Redbus I can't really offer a strong argument to your statement either. As I said I am reticent about the death penalty and my feelings are based in part on my Christian faith as well as my concern about the imperfection of our legal system

If they were to outlaw the death penalty I would not be greatly outraged (provided that we replaced it with an actual prison system rather than the systems present in many states these days) but as long as it is legal then in cases like this I think it is appropriate.

But it is indeed a tough subject.

Having been in DC for that time, and lived in fear in ways I cannot explain, I cannot but feel relief to hear that John Muhammad has gone to his reward, or lack thereof.

This murderer made a calculated choice and that choice was to kill 10 innocent people in cold blood. He had zero respect for their lives, and zero respect for those who loved them and who suffered terrible loss. Good riddance I say, and if there is a hereafter then this thing can take it up with his maker. He gave up the right to his own life when he took the first one.

Good riddance.

I wonder where all of the anti-death penalty people are who have spent the last two months getting excited about an execution that happen years ago in Texas. If they were really committed ending capital punishment, then they should be against executions, then they should have been as loud in condemning Gov Keane as they have been in condemning Gov. Barnes.

The absence of the anti-capital punishment activisit show destroy any credbility they have. They obviously have a hidden agenda and the execution of the DC Sniper just did not fit into it.

I regret that we, as a society, have taken a life, even one so foul as his. Capital punishment is never the answer.

I too lived in the DC area and remember being terrified to fill up my gas tank during that horrifying time. One of the victims, a middle-schooler, was shot 5 minutes from our house-- It was really frightening to have a child in that school system back then. I remember driving my child to elementary school every day, and looking in the bushes for signs of the sniper.

These were senseless killings, motivated by this man's need to terrify others in order to feel powerful.
Nothing any one says can excuse what he and his partner did.

Having said that, I do oppose the death penalty-- just not for the reasons that others have stated. I don't oppose it on religious or moral grounds, but on practical ones. It is far more costly to execute a prisoner than to jail him for life. In California, many sit on death row, but the state hasn't executed a prisoner in over 20 years. Why should Californians pay taxes that are diverted to a fund that pays for lengthy appeals, when the sentence won't be carried out anyway?

Of course, it also bothers me that states like Texas rush the condemned through the court system and that they often have an inadequate defense. Putting someone away for life without parole removes the possibility that the innocent may be executed alongside the guilty.

SD, there is a difference between taking issue with the Texas execution happy philosophy, in which there seems to be a lack of concern on the part of powers that be whether or not the executionee is innocent - and choosing not to advocate for a murderer who is clearly guilty beyond any reasonable doubt of multiple killings. I don't see the two things as incompatible. That said, I don't presume to speak for the people you are directing your remarks to. I am curious though, what is this "hidden agenda" you suspect anti-capital punishment folks of having? I may not agree with them but I don't doubt their sincerity.

I, too, regret any life that must be taken for the public good. I would much rather he had been a law-abiding citizen other than a psychopathic murderer. I hope his affairs were settled with God prior to his death.

But any pre-meditated murderer has taken life from an innocent needs appropriate punishment - and life in prison is not it.

Good morning JD,

Confession. I do not understand advocating for the death of other human beings, even the "least among us".

Please explain...understanding that I ask you in particular out of respect for your views and understanding that we will almost certainly not agree.

Hey Tidbits! Good morning right back at ya!

I do not preach death and hatred. You ought to know that by now.
But execution, to me, is much more human than a life in prison. This, as you may know from some of my other posts, comes from a three-fold view.

1. The punishment should fit the crime. The victims of these monsters were not given the choice between life in comfort and death.

2. Although capital punishment is not a deterrent for 2/3 of the murders, it does at least have an effect on those that are planned (premeditated).

3. I do not want my tax dollars going to give society's scum a better life than 100,000 homeless, and over 40 million working poor. If prison was a bleak, dark place that prisoners would not like at all, I would consider switching my stance on capital punishment.

JD -

Thank you for your reply. I would never suggest that you preach death or hatred. I am curious, always, to know why people support capital punishment, and knew I could rely on you for an honest, principled answer.

I have been in many jails and prisons [visiting clients, lest there be any doubt]. They are not places of comfort. They are bleak and dark of spirit. The only thing worse than entering a prison is standing alone at the door waiting for the guard to open the door to get out, thinking all the time "What if I was in and couldn't get out." Some prisons are dirty and dank, some sterile and devoid of humanity. At one, after being strip searched, I was placed alone into a remote contolled elevator that took me to another level where I stood alone waiting for remote controlled doors to open only to walk down another sterile hallway to a tiny room, where a door opened again by remote control and let me in to see my client on the other side of a wall of glass.

Have you ever been in an intensive incarceration unit? 23 1/2 hours a day in a cell, handcuffed by a guard reaching in from outside the cell, forced to shower in a cage, then back to the cell. I've never seen a prison I wanted to enter, and never entered one I wanted to remain in one second longer than was necessary.

I won't debate your reasoning. I just wanted to know. But you are right about one thing. Life without parole is far more devastating a punishment than execution. In prison heirarchy, those on death row have a taste of fame, or infamy if you like. They often take pride in being the baddest of the bad. Did you know there was once a website that ranked them, complete with their pictures, and did you know how they took pride in their rankings. I don't know if the website is still up.

The prisons will always be there whether there is a death row or not. I am thankful that I know longer have to visit them.

Best on Veterans Day. Thank you for your service to your country.

I appreciate it, Tidbits. You're right... no sense debating reasoning. I try not to do that with others as well, unless their statements are based upon misrepresentation, bias, or lack of logic.

I've been to jail (back in my younger days) and you are right - it sucks. But I did have warmth, entertainment, and a myriad of opportunities available to me that the normal joe out there can't get for free.
Yes, it was "jail" and not "prison", but the same opportunites exist in prison - TV, College Courses, 3 hot meals, and a nice warm place to sleep. I have a big problem with tax money going to these scumbags, when many of my law-abiding countrymen go without. That is ethically unacceptable to me.

And although prison seems like hell to you and I, to the criminal mind it becomes home - a place with friends, a social network, and even a paycheck in some cases.

I do like what "Sheriff Joe" did out in Phoenix. That's the right approach to me. He has less repeat-offenders than anyone.

Thank you so much for the best wishes on Veteran's Day.
People like you make freedom worth defending.