Bunnells Jillian Pastor spikes the ball off the block of Stratfords Tia Anderson during their victory in SWC girls volleyball at Bunnell High School in Stratford, Conn. on Monday, September 29, 2014. HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP: Brookfield volleyball team wins five-game thriller Two Metro-North Railroad trains collided and one derailed at 6:10 p.m. Friday, May 17, 2013 in the vicinity of Commerce Drive along the Fairfield-Bridgeport, Conn. line. At this stage, we dont know if this is a mechanical failure, an accident or something deliberate, said Fairfield Police spokesman Lt. James Perez. As of 7:30 p.m., officials said there were 26 injuries, four considered serious. Metro-North engineer sues over Bridgeport crash Bruce Tuomala Danburys economic development director. Local panel asserts real estate recovery is broad A strong case can be made for the death penalty. The list of reasons that society should kill some of its most despicable convicted criminals includes both intellectual and emotional justifications. An even stronger case can be made against the death penalty. The list of reasons that society should not murder individuals who have perpetrated heinous crimes against society is even longer than the pro-death-penalty list, and it also includes both intellectual and emotional justifications. But after all is said and done, there is one compelling, overriding reason that Connecticut (and the United States) should ban the death penalty: Plain and simple, it is wrong to kill people. Period. End of story. That is the central and overwhelming reason that the Connecticut Legislature needs to pass a proposed bill that would repeal the death penalty and substitute life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. And that is why Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, unlike former Gov. M. Jodi Rell when she had the chance, needs to sign the bill into law. Nearly every one of us was brought up to believe that killing another individual is wrong. And yet we live in a state and in a country in which the government hypocritically puts people to death. We have all heard the arguments in favor of the death penalty -- an eye for an eye, closure for the family of the victim, possible deterrent impact, a bargaining chip for prosecutors. And who among us has not felt a surge of anger and a compulsion to seek revenge when hearing details of the most horrific crimes, such as those perpetrated in 2007 in Cheshire on the family of Dr. William Petit? But it is still morally wrong to take the life of an individual, no matter how despicable that individual may be. We have all heard the arguments against the death penalty -- it is cruel and unusual punishment, it is barbaric, it is more expensive than a life sentence, it doesnt really deter crime, our image in the world suffers because we have the death penalty. Again, while I happen to agree with all of those points, they are simply supporting evidence for the primary reason to end the death penalty: It is morally wrong to kill. Sometimes in life it is beneficial to take a look around and check out the company you are keeping. That is particularly instructive as a context for the debate over the death penalty. For starters, there are a growing number of countries that do not kill their convicted criminals, and non-death-penalty countries are in the significant majority around the globe. We need to look no further than to our neighbors to the north (Canada) and to the south (Mexico) to find major countries that do not have the death penalty. All across Europe, friends and allies have long since enacted bans on putting people to death -- from Ireland and the United Kingdom to Poland and Romania, from Spain and Portugal to Sweden and Finland. Germany, which for decades has been excoriated (with great justification) for being a monster that perpetrated unthinkable atrocities in the 1930s and 1940s, has not murdered its convicted criminals in more than six decades. The United States, which for most of its existence has been hailed as a beacon of light and hope to the world, continues to put people to death. We criticize some South American countries for being oppressive or in violation of human rights, but from Venezuela and Colombia to Argentina and Chile, nations on that continent have ended the barbaric practice of the death penalty -- while we continue it. And which countries share our philosophy that the death penalty is a good thing? Sadly, there are still several dozen countries on the list. Notable among them are Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Is that really the company we want to keep? Here in the Greater Danbury area, and in the state of Connecticut, we dont get to control whether the death penalty is legal across the United States. But we do get to decide if it is legal in Connecticut, and we need to jump on the current opportunity to end that horrific practice. I am hopeful that state legislators of both parties will agree that it is time to put a ban on the death penalty, and that Gov. Malloy will sign the bill. Plain and simple, it is the right thing to do. Art Cummings is editor of The News-Times. He can be contacted at 203-731-3351 or at acummings@newstimes.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 20:00:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015