Most of us spend the majority of our lives doing all we can to prevent death, both our own and that of others.
For rare individuals, death is instead sought after, such as in the case of John Allen Muhammad, who was given the death sentence by a jury in Virginia today.
The death penalty is a hard thing. On the one hand, it is often impossible to know that an individual committed a crime which carries the possibility of this penalty -- as demonstrated in the multiple occurrences of death row inmates being later exonerated by new crime scene investigation techniques or confessions.
On the other hand, if you have videotape of some individual methodically murdering masses of people, in a deliberate scheme of terrorism, and the individual brazenly admits guilt with the intention to do it again; would you, as a viewer of the tape and confession, think there is any other suitable punishment than death?
I tend to look at it on a more personal level. Raised in the loving family that I was, if a person slowly tortured my siblings and parents to death, and admitted to having done so, I have no doubt in my mind that I would wish death upon that person, if for no other reason than that I would desire their suffering in the afterlife be immediate.
Does this make me a bad or evil person? I don’t think so. Yet I don’t and wouldn’t argue at all with the sentiment that past exonerations have proven that our system is imperfect and essentially unjust.
The application of the death penalty has proven unpredictable in a system where there should be no room for variance.
Should John Allen Muhammad die for his crimes? Yes, if the evidence presented in court and represented in the media is any indication of the surety of his guilt.
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