cynical

I, for one do not think that death is the only punishment severe enough for a person who takes the life of another. I believe in a more severe punishment. I believe that living a life of repentance, a life where innocent lives, which were cut short by a murderer, would haunt him, would be a greater punishment. I believe that a person who killed another in self-defense, in helplessness deserves another chance to live, may it be in a prison cell or a rehabilitation center. I believe that death is the easy way out for a person who committed a heinous crime so I view the chance to live as a fitter punishment.

What drives a person to take the life of another? Listen to them and you will find out many more reasons than a paradoxical ‘purely evil’ mind. A woman about to be raped may kill her attacker. A person kills another motivated by anger or revenge. Not all murderers plot and plan to kill nor do all of them kill for money. The act of taking the life of another places them all in the category of murderers but the common punishment of death cannot be applied to all of them if you examine their motives for murder.

Recently we heard about a young boy who was playing with a kitten at school and horrified the other children by suddenly killing the kitten for no apparent reason. If this mentally disturbed child did this while no one was watching, nobody would have known his sadism. It is such people who grow up to become psychopaths, sociopaths and serial killers. When you witness or hear of the murders they commit you feel that they deserve to die but once again I ask, “do they deserve to die?” It has been discovered that they kill because of a mental imbalance and therefore I think that a prison sentence as well as rehabilitation is the answer for such people. As for those who kill for money or with a plan and an evil motive, the most severe punishment is to suffer by living to the end of their days and repenting what they did, every passing second.

Another reason why I believe that death is not the most severe punishment for one who takes the life of another, is because history shows occasions when innocent men were convicted of murder. David Shepherd, an Afro Amrican, was found guilty of raping and murdering a woman. It was only after twenty two years in prison during which the prime of his life was wasted, that DNA tests proved him innocent and he was granted freedom. I believe that if such a man was put to death, that injustice could never be reversed.

If I kill someone who was trying to harm me, or anyone else for that matter, I’d want to live because my conscience would still be clear. I’m Buddhist and as a religion as well as a philosophy, Buddhism teaches the importance of forgiveness. Lord Buddha forgave his would be murderer, Devadatta Thero. In Buddhism it was not meant as a punishment but I apply this same philosophy to my argument when I say that death is not the only punishment severe enough for a murderer. It is easy for me to say this because I have not gone through the ordeal of losing someone through murder. Nevertheless, I believe in a second chance.

Each murderer has his or her own motive for murder and thus many do end up with a guilty conscience. The Green River killer in America is a notorious murderer who killed at least forty-eight young women. Not only did he kill them, he concealed their bodies in the Green River riverbank and returned to seduce those dead bodies. This clearly disturbed man has a wife and a child at home and as I watched his trial on television I seethed with anger and wanted him to die. But one incident during the trial forever changed my perspective on capital punishment. It was obvious that the murderer’s guilt was gradually increasing, as most of the victims’ loved ones spoke to him at the trial. Then one day, an old man whose daughter was killed by this murderer fifteen years ago, told him that h forgives him, (the murderer) because that was the most sever punishment he could give him. The words were proved true because it was at this point that the murderer completely let his guard down and openly wept. I think that if death was his punishment, he would never have thought about or repented what he did. Now, he’s serving consecutive life sentences, which I believe is the most severe punishment he could receive.

Therefore I believe that living a life of repentance is the utmost punishment a murderer should receive and I strongly disagree with the idea that death is the only punishment severe enough for a person who takes the life of another.