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| Mark Rogers |
It shouldn't be necessary to reiterate all the reasons the death penalty should be consigned to the ash heap of History but... as a public service...
1) The death penalty cannot be undone. The discovery of new evidence or the exposition of false evidence or the realization that police or prosecutors played fast and loose with the facts can't be redressed with an official "Ooopsie" and a large check. Mistakes are final.
2) The death penalty prevents criminals from changing their lives and improving their worlds even from prison. I would think people who want law to reflect Christian Values would prefer a system that allows for criminals to come to Christ rather than die unchanged.
3) The death penalty is applied unfairly. Poor and minority killers are far more likely to be sentenced to death than well-off white killers. The idea that the death penalty is Justice is a myth.
4) The death penalty is not a measurable deterrent to future criminals.
5) The ultimate argument for the death penalty is revenge. Revenge isn't Justice. Revenge isn't good public policy. Revenge at the price of an innocent life isn't the behavior of a Just or Good society.
How many more innocent people need to die to satiate the lust of some people for 'revenge,' especially when they weren't harmed? How many more people who never had a chance in life must die for the same reason?
Mark Rogers has long been active in Republican Party politics and is an astute observer of political trends and events and Republican politics. He is well known as a successful Republican campaign manager and political consultant. He has also served in government and the non-profit sector. He is currently exiled from the Republican Party. He lives in Nashville.
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Comments by Rod Williams -I have changed my mind about the death penalty. I have been of the view that some crimes or so horrendous that the death penalty was justified, but I now think the death penalty should be abolished. I find Mark Rogers's arguments above persuasive.
In addition to the above arguments, I have changed my mind because it can take 30 years to carry out the sentence. Some people die on death row of natural causes, never executed. Sometimes the family of the victim dies before the sentence is carried out. If justice were swift, I would be less opposed. Rather than the family of the victim waiting thirty years for justice, and experiencing delay after delay, and the State and those opposing the carrying out of the sentence spending thirty years in court fighting over the carrying out of the sentence, would it not be better to just sentence the person to life in prison without the possibility of parole? I think it would.
Another reason I have become an opponent of the death penalty is because of the failure to successfully carry it out. The State attempted to carry out the execution of Christa Pike on Wednesday night. She was given two doses of pentobarbital by injection, but her heart did not stop. The Knoxville Federal Public Defender’s Office immediately filed for a stay of execution; it was granted, and life-saving measures were administered to Pike.
This is the second botched execution in Tennessee this year. I cannot understand why it is so hard to kill someone. People die of accidental overdoses all the time. Since apparently there is a reason the process of ending a person's life is so difficult, I think it is cruel and inhuman to attempt the execution, fail, administer lifesaving treatments to save the life of the criminal, and then try again later.
The Christa Pike story is horrendous. It was senseless murder carried out by young people ages 17 and 18. Pike killed another girl for trying to steal her boyfriend and then bragged about the killing and carried a piece of the girl's skull in her pocket as a souvenir. There is no excusing or justifying the murder or minimizing the evil that occurred. To read more about the case, follow this link.
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