The Death Penalty Is About Vengeance, Not Justice
When we sentence comeone to death, whom are we really punishing?
Consider this: Once we execute the offender, their suffering is over. But the people who love the offender will feel the pain of that loss for the rest of their lives. In effect, it puts the victims’ loved ones in the position of saying, "My loved one was killed, so your loved one has to die, too!" When you inflict death as punishment, you end up with one more set of bereaved loved ones. That does no good, and in fact interferes with healing on all sides.
You might say that the offender you’re sentencing to death is such a terrible human being that nobody could possibly love him or her, so nobody would mourn the loss. I disagree. Everyone has people in their lives who love them and will mourn their death.
Some will object that if we replace the death penalty with life imprisonment, we need to feed the offender for the rest of his/her life. On the other hand, we now have the offender's lifetime labor as a wergild for the victim's loved ones, that is, as a way of "paying their debt to society" as the saying goes, and of making amends.
Others contend that life imprisonment without possibility of parole is a fate worse than death; it's almost as if they see the death penalty as a kind of mercy killing. But the real reason that life imprisonment is such a terrible fate is the living conditions in many of our prisons. The solution to that, however, is to improve prison conditions, not to kill offenders!
Here are some words of wisdom on this subject.
“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the LORD.” Deuteronomy 32:35.
“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head and the LORD will reward you.” Proverbs 25:21-22
“An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” Gandhi
“I do not feel any pity for Gollum.” [said Frodo]. [...] He deserves death.’ [Gandalf replied,] ‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” J. R. R. Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring / Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings.
The Death Penalty is Not Justice for Charlie Kirk's Killer. This is an opinion piece by Demetrius Minor, the executive director of Conservatives Concerned. He is a preacher, advocate, relationship builder, and a writer working to educate and mobilize conservatives around the systematic flaws with the death penalty.
