Tuesday, January 24, 2006
And One Final Note On Capital Punishment
My good friend The Cheap Bastard has a minor disagreement with me over capital punishment, and said so vociferously in a comment on this posting. His position is that if someone close to me was murdered, I'd want to personally flip the switch on the bastard that did it. Attaboy, CB. Good point.
And here's the funny part: I don't even disagree.
My oldest brother, Gene, was killed by the hand of another back in 1976. No, it wasn't premeditated murder. It wasn't even a crime of passion. This asshole got drunk, got impatient, and crossed a center divider to go around some drivers who had the unmitigated gall to drive at the speed limit. Gene was in the crosswalk. He must have hardly known what hit him when he was struck and dragged 444', then left for dead as the driver fled the scene. The guy got caught, and was ultimately charged and convicted.
And the truth of the matter was that I felt then like I could kill him with my bare hands and sleep like a baby that night. If the death penalty applied to his crime, I would have been standing in the court room and demanding it. And, as CB says, I would have been happy to personally flip the switch on the guy.
But that doesn't make it right. It's just vengeance rearing its ugly head. The death penalty is supposed to be about justice, not vengeance. Someone smarter than me said that if we insist on taking "an eye for an eye," we'll all just end up blind.
It was years before I overcame the feelings of vengeance I had toward my brother's killer. I don't want to kill him any more. I still wouldn't mind kicking his ass, though. I might need some help, since he's one big sonofabitch. Maybe I can get CB to come along. You game, my man?
|
And here's the funny part: I don't even disagree.
My oldest brother, Gene, was killed by the hand of another back in 1976. No, it wasn't premeditated murder. It wasn't even a crime of passion. This asshole got drunk, got impatient, and crossed a center divider to go around some drivers who had the unmitigated gall to drive at the speed limit. Gene was in the crosswalk. He must have hardly known what hit him when he was struck and dragged 444', then left for dead as the driver fled the scene. The guy got caught, and was ultimately charged and convicted.
And the truth of the matter was that I felt then like I could kill him with my bare hands and sleep like a baby that night. If the death penalty applied to his crime, I would have been standing in the court room and demanding it. And, as CB says, I would have been happy to personally flip the switch on the guy.
But that doesn't make it right. It's just vengeance rearing its ugly head. The death penalty is supposed to be about justice, not vengeance. Someone smarter than me said that if we insist on taking "an eye for an eye," we'll all just end up blind.
It was years before I overcame the feelings of vengeance I had toward my brother's killer. I don't want to kill him any more. I still wouldn't mind kicking his ass, though. I might need some help, since he's one big sonofabitch. Maybe I can get CB to come along. You game, my man?
