The death penalty is wrong...but

[1620rock]

>snip<

A white supremacist was executed Wednesday for the dragging death of a black man.
James Byrd Jr., 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and pulled whip-like to his death
along a bumpy asphalt road in one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history.
Lawrence Brewer was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.

Besides Brewer, John William King also was convicted and sent to death row for Byrd's death,
which shocked the nation for its brutality. King's death sentence remains under appeal.
A third man, Shawn Berry, 36, received a life prison term.

It was about 2:30 a.m. on a Sunday, June 7, 1998, when witnesses saw Byrd walking on a road not far from his home in Jasper, a town of more than 7,000 northeast of Houston. Many folks knew he lived off disability checks, couldn't afford his own car and walked where he needed to go. Another witness then saw him riding in the bed of a dark pickup.

Six hours later, the bloody mess found after daybreak was thought at first to be animal road kill. Rowles, a former Texas state trooper who had taken office as sheriff the previous year, believed it was a hit-and-run fatality but evidence didn't match up with someone caught beneath a vehicle. Body parts were scattered and the blood trail began with footprints at what appeared to be the scene of a scuffle.

[flvegan]

1. ...but, it's still wrong even in this case.

[Avalux]

2. Byrd's family sent a letter asking King not be executed.

The letter stated that his death would not ease their pain and there was no sense in ending another life.

What do you think of that? Should their wishes have been considered?

[Logical]

3. So revenge is your justification??

[LWolf]

4. but what, exactly? nt

[Bluebear]

5. But nothing. Death is far too easy an escape for him

[TheKentuckian]

6. There is no but for me

[1620rock]

7. I make no exceptions

I do not personally believe in the death penalty. I just bring this case to light to illustrate why some people who oppose the death penalty might make an exception in certain 'monster' cases.

[Tansy_Gold]

11. Nor for me.

As I said to the BF last night, "If you are for the death penalty in some cases, then you are for the death penalty. I am against it in all cases. I never have to justify anything, I never have to make exceptions. It's a very easy stance to take. No, no, never, no. The death penalty never brings anyone back from the dead, it does not undo the horror for which it is being invoked, and it cannot be undone if it is done in error. No, no, never, no."


Tansy Gold

[SheilaT]

8. For those who think the Bible is

some kind of authority, the commandment says (so I've been told) in the original Hebrew: No kill.

There's no fine print of any kind, just No kill.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

9. still wrong. nt

[MadHound]

10. No state sanctioned murder, ever, no matter whom, no matter what.

No state sanctioned murder.

[gogero]

12. Punish

Death punish the crimer is enough.

[spanone]

13. no buts