Posted on 10/30/2007 5:27:32 AM PDT by theothercheek
In July Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, were sexually abused and brutally murdered by parolees Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes, who now face the death penalty. The Hawke-Petit family including husband and father William, who survived the attack were members of the United Methodist Church in Cheshire, CT, a liberal activist church "where parishioners take to the pulpit to discuss poverty in El Salvador and refugees living in Meriden," reports The New York Times.
The church has been led by three pastors in a row who oppose capital punishment in favor of "restorative justice," and several congregants attended midnight vigils two years ago outside the prison where CT executed its first convict in 45 years. The parishioners are anguished over how they should respond to the capital charges brought against the defendants, according to The Times:
The killings have not just stunned the congregation, they have spurred quiet debate about how it should respond to the crime and whether it should publicly oppose the punishment that may follow. It has also caused a few to reassess how they feel about the punishment.
The Rev. Diana Jani Druck, who led the Cheshire congregation from 2001 to 2005, said the Petit case would be an interesting test for the congregation and the state.
The case, she said, lacks some of the factors that make some people object to the death penalty as patently unfair, like race. (The suspects are white, as were the Petits.) Because both defendants were caught fleeing the crime scene, there may be fewer questions about mistaken identity. And the gruesome nature of the crime, combined with the kinship many congregants felt for the Petits, may stir feelings of vengeance even in death penalty opponents, she said.
She herself acknowledged feeling "real violent anger" when first shown photographs of the suspects. But on reflection, she said, "I just dont see what purpose is served in putting them to death."
In this case justice could be served only if restorative justice meant the defendants could restore the lives of the Hawke-Petit mother and daughters. As this is not possible, retributive justice - the state and the people of CT do unto the defendants what they did unto the Hawke-Petits, only much more humanely - is the only just punishment.
Note: The Stiletto writes about politics and other stuff at The Stiletto Blog.
Yup - the state of CT can bring ‘em back to life AFTER they bring their victims back to life.
If you read between the lines of the NYT article, you will see that the lib parishioners who were so sure of their righteousness when the murders happened to other people in other communities are now questioning their reflexive anti-death penalty advocacy now that one of their own was affected by a heinous crime. Nothing like feeling the pain on your own skin to clarify matters.
Capital Punishment is what it is.
And, putting murderers to death is the only law mentioned in all five books of the Old Testament.
It’s no wonder they don’t believe in capitol punishment. To a Methodist, the only sin is calling a sin a sin.
If these two were hanged from the neck until dead that would be mercy compared to what they did to the victims.
I hate to put it this way, but we have seen just how well “forgiveness” and giving scumbags a second chance worked in this case. Both of these savages had records as long as your arm but both were repeatedly let out of prison, given opportunities to get jobs and do something meaningful with their lives, and avoid future crimes. None of this came to pass. Just maybe the revolving door system of justice made them think they could rape, terrorize, and kill and probably get away with it again.
Sadly I don’t think any major changes will come to the parole system here either. The legislature has not acted yet. In fact when some of them went on a fact finding tour of a prison we heard a lot of comments about how awful it is that the inmates are too cramped and they live in poor conditions. It’s almost as if the bad guys are getting even more sympathy.
Plus I will predict the same people who express outrage and anger over this crime will next year just vote to re-elect the same legislators who created this mess.
How about if we hang ‘em by their feet until dead - it takes about two days to do the job.
"Retribution" is sometimes confused with "vengeance." And admittedly, the distinction can be subtle. But it is not wrong to demand that an aggrieved party be accorded some satisfaction of his grievance. In fact, it is the ultimate balancing of the cosmic scales. When one turns over the authority for such satisfaction to a dispassionate third party that observes a strict due process in its administration, then it can be said that to the degree humanly possible, blood lust has been removed and the result distilled down to its judicial value.
That is what capital punishment does. It metes out retribution according the accused every protection under the law. It dispenses justice without anger or hatred, but purely in the spirit of balance.
It is interesting to note that Justice is depicted as a blindfolded woman with a balance (not a scale) in one hand and an unsheathed sword in the other. The symbolism is that once the balance has served its purpose, it's the sword's turn.
Nailed it.
I think that in brutal crimes like this one, where you have personal knowledge of the victims, it SHOULD shake the foundations of your beliefs.
Personally, I am glad the congregation is in turmoil, and rethinking its stance.........maybe they will act accordingly with their votes.
It is tough for some to reconcile the core Christian tenents of mercy,forgiveness and love, with what is a natural gut reaction to brutality and murder. IMO the struggle to reconcile these two opposing positions, is what makes us civilized.....it should never be a simple thing to take another humans life...no matter how vile and despicable that person is, or deserving.
Studying and reaching an understanding of the scriptures which in fact supports the death penalty is the only way for the Christian person to be at peace.
Justice is one of the characteristics of God that many wish to ignore because it does not make them feel warm and toasty inside. They ignore it at their great peril, both physically and spiritually.
Nicely put.
It’s very ironic and sad that the victims were active in this church, and thus were promoting the criminal-coddling policies that led to their long-rap-sheeted murderers being free to torture and kill them.
I liked your posts in this thread and let me also add this observation:
In a society that bans capital punishment, the line is constantly redrawn so that murder, as pointed out earlier, becomes a crime like any other.
The capital punishment opponents are generally deceitful bastards who DO NOT merely oppose the death penalty but are against any significant imprisonment or corporal punishment of the murderer.
First, they go after the death penalty, then they go after life sentences. After that, they will go after 20 year sentences until 10 years of ‘treatment’ will suffice.
And they will, when it suits them, cloak their aims in science but will IGNORE science and research that show how irredeemably bad a psychopath is or the recidivism rates of violent offenders or how ‘treatment’ actually enables and increases the effectiveness of psycho and sociopaths.
There are SOME who are truly in favor of life sentences in uncomfortable conditions over the death penalty but they aren’t the ones out picketing in front of prisons or defending murderers on countless appeals.
Imagine dedicating your entire professional (and emotional) life to preventing murderers from getting executed! Think of the REAL good all of that energy and action could have done!
Since there seems to be so much interest in this subject, and at the risk of appearing vain, I have resurrected a piece I wrote for Free Republic in February of 2000. You might find this link interesting.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1918616/posts
How about we feed them to the reavers?
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