Maybe I’m a bleeding-heart liberal. Maybe I still have too strong of ties to my Christian roots. Maybe those Amnesty International people I tried to hang out with that one semester rubbed off on me.
I just can’t get excited about Scott Peterson getting the death penalty.
It reminds me of how I felt when I heard about Saddam Hussein’s sons being killed. I just can’t get happy about someone being dead (or being sentenced to death), no matter how evil they are or what atrocities they committed.
I know that proponents of the death penalty would remind me that it’s just costing taxpayers money to keep criminals alive and in jail. I don’t know… I just wish there were some way we could somehow make these criminals realize the horrors they’ve committed, and not be proud of their “accomplishments,” but instead actually show remorse and feel genuine regret for the rest of their lives, or until they’re truly rehabilitated and can be reintroduced to society.
(Good grief… What the hell kind of tree-hugging hippie crap have I come up with this time…?)
All I know is that no one in a so-called “Christian country” should be jumping up and down with unbridled joy at the pronunciation of a death sentence, like I saw on ABC News tonight.
Ah, yes. . . the true measure of a right wing fundamentalist Christian — the ability to know whose impending death should inspire a public display of unrequited glee and moral righteousness and whose should not. It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw the other day — “Who Would Jesus Bomb?”
BTW: I *do* think it’s fair that Peterson got the death penalty. I think anyone who would rather plot and carry out the murder of his pregnant wife and unborn son instead of just divorcing her and paying the child support brings that punishment on himself. I’m not a Christian, so I’m allowed to say that. 🙂
Besides, how is locking someone up in a cell for the next 80 years any more humane or morally upright than executing them? Both are cruel and extreme in their own ways. Yet we can’t just turn them loose and say “don’t do that again, you bad boy!” Not only would they still be a danger, but what about justice for the party that was actually wronged (i.e. the dead person)? Sometimes I think this country gets so caught up in the rights of the “evildoer” (thanks dubya) that they forget there is a victim that deserves justice and respect for their lost life.
(Just for the record, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if the conviction gets overturned on appeal.)
[. . . Looks around for a way to get off of her really tall soapbox. . .]
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention one other point I’d meant to include: U.S. law. In terms of the legal aspect, crime and punishment as it stands, and what can get you executed, I agree that Scott Peterson “deserved” the death penalty. Just because you’re a juror doesn’t mean you can or should take your personal opinions into the trial with you and put them above the law.
So, legally, yes, I suppose he got what he deserved.