[Vision2020] Death Penalty Must Be Abolised
keely emerinemix
kjajmix1 at msn.com
Wed May 3 21:33:20 PDT 2006
Good questions, Matt, and ones I've answered before, although perhaps not on
Vision.
1. With all of my heart, I would want to stay true to what I believe is
right -- even if the guy had done the most horrible things ever to my
family. My faith gives me the confidence of eternity, Matt -- I know I
would see them again, healed and whole. It also gives me the strength, as
yet untested, to cry out to God in my anger and despair and the strength to
also hold fast to what I believe, or, more important, Who I believe. I know
it would be a tremendous struggle; actually, I don't know how much of a
struggle, having not ever dealt with that. But I do know that the grace of
God is sufficient for me, and that's what my faith is all about -- and any
nobility or courage or mercy I would show is evidence of him working within
me, not any virtue of my own. I know myself, and I would want to kill them
-- and I would plead that God deal with me with the mercy he wants to pour
out on the perpetrator.
2. I have said before that I am a "seamless garment" pro-lifer, meaning
that mine is a "seamless" belief -- the term refers to Christ's tunic, which
was traditionally thought to be woven without seams -- and so I think that
abortion is the taking of human life. I also oppose active euthanasia, the
death penalty, and, in most cases, war. But because I don't believe that
abortion is always, or even often, "murder," I am ambivalent about making
it illegal, particularly in the first trimester, when spontaneous abortion
(miscarriage) is common enough to make prosecution not only more likely, but
much more abusive to the woman. There are ways of describing the taking of
a life that fall short of murder, by which I mean premeditated, intentional,
planned and with knowledge of right and wrong. We have involuntary
manslaughter, manslaughter, vehicular homicide, etc., none of which has any
difference in outcome -- someone dies -- but all of which have varying
degrees of culpability. (The Old Testament precedent for this is evident
in, for example, cities of refuge for those who commit manslaughter).
Now, I have a sense that Dale, ToeKnee, Dick, et al, are already having a
field day with my position -- and I couldn't care less. The only man who
can ever judge my or any other woman's position on abortion is Christ Jesus.
I have miscarried a pregnancy in the first trimester, when most women who
miscarry do, and the thought that I would have had to produce some sort of
evidence that it was spontaneous, not provoked or sought out, is galling to
me. So is the hatred of women that some anti-abortion activists
demonstrate. No woman deserves to be hated for having made, or just
considering, a decision immeasurably more difficult than what any man has to
make. Far worse to me, of course, is the loss of what I consider to be
human life, but the feminist in me -- which, by the way, isn't at all
compromised by my position -- also deplores the horror visited upon women.
Not because of dubious links to breast cancer and cervical cancer, but
because a society that valued women and children would be a society in which
abortion is rare, women are supported and respected, children are embraced,
and irresponsible men are held to account. Check out the statements of some
of the turn-of-the-century suffragettes, many if not most of whom were
ardent feminists who decried abortion as an afront to women and children.
(I used to be a member of Feminists for Life, but I felt they were getting a
little weird. I ought to check them out again . . . )
There you have it -- as usual, I'm quite shy about my opinions.
keely
From: "Matt Decker" <mattd2107 at hotmail.com>
To: kjajmix1 at msn.com, nickgier at adelphia.net, vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Death Penalty Must Be Abolised
Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 21:06:08 -0700
Keely and Mr.Gier,
Two questions come to mind when reading your postings. 1. What would you
want if the most horrific crime was done to your loved ones.Keely lets say
your boys, or Mr. Gier your wife. Let's say they were raped, tortured,
mutilated, and killed. The evidence is 99 percent positive that the perp is
guilty. What then? Counciling and a waste of tax payers money? What about
when Bin Laden is captured? Hitler? Myself, I would do worse then what he
deserves. If you have the ability to forgive this crime, well your a better
person then me.
2. How can one condone the death penalty, but not abortion? Well at least
late term abortion.
There is no question that mistakes are made. That I believe should be looked
at threw the Judical system, or lack of.
Matt
>From: "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>
>To: nickgier at adelphia.net, vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Death Penalty Must Be Abolised
>Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 12:00:07 -0700
>
>Thanks, Nick. Horrifying and fascinating, and just one example of why
>capital punishment must be done away with.
>
>And for Christians who say that there's a biblical mandate for the taking
>of life as appropriate punishment for sin (remember, death by stoning
>wasn't just for murderers), I would point out the example of Jesus Christ.
>
>When the woman caught in the act of adultery -- in flagrante delicto, as I
>believe they would say at Logos -- he knew he could, within the law,
>encourage and participate in her death. He could have picked up a rock or
>two himself and cheered on the other punishers. He had the right, encoded
>into law for centuries. No one would have raised an eyebrow; plenty would
>have heaved the stones.
>
>But he chose not to have her stoned. He chose to not invoke capital
>punishment. He didn't break the law, he rose above it. By inviting the
>sinless among the crowd to be the first to pick up stones, he, as the
>omniscient God, knew that none would and that she would be spared. Spared,
>it seems, for something better -- not only the forgiveness and absolution
>of her sins, but also as a living example of mercy and justice personified.
>
>The story is not a primer on criminal justice, nor is it intended to be.
>It doesn't discuss how other sinners and lawbreakers ought to be treated,
>and it doesn't lay out a grid whereby mercy can be plotted alongside
>justice. It simply shows that what I and others have called "the Third Way
>of the Cross" is the path that brings glory to God.
>
>If Jesus could jettison the requirements of the law for a higher purpose --
>ultimate justice and mercy -- then we who trust in him can no longer cling
>to an absolutism that delivers automatic death to those who commit the acts
>leading, by law, to capital punishment. Murder and treason are horrible,
>terrible acts, but a thinking approach to punishment, justice,
>rehabilitation, context and mercy best reflects the Author of the moral
>code Christians claim the country was founded on. Let's not employ a
>selective allegiance to him that requires that we reach back to the Old
>Testament and brush Jesus away in our eagerness to extract "biblical
>justice" from the criminals and sinners in our midst.
>
>keely
>(a pro-lifer even for the already-born)
>
>From: nickgier at adelphia.net
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] Death Penalty Must Be Abolised
>Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 11:43:12 -0700
>
>May 3, 2006, New York Times
>
>Faulty Testimony Sent 2 to Death Row, Panel Finds
>By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
>
>HOUSTON, May 2 — Faulty evidence masquerading as science sent two men to
>death row for arson in Texas and led to the execution of one of them, a
>panel of private fire investigators concluded in a report released Tuesday
>in Austin.
>
>The report, prepared for the Innocence Project, a legal clinic dedicated to
>overturning wrongful convictions, was presented to a new state panel, the
>Texas Forensic Science Commission, created by the Legislature last year to
>oversee the integrity of crime laboratories.
>
>Barry C. Scheck, a co-director of the Innocence Project, said the report
>offered "important evidence of serious scientific negligence or misconduct
>in the investigations, reports and testimony of Texas state fire marshals"
>and called into question not just the two cases but also many others based
>on similar arson analyses.
>
>The nine-member forensic panel, late to start up and as yet unfinanced,
>"will review it and investigate," said its chairwoman, Debbie Lynn
>Benningfield, a fingerprint expert and retired deputy administrator of the
>Houston Police Department's latent laboratory section.
>
>The report examined prosecution arson testimony in the trials of two men:
>Ernest R. Willis, convicted of killing two women in a house fire in 1986 in
>Iraan, and Cameron T. Willingham, convicted of burning his home in
>Corsicana in 1992, killing his three young daughters.
>
>Mr. Willingham was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 17, 2004, after
>Gov. Rick Perry rejected a plea for a last-minute stay, once the courts and
>the State Board of Pardons and Paroles had declined to intervene.
>
>Mr. Willis was exonerated and pardoned on Oct. 6, 2004, and collected
>almost $430,000 for 17 years of wrongful imprisonment.
>
>The report says that prosecution witnesses in both cases interpreted fire
>indicators like cracked glass and burn marks as evidence that the fires had
>been set, when more up-to-date technology shows that the indicators could
>just as well have signified an accidental fire. In one case, the signs were
>accepted as proof of guilt, the report said; in the other, they were
>discarded as misleading.
>
>"These two outcomes are mutually exclusive," Mr. Scheck said. "Willis
>cannot be found 'actually innocent' and Willingham executed based on the
>same scientific evidence."
>
>Mr. Willingham's stepmother, Eugenia Willingham, who traveled to Austin
>from Ardmore, Okla., to attend a news conference about the report, said,
>"I've known it all along," adding, "I wish it could have happened before he
>was executed."
>
>To analyze the evidence, the Innocence Project commissioned five unpaid
>experts: Douglas J. Carpenter of Combustion Science and Engineering in
>Columbia, Md.; Daniel L. Churchward of Kodiak Fire and Safety Consulting in
>Fort Wayne, Ind.; John J. Lentini of Applied Technical Services in
>Marietta, Ga.; Michael A. McKenzie of the law firm Cozen O'Connor in
>Atlanta; and David M. Smith of Associated Fire Consultants in Tucson.
>
>In the Willingham trial, the committee found, a deputy state fire marshal,
>Manuel Vasquez, erred in tracing the blaze to an accelerant. The committee
>discredited his finding of arson. "Each and every one of the 'indicators'
>listed by Mr. Vasquez means absolutely nothing," the report said.
>
>A Corsicana assistant fire chief, Douglas Fogg, "seemed to harbor many of
>the same misconceptions held by Mr. Vasquez," the report went on. It
>concluded that the fire had been "grossly misinterpreted." Mr. Fogg did not
>respond to a message left on his answering machine. Mr. Vasquez is dead.
>
>Calls to offices in the Texas Fire/Arson Investigation division of the
>Texas Department of Insurance were not returned Tuesday.
>
>Other Texas arson investigators and a retired agent of the Federal Bureau
>of Investigation testified that the fire charged to Mr. Willis was also
>arson, the report said. One prosecution witness said fires were rarely
>caused by accidentally dropped cigarettes; in fact, cigarettes are the
>leading cause of fire deaths, the report said.
>
>Many arson investigators were self-taught and "inept," the report said,
>adding: "There is no crime other than homicide by arson for which a person
>can be sent to death row based on the unsupported opinion of someone who
>received all his training 'on the job.' "
>
>Texas leads the nation in inmates serving time for arson, the report said:
>666 as of 2002, the latest year for which statistics are available.
>
>Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Governor Perry, said the forensic science
>commission, to which Mr. Perry names four members, was the right body "to
>help the criminal justice system improve by establishing appropriate
>standards for labs and investigations."
>
>Ms. Walt said that minutes before Mr. Willingham's execution, the governor
>was faxed an earlier report by an arson specialist, Gerald L. Hurst,
>disputing the prosecution's arson testimony, but that Mr. Perry had no way
>of evaluating it after the courts and pardons board had turned down the
>final appeals.
>
>
>
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