Choose life.
Prayers for Holly Washa and her family
Cal Coburn Brown acted in 1991 with unspeakable, morally repugnant viciousness against his innocent victim that is deserving of all of society’s punishment. I offer my deepest and most profound sympathies and prayers for the spiritual healing of Holly Washa, G-d rest her soul, and her family that has suffered so much.
As a husband and the father of three daughters and one son, I simply cannot imagine the horror Ms. Washa experienced when tortured by Brown. Our soul’s weep for her and her family.
My previous posts on the death penalty reflect my feelings that there is no moral victory on this terrible, awful issue. There is no righteousness and no one has the right to judge others’ views.
Our state does, however, have a policy choice to make. I hope that we Choose Life.
How is it morally justified that the lawyers use the intricacies of the legal system to strike a deal to allow the Green River Killer to live while Cal Coburn Brown dies?
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 teaches:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life…by loving the Eternal your God, heeding God’s commands, and holding fast to God.”
Your partner in service,
Reuven.
When thinking of the death penalty I always think of three things.
First is a joke about a man who sees a 12-year-old boy strike a 9-year-old boy. The man snatches the 12-year-old up and starts spanking him saying “This will teach you not to hit people younger than you.”
That makes me wonder why we kill people to show people that killing people is wrong.
Finally, since you’ve brought a religious angle to it, I am astonished that some of the strongest proponents of the death penalty in this country are the people who most loudly proclaim themselves as Christians. Yet Jesus was very strongly opposed to the death penalty, actually stopped an execution, and was, in the end, a victim himself of the death penalty. State-ordered execution is anathema to Christianity.
I agree completely, both with you – and with Charlie’s comment above.
While I have always opposed the death penalty on moral grounds (doing research and writing papers on various aspects of it both in my Catholic high school and in graduate school) – it’s not just a moral issue. It is also an economic one. At the time I wrote my grad school paper on it, the costs involved in a death penalty case (prosecution, appeals, housing for the convicted, etc.) were 11 times more than the cost for a life in prison case. The choice is not just moral, it is fiscal as well.
Reuven, Thank you for your stand opposing the death penalty. My opposition to it stems from my conviction that it is dangerous and wrong to give the state the power of life and death over its citizens, no matter what horrific crimes those citizens have committed. ~Amy Kinsel