http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/04/2010424162528622615.html
This is very bothersome to me. Do not get me wrong, this guy is a piece of garbage that deserves to be punished. I have an issue with the method and the precedent it creates.
“The firing squad is archaic, it's violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society," said Bishop John C. Wester, of Utah's Catholic Diocese.
On Friday, both Burdell's girlfriend from 1985 and his father, Joseph Burdell Jr., testified that Burdell would not want Gardner to die in his name.
A pacifist who was drafted into the U.S. Army, Burdell served in Vietnam but refused to carry a gun, Donna Nu said.
"He would have not wanted Ronnie Lee's execution. He didn't believe in that," a tearful Nu said.
"If Ronnie would have just wounded him and Michael would have lived, he would have defended him."
I cannot believe that convicted murderers can choose the method of death!? We allow a known murderer to choose the way he dies yet a woman can’t choose when it comes to her body. Did the attorney Michael Burdell get to choose how he died?
What if it was your child or father or sister who made a bad decision and killed someone? Would you be so gung-ho about executing them then? I am sure that it is easy to be pro-death (penalty) if it doesn’t affect you. Utah has a very violent past and continues to propagate hate and vengeance. Funny how a state that was founded on the principles of the mormon religion that supposedly promotes love, family, and forgiveness of sins is so blinded by hate. Why not tie him to a table and cut him to pieces with a chain saw on live tv? Where does it end?
There is NO study that can prove that Capital Punishment deters crime , and in fact , Florida , Texas and other capital punishment states have much higher crime rates than some of the states which don't have capital punishment.
The cost of appeals is as much as housing an inmate for life , and there's a negligible deterrent , and it relegates the U.S. to being as backwards as Cuba , Iran , and the Third World African nations which make up the vast majority of nations still using Capital Punishment.
Murdering in the name of justice is still murder and the state of Utah is stooping to the level of the criminal in question.
Life in prison without parole, living in a dark cell, never having human interaction for the rest of their lives sounds like a better punishment to me. I use to think the death penalty was a good option, but then I grew up and realized that capital punishment was the easy way out and that some of the most religious people I know support it! Call me stupid, but that seems like hypocrisy…
All words by Jesus concerning love, mercy and forgiveness makes it impossible for the death penalty to be practiced within the framework of the Christian Church.
John 8:7 - But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her."
According to Jesus, you should not dole out punishment if you yourself have sinned, and something tells me that the Utah state government and all others involved have done their fair share of sinning.
If you claim to live by the edict of the bible, then you should, in fact, do just that.
Much Love
OAC
This is good alex! Everyone should read this.
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