In September 2011 I wrote about the death penalty, my views on the same and in particular about Troy Davis who was due to be executed in Georgia that day. That post can be found here. Despite an international outcry and overwhelming support, he was executed.
Troy Davis had to undergo three different execution dates. The first time in 2008 he had already been strapped down before a stay was granted, the second in September 2011 when he was strapped down, then removed, only for four hours later to strapped back down and killed.
Do we really call ourselves civilised?
Today in Georgia another man is due to be executed. His guilt for the crimes committed is not in question here. Warren Hill is mentally disabled. This has been agreed by seven different experts and his death would violate the US Constitution. In 2002 the Supreme Court ruled that you could not execute a person who was intellectually disabled. Yet that is exactly what is happening today.
Like Troy Davis, Warren Hill has also had to undergo previous execution dates. In July 2012 he was given a stay of execution only ninety minutes before it was scheduled to take place. In February of this year he was again due to be executed. He had been sedatives to calm him, had said goodbye to his family then again, thirty minutes prior to the execution, it was again stayed. Five months later he again faces the execution chamber.
This isn’t justice, this is torture.
To find out more about Warren Hill and send a message to the Attorney General of Georgia asking the Supreme Court to intervene, PLEASE click here.
Will it make a difference if you sign? Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I have signed it. Because my heart and my soul tells me too. Because if you sit in the sidelines your whole life, you can't participate in what happens. I have a voice, and I'm using it.
I have signed it, because in this case, it would be a violation of the constitution to execute and would be wrong.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not sure where I stand on the death penalty per se. On one hand, the cause of death given on the death certificate of somebody executed by the state is "Homicide", so therefore the state is guilty of the same crime as the offender. The humanity in me means I imagine how awful it would feel to be that person knowing that their death was coming, and how frightening that would be for them.
But on the other hand, you have to look at the evil acts perpetrated by some of these people, and the suffering and pain they inflicted on their victims, before killing them. There is no justification or no punishment available that would make that right.
I'm inclined to think that in extreme cases, where the criminal has committed extremely violent acts and is not likely to be reformed, and there is no doubt of their guilt, the world would be a better place if they were humanely removed from it.
He got a temporary stay with four hours to go.
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