Muscatine

In a recent commentary on a television newscast, a reporter asked if the death penalty should be assessed in some crimes.  He reported on a family of four; father, mother and two daughters age 12 and 17 whose home was invaded by two men.  The family was held against their will and the father was beaten to submission by blows to the head.  The mother was forced to go to their bank to draw out a large sum of money.  When she returned with the money she was raped and then strangled to death.  In this version, the younger of two daughters was also raped and then the two girls were bound and the house set afire burning the two girls alive.  An article in the Journal reported on this case and while the age of the youngest girl was 11 and there was no mention of her being raped, the question presented to the observer of this commentary was “does this crime warrant the death penalty?”  In his view, it does and he asks if you think it doesn’t then please say why it does not warrant the death penalty.  In this case, these men were caught immediately and admitted to what they had done.  There is no doubt about their guilt.  In our local paper, the defense is suggesting that one of the men is not a violent person but one under the influence of a lifetime of drugs.  This man just spent 25 years in prison and is the one who raped and strangled the mother to death.  His defense was that he had been a victim of child abuse also and that it was his partner in this crime that led him to do what he did.

Now, I would ask each and every one of you on this board to tell me if this if this individual should be sentenced to death.  I believe he should be executed.  If you believe he should not be executed, then please tell me why.

You know, I've thought alot about the death penalty because I really can't figure out where I stand on it.  On one hand, I wonder if any of us have the right to judge whether someone should live or die based on a crime that they've committed.  On the other hand, I end up hearing about or reading about a case like this.  I've seen this discussed on the news and I've also read several newspaper articles about it.  Without a doubt, I believe that if anyone should suffer the death penalty, it should be these two men.  What they've done is horrific beyond words.  It doesn't matter if the older man is nonviolent, he only acted under the influence of drugs.  Was he forced to take whatever drugs he was influenced by?  He made that choice.  There's an innocent man who has to live the rest of his life knowing the suffering his wife and children went through before they were murdered. 

I wholeheartedly believe in the death penalty.....with these guys they should have been taken outside the court house...and let a lynch mob at them....the hell with letting them live on the tax payers dollar especially when they've admitted thier guilt......

I also find it hard to pass judgement on others but it is something that we must do in order to prevent crimes like this.  We can find excuses and reasons for violent behavior of any kind but that does not excuse the crime.  For criminals like these to live the rest of their natural life behind bars and for law abiding people to pay for that is not right no matter how one looks at it.  If individuals like these are not eliminated from society we will have more crimes like this.