After his ministry of being present with 95 inmates in the last day and moments of life, Rev. Carroll Picket has come out against the death penalty. Rev. Pickett is no softy. When he started this work he was for the death penalty. Hs own grandfather was murdered, and while he was still serving as the pastor of a church two members of his congregation were taken hostage and murdered at the same prison where he would eventually serve as chaplain at the death house. His views changed over time, and last night he emphatically said that everyone can change, everyone can be redeemed - that includes the inmates, but also himself.
Rev. Pickett's reason to be against the death penalty are varied. One important one is that he believes that some of the men killed are actually innocent and that the death penalty leads to the miscarriage of justice which cannot be taken back if new evidence is uncovered. Another reason is that it doesn't solve anything, that the death penalty offers no closure for the families of the victims. Another reason is that it doesn't work as a deterrent. Finally, Rev. Pickett just doesn't believe that killing is right ever. Pickett is no liberal and he doesn't have a lenient bone in his body - he wants people locked up for life with no possibility of parole in solitary confinement. In his view (and he has seen it) this is a far more threatening and feared penalty among the criminally minded than death.
Rev. Pickett ended his talk with asking us the question: Do you know what it says on the cause of death for those executed by the state? Death by murder. John Muhammed deserved to have life in prison, in solitary confinement, without the possibility of parole. Instead, last night while the nation watched, he was murdered.
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Rev. Pickett has no idea what he is talking about.
First, the death certificate nver says death by murder, with regard to execution. He simply made it up. Please fact check.
There is a huge moral difference between the murders comitted by Muhammed and the just execution of the murderer. If Rev. Pckett cannot understand the moral difference, my sympathies.
"Killing equals Killing: The Amoral Confusion of Death Penalty Opponents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/02/01/murder-and-execution--very-distinct-moral-differences--new-mexico.aspx
Anti death penalty folks have to want to get some honesty into this discussion.
"At the Death House Door" Can Rev. Carroll Pickett be trusted?"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/01/30/fact-checking-is-very-welcome.aspx
It should be up to the survivors of the murder victim to decide how the murderer is to meet his or her fate.
If it was up to me, a lifetime in a TV less, musicless tiny cell with pictures of the murder victims (my family member) set in resin plastered all over the walls would be my decision. Every day I would write a note to the murderer describing how nice it is to not be a murderer and how wonderful it is living freely.
Calling the execution of tried and convicted murderers murder, is in itself a crime against humanity.
Murderers believe in the death penalty.
You liberals peddle too much permissiveness for a civilized world to stay healthy. And it is the reason society is becoming more sick every day.
Something must happen to cause mental illness to make a person embrace liberalism.
I have tertiary syphilis.
Terri, you are so naive. To think that this scum would "think about what they did" the rest of his life. To the end he still felt he was innocent. These kinds of people have no remorse, do not think twice about what they did. You have got to not think of people like this in terms of your experiences, but rather in the dark disturbed reality that is their world. To say that he is mentally ill and should be excused and pampered for his actions is absurd!!! He had enough mental capacity to rig up a car to become a killing machine and go about killing 10 people. Yes he is mentally ill, but we should not excuse his actions but should respond in kind. Matthew 5:38
Anyone needing an argument against the death penalty can find it by reading the biography of Brother Jim Townsend. The title of the book is "The Prisoner"; it tells the story of how an admitted and convicted murderer became a Fransiscan Brother. His rehabilitation (rebirth, really) started only after he was doing hard time. The Lord can bring about such a change in anyone - if they will accept it. If we execute them, we have taken away their chance to become what God intends them to be while in this world.
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