Death Penalty: Justice or Murder?

Texas is known for being a state that carries out the death penalty. American Society should not view the death penalty as a form of justice but rather as a barbaric compromise to the confidence we have placed in our judicial system. The decision of choosing who gets to live based on how "grotesque" and horrible their crime is, even if it is the same crime, is arbitrary and contradicts the principle of equality our country was founded on. Not to mention, there is no guarantee of justice, because everyone has their own definition of what justice really is. Just because a victim's life was taken, killing the person responsible will not bring them back. Due to the lack of better judgment on someone's behalf, our supposed equal distribution of punishment is broken. The distribution of the death penalty is never fair either. Not everybody who commits murder is given the death penalty, either because of the state laws, the jury, or plea deals they are given. I am not saying these murderers should not be punished, quite the opposite. I am just curious where we should draw the line between cruel / unusual punishment and justice. When it comes down to it, we're committing the same crime. If a citizen kills somebody, it's called murder; yet if the government takes a life, it is considered justice. When you think about it, we're punishing murder with murder; where is the lesson in that? I find this most disturbing, and I do believe there are other alternatives to the death penalty. It doesn't really solve anything in the long run; it is just more killing and an easy way out instead of dealing with the real issues.

Possesion of Child Pornography Puts Woman Behind Bars for 8 years

Justified or Too Lenient?

More often than not, when we hear in the news about a sex offender, usually we are told about a man. Very rarely in the news do we hear about women committing sex crimes, especially against children. Although the child pornography was found on 22-year-old Channelview woman, Renee Allene Lofton's computer, that doesn't mean she went out and molested any children. At her sentencing hearing, Lofton told the court that she did not collect over "1,400 pictures and three movies of children being sexually abused" for sexual gratification, but because they brought back memories of her "sexual experiences as an adolescent." Lofton was sentenced to eight years behind bars.

To our knowledge, based on the article and the information given, Lofton did not act out on her "urges," making it difficult to determine whether or not eight years behind bars is a just punishment for possession of pornography. Although I'm glad the government is putting their foot down and being more harsh on sex offenders, including women and not just men, if Lofton indeed did not act out any "urges" after seeing these images, then eight years seems extreme for only having the pornography in her possession, not that I in any way condone this. If however, Lofton did abuse children, then her sentence just might be too lenient. I must say though, because she says it reminds of her "adolescent sexual experiences," assuming by this she means she was sexually abused as a child, by possessing these pictures, she is still living in her past with the abuse and has not received the proper treatment to start the healing process. If what she says is true about her childhood, a mandatory psychotherapy treatment should be added to her sentence. Just putting sex offenders behind bars for a given amount of time then releasing them will not help them and is putting society at a greater risk; it might even make them worse if no medical treatment is administered.



Original article:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_Child_Porn.html

Has TX Begun to Rethink the Death Penalty?

It is no secret that Texas is a state that willingly carries out the death penalty when and if it is the chosen punishment. However, in a recent article, it seems that the death penalty ruling could come to a halt while judges debate a recent appeal for Heliberto Chi. Chi was scheduled to be given the lethal injection tonight, October 3rd, 2007, for killing an Arlington store manager in 2001. Though the death penalty is not permanently gone, "It seems clear, based on the actions (by the two courts), that executions will be on hold for the next several months," said Andrea Keilen. According to the article, the recent halt in the executions are due to emerging details from another death penalty case. Apparently the Texas Courts refused to stay open past 5 p.m. on September 25th, so Michael Richard's lawyers, (another death row inmate, who did take the lethal injection later that night), could file an appeal on Richard's behalf. The Judge residing over the case, Cheryl Johnson, did not learn about the request until she read it in an American Statesman story. "It was revealed Tuesday that the decision was made by Presiding Judge Sharon Keller without consulting any of the court's eight other judges or later informing them about the decision ."



I personally have always been against the death pentalty because I believe the decision of choosing who gets to live based on how "grotesque" and horrible their crime is, even if it is the same crime, is arbitrary and contradicts the principle of equality our country was founded on. Not to mention, there is no guarentee of justice, because everyone has their own definition of what justice really is. Just because a victim's life was taken, killing the person responsible will not bring them back. The American Society should not view the death penalty as a form of justice but rather as a barbaric compromise to the confidence we have placed in our judicial system. Due to the lack of better judgement on a Texas Judge's behalf, our supposed equal distribution of punishment is broken. A man who committed the same haneous crime of murder as another man, was given lethal injection while the other may get his sentence changed to life in prison because of a bad judgement call. I am not saying these murders should not be punished, quite the opposite. I am just curious where we should draw the line between cruel / unusal punishment and justice. When it comes down to it, we're committing the same crime. If a citizen kills somebody, it's called murder; yet if the government takes a life, it is considered justice. I find this much disturbing, and I do believe there are other alternatives than the death penalty. It doesn't really solve anything in the long run; it is just more killing and an easy way out instead of dealing with the real issues. In response to this article, I hope this will bring greater attention to the flaws of our system and people will rethink their stand on what justice really is.





ORIGINAL ARTICLE

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/10/03/1003court.html