After reading “A Lesson After Dying”, a blog post written by my American Studies teacher, I was overcome with
my own contradictory opinions on the subject of the death penalty. I don’t
think it's easy to just decide one way or the other on this issue. My initial response to this post was that I am
totally, 100 % against the death penalty. But one commenter brought up some
questions that really made me reconsider my original conclusion. I thought
about if, hypothetically, someone in my immediate family was a victim of a
murder, how I would feel. I was surprised at how quickly my opinions changed on
the subject of capital punishment. With an act of violence as severe as murder
against someone I was close to, I don’t think I would be able to live knowing
that the person who caused such harm was still living. The death penalty sounds
awful and inhumane in theory, but when you have a personal relationship with
the victim, I believe that that would change most people’s prior beliefs.
However, it’s not realistic to
think that the death sentence can be imposed every time a close relative of the
victim believes it is the “fair punishment.” If that were true, the number of
people put to death would be infinitely larger. An interesting blog post by Eric Zorn helped sway me back to my original beliefs. He brings up a great
point, writing,
“[The Death Penalty is] a bad idea because it is a punishment of perfect
exactness administered by a justice system filled with imperfect human beings
who often have inexact knowledge. Imprisonment leaves us moral room to make the
inevitable errors and arbitrary applications; killing does not.”
I think Zorn
brings up a great point. Especially in Troy Davis’s case, with many witnesses taking
back their previous testimonies, it is very possible that the “facts”
contributing to Davis’s death sentence were not completely accurate. Regardless,
Davis was put to death based on what I believe was shaky evidence. This leaves
me with a pit in my stomach because a potentially innocent man was put to
death. That is a punishment that can never be undone.
Elise, I would first like to say I am impressed you created a brand new blog post reacting to Mr. O'Connor's post. Kudos to you.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I researched the death penalty in eighth grade for a research paper, and I came to the same conclusion--I do not support the death penalty. The main reason is that if an innocent human is put to death, it's irreversible. Another piece that I find moving is the punishment itself. Doesn't it make sense to want a killer to suffer? Having to sit in a cell for the rest of their life and think about how they got there is, in my opinion, much worse than the relief of a miserable life (the death penalty).