"I never truckled; I never took off the hat to Fashion and held it out for pennies. By God, I told them the truth. They liked it or they didn't like it. What had that to do with me? I told them the truth; I knew it for the truth then, and I know it for the truth now." Frank Norris.
Perhaps the method of execution should be to shoot him in the cheek. I'm open to reforming the death penalty to eliminate the politics and irregularities from the appeals process. But I cannot agree to total elimination of the death penalty.
Some people like Tim McVeigh deserve to die. Period.
In Japan, they just sentenced Chizuo Matsumoto (aka Shoko Asahara) to death. He was the leader of that twisted cult, Aum Shinrikyo, that released sarin gas on Tokyo subways. I would have been disgusted if they allowed him to live out his life in jail.
I'm highly curious to see how the Spanish public reacts if and when they catch the culprits of 11M.
Posted by: John in Tokyo | March 16, 2004 at 08:47 PM
Well, my wife's brother was murdered and her family opposes the death penalty There is also this organization whose members are survivors of murdered family members and oppose the death penalty, Elie Wiesel and Coretta Scott King oppose the death penalty, so I don't think that it follows necessarily that those who lose loved ones to violent crimes support the death penalty.
Posted by: Randy Paul | March 16, 2004 at 09:01 PM
Well, I admire your wife and her family for not yielding to the desire for blind vengence in spite of their terrible pain. I'm sure that there are even some families whose children were killed in the nursery at the Alfred Murrah building that McVeigh blew up who were against his execution.
Incidentally, I should interrupt myself now to point out that I don't support using the death penalty against every or even most murderers.
But do a majority of murder victim friends and family oppose capital punishment? I'd be interested to hear. I don't think that an overall majority oppose capital punishment, even in Europe. Japan is arguably the most thoroughly pacifist society in the world. But I didn't see any protests or complaints last month when Matsumoto was convicted and sentenced. I didn't see any notes on AI's website, even though I checked it for several days after, just out of morbid curiosity. Most of the progressive bien-pensants don't care about executions unless they happen in Texas.
The guys who dragged James Byrd to death behind their pick-up truck in Texas deserve death.
Posted by: John in Tokyo | March 17, 2004 at 04:38 AM