Don‘t get me wrong. I am for abolishing the death penalty. Both death penalties, because LWOP is perhaps worse than a death sentence and both are obsolete.
I am not knocking my brothers and sisters on death row. I am with you and know your pain. But the folks pushing for universal LWOP sentences are crazy and that concept is beyond the absurd. If you only knew. You don‘t comprehend the sorrow and absurdity of your statements about giving LWOP. You offer one poison for another and think you have done a good deed. It is like instead of being bitten by a western diamondback rattlesnake, we let you be bitten by an eastern diamondback rattlesnake.
I am tired of death penalty opposed folks who aren‘t themselves serving a death sentence or a life without possibility of parole sentence spouting off on offering one as an alternative to the other. Personally, I wish I had gotten a death sentence. It is a known fact that then I would have gotten top-notch lawyers and most likely would have been out of prison by now. 35 years later, sitting here with life without parole is not living. It‘s death, as surely as the sea is full of life.
Reprinted with permission of Barbara Brooks, SJRA Advocate monthly prison newsletter.
There is also an article by Judith Tannenbaum in the same issue of SJRA Advocate on the same subject: "The death penalty and the other death penalty, An open letter to supporters of SAFE California Act"
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Spoon,
ReplyDeleteYour introduction says it all about not letting LWOP be a reality in the minds of inmates. "I have found that prisons are created internally and truly found everywhere... I have also discovered that the secrets to break down prison walls are INSIDE each person." LWOP may be a physical penalty but should never be a mental penalty. The reasons some organizations are pushing LWOP is for the anothers to stomach something because they will not get to kill inmates on death row. Most Countries that have abolished the death penalty have greater respect for life and treating people on LWOP with dignity. When aboolishment happens there is a psychological shift that happens in the minds of men. They are left with no other choice than being in the progressive of rehabilitation because that would be a great justice to society. The first objective for the March for Life and Justice is to stop the killing of human beings no matter how justified some wants it to be. Once the killing has stopped then the ones that are fighting for their innocence have hope that the clock is not ticking so fast. The guilty hopefully will now be looked at differently and it would be in the best interest of all people to help them understand responsibility, give them education, empower and show them they are are first life, human beings and love. Thank you for sharing your views.
Thanks,
Kurt