In USA Death Penalty is a very much used punish. Since 1976, 232 people have been executed in Texas in USA. George W. Bush became governor in Texas in 1995, and the last five years the death penalty has been used 145 times! Already this year 34 persons has been taken to the room of death in Huntsville... And the executioner still has a very busy working day, only this month these five people has been killed:

Wednesday  8.: Gary Etheridge (White), convicted for sexual abuse and murder.
Thursday  9.: Miguel Flores (Latin-am.), kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder
Tuesday 14.: Stacey Lawton (black), and a murder with intend to rob.
Wednesday 15.: Tony Chambers (black), abduction, sexual assault, and murder on a 11-year-old child.
Thursday 16.: Jonny Penry (White), rape and murder

The Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases. It is a punishment that is a symbol of a culture of violence, and not a solution to make the violence stop. More than 100 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. In contrast, the USA continues its relentless method that is an outdated punishment, which is an affront to human dignity and denies the human capacity for rehabilitation and reconciliation. But not all states in the US practices this punishment, for about 15 states have banned the execution of people who commit crimes as juveniles. But Arbitrariness, discrimination and error, as well as the inevitable cruel death punishment are words that characterize the US capital justice system.

The one who is sentenced to the death, the discretionary power of prosecutors, and the race and economic status of the murder, victim or defendant, has a much bigger meaning then it is on the heinousness of the original crime.

There have been 56 executions in the USA this year, and there will be many more if we don’t do something about it! It’s sad really, we don’t really have a good reason to kill them. And when we do, we are just as bad as they are, and the killing will never stop! …Killing is wrong, whether it’s me, you or someone else who are doing it..  (From the movie >>Dead man walking<<)

Yes, they have committed a crime, but does getting killed really punish them? After my opinion, is spending your whole life in jail a much better punish. Then they get the chance to regret what they’ve done, and not just get killed for it! It’s kind of a victory for the doomed ones, because sitting in a small room the rest of your life is much worse then just getting killed at once. And most of all, the only people we hurt by killing someone is no one but the victims family, and not the murder him self!

Doom them to death penalty I think is just a lame excuse to get rid of them! Is it because we’re afraid, or because we wish to tell the world that the human kind is unable to get improved?

Since 1977 739 people has been put to death in USA. Texas accounts for 253 of these executions, 14 of them have taken place this year. The last person executed in Texas was Gerald Mitchell, who was 17 years old at the time of the crime. His execution violated the international legal ban on the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by under 18-year-olds. Since 1977, Illinois has freed 13 innocent men from death row.

Emerson Rudd was less than a month past 18 at the time of the crime he was convicted for. This places his case outside the international legal prohibition, the principle that lies behind banning the use of death penalty for crimes committed by under 18-year-olds. – This was a mistake of a young person and it shows immaturity and capacity for change. This boy deserved consideration and compassion from the clemency authorities, but the US government killed him...

Racial phobia is responsible for the execution of a disproportionate number of African Americans in USA. While 43 % of executed prisoners were black, African Americans compose only 12 % of the national population. What does that say about the racism behind death penalty?

Nearly 1/5 of doctors in the United States is willing to participate in the execution of condemned prisoners by administering a lethal injection. The American Medical Association (AMA), the largest and most influential doctors' group in the country, is among the medical organizations that prohibit physicians from taking part in carrying out the death penalty.

Despite this a study the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that 19 % of 413 randomly selected practicing doctors questioned by researchers, expressed willingness to inject the lethal drugs into a prisoner. 36 % of doctors said they would be willing to be present to pronounce the prisoner dead.

In all, 41 % of respondents said they would be willing to perform at least 1 action relating to capital punishment prohibited by the AMA. Only 3 % of respondents were aware of any professional guidelines governing physician involvement in carrying out capital punishment.

I don’t understand why anyone could put the lethal injection on a person! ? The law says that expiate is a method to use so people will have a chance to change, but what does Death Penalty then tell us? That the human kind is unable to change?

……..No, killing is WRONG! And we got to stop it!

Dead Man Walking - The Movie

>>In the beginning of this movie, Sister Helen Prejean got a letter from a man in a death row, Matthew Poncelet. He was doomed for the murder and rape of seventeen-year-old Hope Percy, and the murder of eighteen-year-old Walter Delacroix six years ago. Now he wanted help to appeal so the state wouldn’t kill him, because when he got the sentences, he had no money so he couldn’t afford a good lawyer. The state had naturally given him one, but he was totally inexperienced, and under the trial he only objected once… It was starting to get urgent, because the date of his death was now set…. The 13th.

                        Sister Helen went to the prison to visit him and spent hours daily talking to him, hoping he would admit what he had done. But he didn’t, and the appeal was denied.

Matthew was a cold man with no feelings and didn’t seem to have any form for regrets. He had had a difficult childhood, and his father wasn’t really the best in the world.. At the age of 12, his father took him to a bar and they both got drunk! Later when he was 14, the father died. That was when he met _________, which also were convicted for the murder and rape of the young couple. Fortunately for _________, there wasn’t enough evidence to give him Death Penalty, so he was given Lifetime and Matthew Death Penalty…

Sister Helen became his Spiritually Adviser, which ment that she had to spend his last hours alive trying to give him salvation.

As the last days went by, Matthew was interviewed a lot of times, and he said stuff like Hitler was a good man, he did what needed to be done. Matthew also made it pretty sure that he was a racist, and killing him was wrong because “he didn’t do anything!”

Sister Helen was strongly disliked because she tried to save Matthew from the death, and not even talk to the victim’s parents. She said she didn’t make any excuses for what Matthew had done, but she thought killing a person was wrong no matter what!

The last day she and Matthew talked a lot before he spent his last hours with his family. At this point Matthew was so full of regrets, and afraid to die, that he finally admitted the murder of Walter Delacroix and the rape of Hope Percy. This was the salvation Sister Helen had waited for, and now he was free to go to heaven. The time was there, Sister Helen had to step out in the hallway because the guards were coming to take him away…

The most degrading thing for Matthew was that he wasn’t even allowed to walk out from the cell with his own boots, but most of all; he couldn’t give his poor own mother a goodbye-hug….

 The victim’s parents, Matthews’s mother, Sister Helen and his lawyer sat by and watched Matthew slowly fall to sleep while they sat the Lethal Injection…

  Matthew Poncelet’s last words was:

- I don’t want to leave this world in hate. Mr. Delaroix, I’m ashamed to be the man who took your son away from you. Mr. and Mrs. Percy, I’m really sorry for what I’ve done, but I wish to tell you all that killing is wrong, whether it’s me, you or someone else who are doing it.. I just hope you can forgive me.

-          I love you mama. >>