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The humanity of the executioner
Q: Was the Utah attorney general wrong to use Twitter, or religious language, to describe an execution? With all our technology, are we losing sight of our humanity? Should matters of life and death be reduced to a tweet?
I suppose that any new form of communication runs the risk of trivializing its subject. When a life hangs in the balance, that becomes a more significant concern. I doubt that any public official would treat a life-and-death issue involving a soldier or a crime victim with a tweet. That observation (coupled with the apparent hostility in the message itself) leads to the conclusion that this tweet was intended to express contempt for the convicted prisoner Ronnie Lee Gardner. Should we be concerned that a public official who is charged with carrying out society's will that a person be put to death also expresses contempt for the individual? I think not.
My Church teaches that the death penalty should be reserved for the rarest of cases - only those situations when the society is otherwise unable to protect itself. That will virtually never be the case in the United States or most other developed nations. Nevertheless, we do have capital punishment, and we ask some people to carry out the executions for us. (By this, I mean decision makers from the prosecutor who seeks the penalty, the judge who imposes it, the jury which confirms it, and those involved in actually killing the convict.)
We tend to have the executions at night, behind closed doors and guarded prison walls. We have official observers, but we do not permit television cameras or viewing by the general public. It's kind of like meat-packing. Just bring it out after it's been wrapped in plastic. Don't tell me how it got that way.
When it comes to criminal punishment, that is flawed for two reasons. First of all, if punishment is meant to deter others, they must know about it. Studies that show little deterrent effect from the death penalty might be quite different if executions were held out in the open.
More important to today's discussion is that we as a society have asked people to carry out a horrific act on our behalf. We have asked them to kill a fellow citizen. That fellow citizen has, by the time of execution, been rendered harmless. The executioners are not killing in battle; they are killing prisoners. Yet, we do not see how this impacts them, because we see very little of the process.
As a society, we need to be aware of the humanity of both the executed and the executioner. Only in that manner can we truly assess the justness of our decision to have capital punishment
An expression of contempt by Atty. Gen. Shurtleff for someone that society has asked him to kill (or play a big role in having killed) is a mere reflection of Shurtleff's humanity. He would have to believe that Gardner deserved to be executed or he could not carry out his job.
It seems to me the height of hypocrisy to ask a fellow citizen to kill a convict for us but then to be concerned about what he or she says regarding the convict.
By
Ronald Rychlak
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June 21, 2010; 4:56 PM ET
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Posted by: shaheed-yahudi | June 27, 2010 11:14 PM
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"K A F i R" (A NOne iShmaeli/Esaui iSlami?)
"K A F i R"
"Kafir" "Kafir"
W H A T -- AN -- U G L Y -- W O R D(s)! Provoking!
"S A T A N i C -- V E R S U S" Yes? Or NO?
Worse Than The "N" Word That Was made NO Longer Usable in U.S.A Community (Ummah)et al.(Obscene like).
The (un) Holy Quran/Koran Needs To Get a Fixing, NOt only the Hadiths; 'aHaaBi-Bi's (Love's)! aye?
Posted by: shaheed-yahudi | June 27, 2010 10:44 PM
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"My Church teaches that the death penalty should be reserved for the rarest of cases.." Oh, really? It that the American Catholic Church or the official position of the Vatican?
"Your views of modern justice are coloring the way you've judged the Attorney General, who is human and has certainly made mistakes in the past."
Next you'll be making the same lame excuses for your priests who have a time honored tradition of helping themselves to the bodies of little boys. Will it be OK with you if they "tweet" during this, too?
Posted by: areyousaying | June 25, 2010 11:37 AM
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F I F A - W O R L D - C U P - 2 0 1 0:
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. Avidazane Germany, YA VOLE! Sun.May.27.10
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...................... GOoooooAaaaaaaLL !!! U. S. A.!
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. GOooooooooooAaaaaaaaaaaaLLL !!! U. S. A.!
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. Credits to "jj" @ http://onwapo.com
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Posted by: shaheed-yahudi | June 24, 2010 5:41 PM
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The real problem here is apparently the imputation of feeling given to a low emotion medium. I do not read contempt in these 140 characters. The Attorney General carried out his sworn duty and informed the public when it was done. He also asked the public to put the emphasis on the victims rather than glorifying the criminal.
It is reasonable to discuss the merits of the death penalty. It is also reasonable for us to recognize the humanity of our officials. It is in our best interest to seek for good, wise and deliberate leaders. Impartial officials who carry out their duty are a pre-requisite to our claims to a society that seeks "justice for all."
Your views of modern justice are coloring the way you've judged the Attorney General, who is human and has certainly made mistakes in the past.
Too much media attention defeats mans limited ability to seek justice and encourages others to attack society for attention. Use your time to work in your community to avoid raising immoral children so we can avoid this dilemma in the future.
Posted by: SpecKK | June 22, 2010 5:27 PM
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Credits To "jj" http://onwapo.com
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