In most of
Europe, the concept of
execution is considered to be barbaric, unjust and a complete breach of
human rights. Although Europe does indeed have the
death penalty, governments here no longer excersise it.
Thank God.
It scares me to think of living in a country where the government "owns" your life, where a judge can sit on his nice comfy chair and decide whether you live or die.
Now, I'm not saying it's an easy decision to make, and I do appreciate that it is a very big deal with lots of legal and social ramifications, but people shouldn't have that power in their hands. It's far too dangerous. I know that in war, people make that decision all the time. Timothy McVeigh made that decision. However war is not fair in the sense that people do not face a legal system before they are executed, there is no trial, or jury, the bombs are just dropped, the bullets are fired without prejudice. And as we all know, war is the curse of the human race. However, the United States is a stable, democratic superpower. A supposed "World Leader", yet in less than twenty years, the state of Texas alone has sent over 246 prisoners to their deaths. It is without doubt that these criminals all committed highly serious crimes, and deprived others of their right to live, but in the grand scheme of things, the American justice system lowers itself to that criminal level, every time the switch is thrown or the needle inserted.
There has to be a better, more humane solution than this. It's can't go on forever, it breaches the most basic of human rights. It's also a cop out by the American government, and a frightening attitude. Rather than deal with the problem in an intelligent way, they would prefer to kill it. If they spent more time on gun control and less on frying offenders, they might be one step closer to solving the problem.
"But it's my constitutional right to bear arms."
Yes, but it's MY right to live.
If there are any other life forms in the universe observing us and our behaviour, I am not surprised we haven't been contacted. (officially!)
Tonight I dance on the streets of gold. Let those without sin cast the first stone.
-From the last statement of Jason Massey, executed 04/03/2001, Texas