Reply #2: No one should face the death penalty [View All]

[Tansy_Gold]

No matter how heinous the crime, I do not support the death penalty ever.

Executing the five men responsible for this horrific act will not undo what has been done. It will not bring back the dead, nor erase the horror in our minds.

Executing them will not "punish" them, if that is the objective in killing them. Once they are dead, they are beyond punishment.

Executing them will not rehabilitate them, if that is in any way the goal of the proceedings.

Executing them will not stop further incidents being perpetrated by others.

Executing them serves no purpose but to exact revenge ---- and that is EXACTLY what they were doing when they raped and murdered this family. They were exacting revenge for the killing of one of their own. If we do the same, we are no better than they. Indeed, we are worse, for they have at least the extenuating circumstances of having seen one of their own blown to bits; what extenuating circumstances can we claim for calmly ending a person's life?

These are young men. They face the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in prison. They will likely never spend any quality time with their families between now and their own deaths. If they have children, they will not see them grow up, marry, have children of their own. They will not be present when their own parents grow old and die. If single, they will never marry in any meaningful way. They took away the lives of many innocent people. Now they will watch their own lives slowly become as nothing. And they will, if they have any souls at all, remember every day of those lives the incident that put them where they are.

Tansy Gold