The notion of restitution is to re-pay what you destroyed. If you have taken another's life, you certainly can't restore it so the next logical thing is to sacrifice your own as penance and as security for all others. We had this discussion at lunch today. My peace activist friends were readying their new protest signs and they were talking about the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" and how that provided no wiggle room for interpretation. No means NO, you know! I posed the question as to whether or not they would kill in self-defense or in defense of a helpless one such as a child. The eventual answer after much stumbling was "probably so" but that it would be a "selfish" act. Of course it would be-- not all selfishness is bad. I really grapple with the notion that anybody can "murder" somebody and get out of prison in 16 years. Are you okay with that?
No; I know that. This thought grew out of a news story I saw about a 13 YO boy who murdered a friend of his in cold blood over a girlfriend. The guy is the youngest (in his state I guess) to ever get tried for murder as an adult. He was convicted and will be out in 13-16 years. I just heard on the radio that the Moussaioui jury had voted for the Death Penalty twice and on the third and final poll someone had backed away so the life sentance was recommended. And you want to talk about how absolute our system is? He was one unfired synapse away from the Death Penalty perhaps...
I don't know about someone getting out after 16 years for murder. I do know that I disagree with a 13 yr. old being tried as an adult.
You sound frustrated that he didn't get the death penalty. BTW you are wrong in your assessment on the vote. No one backed out after the third vote after voting for it the first two times. All three votes had at least one person vote for life w/o parole. In fact on the first two votes it was 10 - 2. So the first two votes had two people voting against the death penalty.
I'm not frustrated, but I'm not sure that ANYONE who murders someone in cold blood (like that kid did) shouldn't get the Death Penalty. Why not? I'm assessing nothing. I'm just reporting what I heard reported on the radio today. The conclusion of the story that Massaoui's mind must be dwelling on the ONE person who kept him from his appointment with martyrdom. I'll have to check the news stories later.... that's just what I heard. If I'm right, you have to post one positive news story about Bush. If you're right I'll have to post on negative news story about Bush, okay?
The foreman, a math teacher in Northern Virginia, told The Washington Post that jurors voted three times -- 11-1, 10-2 and 10-2 -- in favor of the death penalty on the three terrorism charges that each qualified Moussaoui for execution. http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/12/moussaoui.ap/index.html Start looking for that bad story.
