DEATH PENALTY: You kill someone, and you get killed back. Is that really our philosophy, America?

And I'm being dead serious with this title.

From the time I was a child and I read in an article from the early 1900s where my great-great grandmother's ex-husband, Tom Harris, was hanged in Gaffney, SC (I believe he was the last person to be hanged in Cherokee County, SC), I was always mortified by the death penalty that our country has for hardened criminals. I mean, we've had Jack The Ripper, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dalmer, Timothy McVeigh, Malvo (the DC sniper), and Stanley "Tookie" Williams, just to name a few of the murderers that have either been executed or were set for execution.

Many folks love westerns such as Bonanza and Gunsmoke. Maybe that helped bring in the persona that folks who "kill" deserve to "be killed" themselves. I won't even get started on war movies and shows such as M*A*S*H. It just seems that especially in conservative red states such as Texas, if you kill a person in cold-blood, you have given yourself a death wish.

Personally, I do not think it should be the state's responsibility to end the life of a murderer. Granted, I understand that it's rough on the family, friends and other survivors. However, that type of self-defense is not going to bring the murdered persons back. Furthermore, it is inhumane, hypocritical, and non-Christian to simply put someone on death row for 5-30 years and then kill them. Doesn't it say in Exodus "Thou shalt not kill", one of the Ten Commandments? If Christian folks are making this law, what is the rationale and motive? This certainly seems like a poor example to be setting.

I've always been a proponent of rehabillition and second-chance. Granted, I don't think some folks can be rehabillitated and should remain in prison or a mental institution for life. However, that doesn't mean they should necessary be murdered themselves. That is NOT even trying to help that person, irregardless of the crime.

Certain laws may try to further justify the death penalty by saying how they have soften up the method of killing that person. After hanging was declared cruel and unusual, the electric chair became popular. However, that actually was much more ineffective, and folks have lived through this execution. Then lethal injection and the gas chamber came about, with the former being the preferred method for execution. Killing is still killing though!

Now don't get me wrong, even the death penalty has an exception. I'm not talking about if a prisoner is sooo dangerous that he/she manages to escape, and even hurt fellow inmates, guards, etc on a regular basis, and that is the ONLY recourse (think Gerard Butler's character in the movie "Law Abiding Citizen"). It should NOT be the main objective for someone who commits violent crimes though.

Generations are changing, folks are becoming more open and liberal to alternative punishment (the older folks would say they're getting softer). I say they're getting more compassionate. At the end of the day, these folks are human also. I do not condone violent, heinous crimes by ANY means. However, there are other solutions available. We just have to be creative, have an open heart and mind, and get to work on these alternatives.

Meanwhile, I wonder if children will continue to play Hangman? That is actually how Wheel of Fortune originated. I admittedly loved that game, but given my thoughts on the death penalty, find it hard to play every now and then. It is more fun than, say, a lethal injection game. Maybe that's another reason it's so hard for folks to let go of the death penalty, who knows?