by: Jenni Vinson
April 30, 2001
I used to be a death penalty advocate. I still am- to an extend. Some people who are continually disuptive, (causing severe harm or death to others) and who prove themselves incapable of doing otherwise, merit losing the right to live among us.
I believe that the death penalty is a necessary use of power on behalf of our government in keeping with this society�s need to �promote peace and tranquility�. I believe that the death penalty is an effective deterent, that it keeps some people from committing haenous crimes because they would know their punishment might be death.
The 1998 execution of Karla Faye Tucker caused me to take a serious introspective look at what I say I believe on the subject of the death penalty. She proved herself to be reformed. She in no way behaved like the woman who committed the incredibly horrible crime that took her to death row.
We could argue that if a person commits such a crime and causes the death of another, they MUST die, in keeping with the biblical �an eye for an eye� line of thinking. But, that is not what our prison system is meant to be. We are suppose to utilize the prison system for the reformation of the criminal individual to prepare him/her to reenter society.
In the case of Karla Faye Tucker, she was reformed. At the very least, the State of Texas could have allowed her to live imprisoned for the rest of her life to show that reformation of even the worst type of criminal is possible. Instead, they killed her to appease the families of those she killed.
Timothy McVeigh has already chosen the words he will utter when he dies on May 16th. He intends to let us all know : �I am the master of my fate. The captain of my ship.�
He is a stupid man who fails to account for the fact that the instant he dies he will stand before the face of God and in that moment his ship will not be so grand.
Everyone lives an eternity, it�s just a question of where and I would not be so
eager to begin my eternity if I were Timothy McVeigh, who refuses to express
remorse or contrition for his role in the bombing of the Oklahoma Morrow
Federal Building and for causing the deaths of 168 innocent men, women and
children.
The families of the dead want to gather to watch Timothy McVeigh die, strapped
to a gurney, injected by what will kill him. They just want to see for themsleves
that he will be dead and will no longer be on the Earth, capable of causing them
further pain. That is understandable.
But, it appears as though the families of the dead are no more capable of
forgiveness, contrition and remorse than Timothy McVeigh is. They have been
so altered by their loss that they seek to join him in a murderous act AND he
knows it. He has dragged them all down to his level.
He did what he did because he hates what the federal governemnt has become.
To him it is a tool used by the powerful to do as they wish against those who are
not strong enough or capable of standing up against it. In dying, he becomes a
hero to those who believe as he does.
There is more to the Timpthy McVeigh story and it will likely go with him to the
grave. It has been suggested lately that he was paid to carry out the bombing by
Bin Laden, America�s number one nemesis and super-terrorist.
It was not that long ago that the citizens of a community would gather around a
town�s gallows to watch a man hang. It was common place to witness the death
of criminals. Some people are calling for a completely open broadcast of the
execution ofTimothy McVeigh.
Some from among us already watch less than this on television and in movies
and they go out and commit disgustingly horrid crimes against members of our
society. Wasn�t it enough that Timothy McVeigh caused us to make a mental
imprint of the horror and the grief of what we all saw the day of the bombing. We
were, as a country, all altered and affected by that event. We should not want to
give him the satisfaction of harming us and diminishing us even further by
watching him die.
We could become so consumed by the need for vengance that we even lose
sight of those we lost. We can clamour for Justice and vengance to be carried
out but no amount of either will accomplish what our human minds and hearts
need- we want and need our loved ones back with the living; back with us.
My heart and prayers go out to the families in the upcoming weeks as the time of
his death draws near. I hope they will allow their hearts and minds to let go of
the anger so that they can get back to a point of peace.