What Purpose Does It Serve?
If there is an example of someone who should be worthy of the death penalty, John Allen Muhammad fits the bill. The D.C. sniper killed ten people in the fall of 2002 and terrorized the entire metropolitan area. I had just moved to Nashville from D.C. a month before. My parents, brother, and many friends lived in Maryland or Virginia. I recognized every location at which a shooting occurred, and was scared at the idea of my mom having to stop for gas. (You, too, Dad … but there’s just something about moms!) Outside activities were canceled. Children ran full-speed from the cars of anxious parents into school buildings. Those were long days of constant … and justified … fear.
Despite all this, I still cannot condone the death penalty. What purpose does it serve? Does it really bring closure? It will not bring the victims back. Should Muhammad have lived the rest of his life within prison walls? Absolutely. And, I would not have shed a tear if he met an unfortunate fate at the hands of his fellow inmates. I can’t support, though, the state-sanctioned murder of a criminal. We are alone among advanced nations in practicing the death penalty. I know that libertarians such as myself aren’t supposed to like anything that European governments do, but this may be an area where they have it right.
Maybe I would feel differently if I had lost a family member to the violence. I know that if someone ever brought harm to one of my children, I would not place money on that guy existing without extreme physical pain for very long. But, I just don’t like the idea of the government having the power to extinguish life.