Retribution

Retribution Varonika Allen BCOM/275 October 3, 2011 Dr. James Miller The emotional effect that the death penalty has and both sides the victim’s and the perpetrators family both suffer. The way the victim’s family suffers is having their loved on murdered or brutally assaulted. The perpetrators family suffers by having their loved one’s put to death by the state for their crime and the emotionally draining court proceedings. The lives of the victims are less important as our justice system shows more sympathy for the perpetrators than it does the victims. “An excellent example is the execution a few years ago of former gang leader “Tookie” Williams. He was one of the original members of the notorious Crips gang, which has a long legacy of robbery, assault, and murder. This man is a man who was convicted with overwhelming evidence of the murder of four people, some of whom he shot in the back and then laughed at the sounds they made as they died. This is a man who never even took responsibility for the crimes or apologized to the victims – NOT ONCE! These victims has kids and spouses, but instead of sympathy for them, sympathy shifted to Tookie. Candlelight vigils were held for him. Websites like save tookie.org sprang up. Protests and a media circus ensued trying to prevent the execution, which eventually did take place – 26 years after the crime itself! There are many cases like this, which make a mockery of the evil crimes these degenerates commit. (Messerli, 2011). Some ways the death penalty can affect the perpetrators is that if they are really remorseful they will think about the crime that they actually committed and how their actions has affected the victim’s family. When we think about the crime that the perpetrator has committed what was their mindset at the time of the crime and what were they thinking. When we sentence someone to death while they are waiting for their sentence to be carried out can some be rehabilitated or are they too far gone. By sentencing the perpetrators to death it does not actually bring the victims back to life and does it actually bring closer to the victim’s family. Deserving just punishment and protecting society by answering crime with equal punishment for the public good. We as a society have to move away from the “eye for an eye” revenge mentality if civilization is to advance. (Messerli, 2011). References Joe Messerli (2011) www.balancedpolitics.org/deathpenalty.htm