<p>The injustice is having to wait so many years to kill Mohammed. The other injustice is that Malvo got off of a death sentence because the US Supreme Court pretended it was a legislative body and passed a law prohibiting a 17 year old from being executed. Good riddance to Mohammed. May he rot in Hell.</p>
<p>More support for my previous statement that executions don’t bring closure to survivors of murder. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that brings closure when one loses a loved one so tragically.</p>
<p>"arratt, Virginia (CNN) – Justice fell short with the execution of Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad, one of his victims’ survivors said after witnessing his death by lethal injection.
Muhammad died silently Tuesday night in a Virginia prison death chamber filled with lawyers, lawmen and his victims’ survivors.
After the execution, Steven Moore said he thought about Muhammad’s accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, who received a life sentence for their crimes.
“Well, myself, I wish Malvo was right there beside Muhammad,” said Moore, whose sister, FBI analyst Linda Franklin, was gunned down in Virginia. “They both committed the same crimes. No, I don’t feel any closure. I mean, it’s … it … nothing changes.”</p>
<p>[D.C</a>. sniper’s execution met with grief, bitterness - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/11/virginia.sniper.execution/index.html]D.C”>D.C. sniper's execution met with grief, bitterness - CNN.com)</p>
<p>" I’m pretty confident that in a situation where there was no doubt of guilt and in which the crimes were heinous, I could do it. I wouldn’t be “surrendering my humanity at all.”</p>
<p>Have you considered the fact that the murderer you’d execute probably felt just as justified in killing someone as you’d feel in pushing the button or needle to execute the murderer?</p>
<p>And for those who are religious: Jesus was legally executed.</p>
<p>My bf, who you could call an evangelical Christian, who is vehemently against abortion for any reason, is pro death penalty. You can ‘turn the other cheek’ only so many times before you are beaten down.</p>
<p>As far as the death penalty not being a deterrent to crime. Well, if you are determined to be a rapist or murderer, then maybe knowing you will die for your crimes doesn’t matter to you, but for the average folks, this is a deterrent. In fact, just knowing I could go to jail for many minor offenses is enough to keep me from a life of crime.</p>
<p>yes, there ARE evil people in this world and nothing will stop them. That doesn’t mean we can’t punish the worst of the worst with death. OTOH, I am against the death penalty unless there is absolutely NO chance that the person is wrongly accused. I know that happens and I favor ALL forms of science, etc that can prove innocence.</p>
<p>my opposition to the death penalty is based solely on the fact that, unfortunately, the justice system does make mistakes occasionally. we often see stories on 60 minutes, etc. where an inmate is released years after conviction based on new evidence. </p>
<p>obviously, this doesnt really apply in this case. Mohammed’s guilt is not in question. </p>
<p>that said, all convicted murderers should have NO chance of parole. I guess i’m saying i’m willing to pay to keep people like Mohammed locked up so we dont incorrectly execute an innocent person.</p>
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<p>My support of the death penalty for heinous crimes / shooting sprees of this sort (where there is no doubt as to the perpetrator) has nothing to do with trying to bring closure to the relatives of the victims. We don’t institute punishments in this country based on the wishes of the relatives of the victims, whether those be “I forgive him, let him go free” or “I want him to suffer a slow, painful death.” That would be a horribly inequitable system if we took their wishes into account.</p>
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<p>So what? The difference is, the murderer was (presumably) killing someone who was minding his or her own business or happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and hasn’t wronged society. Your analogy doesn’t work for me at all. Just because they are the same physical act (in a sense) is irrelevant.</p>
<p>It’s the same physical act if I push you into the street because I want to put you in the path of dangerous oncoming traffic or if I push you into the street because there’s a piano about to fall on you from above, but they aren’t analogous situations.</p>
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<p>Exactly. Criminal laws are set by the State not by the wishes of a victim’s family. It is important to listen to the wishes of the victim’s family but the reality is that the family does not speak for the victim who is dead and the transgression was not merely against the victim’s family, it was against the State. In a just society, judges have to apply criminal laws with some consistency regardless of the wishes of the victim’s or the defendant’s families.</p>
<p>I don’t usually support the death penalty, but in this instance, good riddance.</p>
<p>Of course, I’m from the DC area, and I have vivid memories of what he did to all of us in terms of fear and disruption, as well as what happened to his victims. I am hardly an objective observer.</p>
<p>I lived for about a decade in D.C. and have many friends and family in that area. Mohammed’s murders there started shortly after I had spent a summer in D.C. I empathize with the terror and grief that people in that area felt and the anger and grief they still feel. Still, I am against the death penalty. I would rather that he had suffered life in prison with no chance of parole. I’m disappointed that he had an easy death instead of having to die alone in prison after a long illness.</p>
<p>It’s pretty simple for me. I just think that state sanctioned death is morally wrong and I think that every execution lessens us and the distinction between us and the murderer. I know that sounds silly to many but it is just how I feel. I live in Maryland and changed by behavior because of the killings. I had stopped at the service station where one murder occurred just a week or so before and had eaten more than once at one of the restaurants so it was all around me too. That doesn’t change the way I feel though.</p>
<p>I love what you said in your second sentence there, cartera.
My 7th grade DD and I have been discussing this execution a lot over the last 48 hours (as the news were banging on it) since she has been researching youth death penalty and life in prison for her debate class not that long ago.
I feel very strong about the death penalty and similarly to you believe that by executing we lower ouerselves to the standard of the perpetrator.
I love the way things are handled in Norway. But I know that they have much more money than we do ;)</p>
<p>Kelowna, I remember having those discussions with my D. She came home from school after a discussion about the death penalty and was surprised to learn that I was against it. She had decided she was for it because if someone hurt me or her grandparents or friends, she would want them to die too. She then asked why I wouldn’t want someone to be killed if they killed her. That was a tough question to answer. I told her that I would likely want that person to die and that is why it shouldn’t be my decision. I finally told her that I thought she would change her mind at some point. I don’t recall discussing it again, but just this weekend while I was visiting her at school, she was reading about the execution and she said that the thought of executions made her feel sick.</p>
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<p>[Families</a> of DC sniper victims celebrate John Allen Muhammad’s execution](<a href=“http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/11/11/2009-11-11_families_of_victims_of_dc_sniper_rampage_.html]Families”>http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/11/11/2009-11-11_families_of_victims_of_dc_sniper_rampage_.html)</p>
<p>Sounds good to me.</p>