05/21/2004 Entry: ""
Posted by Maynard @ 09:21 AM MST
Why I vote the way I do - capital punishment
My position on capital punishment is consistent with my position on abortion. I am pro-life. I am anti-murderer.
As far as I'm concerned, capital punishment should be applied to any crime where only God can restore things to the status quo ante. To itemize, it should be applied to murder and rape. Anything less is too merciful and lacking in justice. Anything more is cruel and unusual.
This is not inconsistent with a pro-life position. In the case of an abortion, the child has committed no crime and does not deserve death. In the case of murder, a life has been taken wantonly. That deserves death so as to dissuade others from depriving people of the right to life. In the case of rape, innocence has been murdered, and that needs to be dissuaded as well.
Some might claim that the death penalty is racist. I would ask them do minorities commit a disproportionate amount of crime, and if so, should we punish innocent whites for the sins of others. I claim that if you commit the crime you should take the punishment. There is nothing racist in that, as long as we apply the penalties uniformly. Removing the death penalty may create uniform punishment, but it does not create justice.
Justice is served when truth is applied to a legal case. However, the other side of justice is mercy. Mercy is the practical manifestation of forgiveness, but must be balanced against justice. The mechanism of balance is repentance. If, for example, a governor was confronted with a situation where a death penalty case was brought before him, I think he would be justified in changing the sentence from death to life imprisonment if he thought the convicted had been born again and become a Christian while in prison. That is, if there was evidence of repentance there could be justification for mercy. On the other hand, if a prisoner claimed to be born again but there was no evidence from the other prisoners or guards that he had actually changed, the governor would be under no compulsion, in my mind, to change the sentence from death to life. In either case, if the governor screwed up, the blood would be on his hands, as well as the murderers.
That is why the issue of the death penalty should be approached with care and respect, not uniform, one-size-fits-all solutions. I support candidates that realize there must be harsh punishment for harsh crime, but allow for the possibility of personal change.
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