Here’s where I will weigh in... I’m an evangelical who has worked in a prison system for 28 years..
We are all worthy of death. Some are so dangerous they need to be locked up forever. Even then, they place their keepers at risk.
I worked on the death penalty protocols when our state passed the death penalty. We visited Texas (the experts) shortly after Karla Faye Baker had been executed.
I stood in the injection room and spoke with the actual executioners while the muckety-mucks were talking. These men were humbled and not proud at all of their role... it took a toll on them.
I support the military, and legitimate law enforcement in the use of deadly force- I would use it if need be in defense of myself or others, even in a tactical situation ( I was once OIC of the prison sniper team) where you yourself are not at immediate risk.
But, I would not stand in that room and execute another sinner strapped to a table.
I vacillated over the years, but that is my position based on some insight most people don’t experience.
Upon edit I see I confused Karla Faye Tucker with Tammy Faye Baker....
FRegards!
“I stood in the injection room and spoke with the actual executioners while the muckety-mucks were talking. These men were humbled and not proud at all of their role... it took a toll on them.”
Old way was firing squad - all blanks except one. No one knew who pulled the trigger on the kill.
Despite that toll, murder unrequited AS GOD COMMANDED IN THE BIBLE, also takes a toll.
First off, it was Carla Faye Tucker. I live in Texas, and remember vividly the murders for which she was executed. You can't confuse the "saved" version of Tucker with the cold-blooded murderer who "had an orgasm" as she plunged the pickaxe into her victims.
If it is true that she was "saved" while in prison; I am happy for her. She met a just reward in this life and is in a better place now in the bosom of Jesus. Salvation in the next life is not the same as legal justice in this life.
I would probably not want to be "the executioner" in a prison either. For that matter, I would not like to hunt deer or work in a slaughterhouse. I am not against hunting at all, and I eat meat. I just would not want to be in charge of the killing. It is normal to feel pity on one who is about to die, even a murderer.
But...if a loved one of mine suffered at the hands of a murderer, I "get medieval on his a**". IMO, a society is not more advanced when it abandons the death penalty. The opposite is true. A just and good society needs to make it a point that it will not tolerate the behavior of those who would rape and murder by cutting them off from life.
I should also add: In the eyes of God, I am no better than Carla Faye Tucker in that I am a sinner, too. However, in the eyes of Texas, I am better in that I did not commit a savage murder.
I vacillated over the years, but that is my position based on some insight most people don’t experience
Yours is a unique and horrible experience; your compassion has a place.
Still, I look at it this way. If my life was full of vile troubles of the sort that led me to take an axe to children, maybe an adult for full measure, cut them to pieces as they begged for their lives, yet my mental illness compelled me to slay them. . . .
They would still be dead if I repented and accepted Christ -I could not take it back.
And if I truly repented and accepted Christ, I should surely wish to pay the ultimate price for my murderous sin.
To wish otherwise is not true repentance. I can repent of a lie told and ask forgiveness of the living person I hurt, but the dead can not forgive, so true repentance should be acceptance of the price of the crime.
“But, I would not stand in that room and execute another sinner strapped to a table.”
Execution is the cure for recidivism.
After watching Casey Anthony set free (most likely because the state reached too far in asking for death and, thus, the jury balked) I think there should be a higher level of proof than reasonable doubt for the death penalty.
We now have so many forensic tools (security/video cameras, computer/phone record searches et. al. as well as that silver bullet known as DNA) that we should keep “Life” as is, but raise ‘Death’ to Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt.
Keep it in the quiver, but only pull it when sure.
Certainly Caylee Anthony would have found a greater degree of justice.
Would you have a problem executing Texas mass murder Major Nidal Hansan?
Most would not! A silver bullet would be too good. A lead bullet dipped in pig’s blood would be better....
Haven’t been there; don’t have your experience. But what I think I would feel is this:
“Here is one for your victims, for all the innocents that might be harmed if you ever get loose, for all the convicts that have share the prison with your murderous self, for all the guards that have to risk their lives to guard both us, and you and for all the taxpayers that have had to support your worthless self.” *Click*
Her status as a sinner, and mine, doesn’t come into it. Its just a little preventative maintenance on society and the human race.
BTW, the Bible explicitly endorses the Death Penalty.