Mystified & Muddled: The Death Penalty

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Years ago, before I met my wife (yeah it was a while ago lol) I used to have a website solely dedicated to the abolishment of the death penalty. I also had a number of pen pals who were on death row or sentenced to life. A lot of people think, that people who write to inmates are crazy. I wasn't a 'groupie', I used to just write to people who had no one to talk to. Were they guilty of their crime? I don't know, I wasn't there.... I didn't write to them to judge them or try and save their souls. Nor did I jump all around waving a flag trying to get the American Presidents attention, because I believed that my penpal 'Joe Smith' was innocent because, he had such lovely penmanship and a fantastic sense of humour. This isn't my point, the point of the website I had, was to educate people regarding capital punishment.

It has been proven time and time again, that killing people to teach people not to kill, simply does not work. There is also the other issue where a number of inmates have been executed and then only after their execution, they have discovered that the inmate was actually innocent. Or how about those inmates on death row who have some form of mental health issue or intellectual disabilty? In any other country they would be sentenced to serve time in a psychiatric facility, but not in America. In America they lock them up then strap them to a table and stick a fatal needle in their arm.

Some readers may think that I'm anti-American or an United States basher. I'm not, America, like all countries has some very good points. America is also one of the world leaders, other countries look to America for direction. It's just a real shame that America can't lead the world in capital punishment reform.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against prisons or locking offenders up. I believe if you do the crime, you do the time, I don't believe in execution. I've heard many non-victims say it brings closure, however there are many victims of crime organisations out there that state that even after viewing an execution, it brought no closure to them. Some of these victims of crime organisations are actually against capital punishment, as they have found that it's a total falicy to believe, that to take a life because another life was taken simply doesn't work. I've also heard people say 'if it happened to you, you'd want them executed'. Actually I wouldn't. I'd want them locked in their cell, I'd want them to loose their freedom.

So why am I writing about capital punishment now? Well I just recently decided to write to an inmate on death row. Again is he innocent? I don't know, I wasn't there. What I can say is that I have looked at his legal paperwork and he wasn't given a fair trial from the get go. He was coerced by the police when he was arrested - this is documented, the police also threatened to harm his family if he didn't admit guilt - this is also documented. He was also denied access to a lawyer, despite requesting a lawyer twice - again this is also documented.

He's been on death row for 10 years, some inmates are on death row from anywhere between 10 - 20+ years. I don't know if he'll get off death row, transferred to a life sentence or executed. But in the meantime I'll keep replying to his letters, and try and stay as positive as him and hope that the American President calls for a moratorium on capital punishment. Killing is wrong, it doesn't matter who's doing it.