Here's Why I don't Believe in The Death Penalty!

Writen By Linda Mains

Let me begin by stating; "I have never, and don't believe in the death penalty!" I can't even step on a snail, without, feeling badly...so how could someone like me, who picks snails off the ground and throws them into the nearby ivy. So how could I, ever be able to tell anyone, to throw the switch, or let the toxic-death, martini, drip, into someones veins, killing them, hopefully, painlessly, and with some kindness. Now, if you knew, that tomorrow you where going to wake up, and 16 hours from then, prison guards would lead you down a long pathway, to a table or chair...or, in some countries maybe at the end of a rope, your life would end. Knowing that your life, was about to be snuffed out. Would that end, in some way, maybe, be kinder, then how you might really die, if you where allowed, to live out the rest of your days? God says; "vengeance is mine?" If you really believe in an all powerful God, that sees and knows all; "do you really believe, that he'd let anyone, get away from killing a life, that was created by him?"

Now cancer is a horrible disease, and I have had the unfortunate luck, of seeing, two people die from this. One was my dad's friend. She was reading a book, being prepared to die...she knew; she had 3 months left to live, and she told me all about death and dying. I've always loved, talking to people. So talking to her, about how she felt, gave me some insight, into the human psyche. She told me that, she had accepted the cards, that had been dealt out to her, and that there was nothing, that any person, could do for her to help. She told me, she knew she was dying. She also worried more about the people, that, she was leaving behind. She also was worried about herself and her final moments. I didn't blame her, at that time I was only 19 years old, and I couldn't even begin to understand, what she was going threw.

 Now my kids fathers stepmother, also died from lung-cancer. Now, she really fought it, tooth and nail, with everything she had. And I had had my son, a week after they had told her...that that was the week, that she was going to die. My son was born on that same week. She should have died that week! She held on and fought to stay alive, just to see my son. It was the kindest, weirdest, saddest thing...which I've ever had to see or do. Sense, I was a new mother, I was really uncomfortable about, bringing my new baby, around death. At first I thought, it would be a bad omen, to bring a new born, into a chamber, that was surrounded by death. It was really weird! I did it anyway...even though, my family didn't want me to bring the baby, into such a negative environment. He was at that time, only a week old. I threw caution to the wind, and figured, if my baby's father's step mother, needed to see my son. Just so she could move on, to the next plain. Then so be it! We took the baby to see her. It was 1991 at the time, and it was in her house, turned cancer room. She had tubes in her nose and I.V's in her veins, and all she wanted was to hold my baby. It still brings tears to my eye's, that she held on for an extra week, just to see him. So, I helped her hold him, because, she really didn't have any strength left, to hold him herself. After I took him back from her arms, the nurse gave her some more pain killers, and she fell into a coma, and slipped into death.

So is having your hour picked for you, better then, having a creator, or...as many call him Death, pick that hour for you? It amazes me, but this one man said, at first when he arrived on death row. He thought he'd be dead in 5 years, now 26 years later, he's still alive. So they let him adopt a cat...but isn't a house or an apartment, just an over glorified prison-cell, to a certain degree? He had a bed, a book-shelf, a dinner table or table, a throw rug...his cell was like a single apartment. Many in today's society are shut-ins, how is their life's, any different, from the death row inmate? Well, I guess one was chosen, or was it? Do you really think, someone, would actually chose, to be a shut-in? So the inmate, just like the cancer patient, to some degree, really doesn't know, when the cancer or the jailers hour, is going to do either of them in. Like the man said, he waited 5 years. The whole time he thought, he was going to be executed by then. He wasn't! Now 26 years later, he's still waiting to die. Now with cancer, people don't always die right away, a lot of times, their cancer goes into remission, they get better. Then only God knows why? The cancer usually comes back, and they get sicker, sometimes, they go into remission again...only to find out...years latter, that deaths long bonny fingers, has finally found a grip on their lives.

My dad has a friend, that has cancer, and because she's an immigrant, who's not entitled, to what citizens are entitled to. She has had to go threw Chemo, and then go to a full-time job, sick! It's cool, because, she takes care of an old lady, and then does some light house work. But she is basically a care giving friend, to this lady, that she cares for. Now she had cycle cell anemia, or...some kind of cancer of the blood, that turned into the worst one, called Leukemia. Which sucks, because, any cold can kill her! So my father and I, are always hugging her, I always say hi to her, she's the friendliest, nicest, person that I know. Who just has bad luck, when it came, to having cancer. But when I hear that men, are led away in chains, still in 2011, an executed. I understand why. All I'm trying to say is, "did we prevent them from dying, a worse death, then the death that these jailers had picked out for them?"

I was watching the Discovery Chanel, one night, in Porto Rico of all places. There was a segment, that was talking about how people died, from heart attacks. Now this is what that segment said, almost word for word. It said, that at first when you have a heart attack, the blood backs up in your lungs. So you start drowning on your own blood! Then because your lungs are full, you can't scream! That 2 minutes or 3 minutes of suffering, before you start losing consciousness, can feel like an eternity, or...as they said, it could feel like 15 minutes or so, before you die. Lets say one of those inmates, was going to face a worse death, like a heart attack, a stroke, or some horrible type of cancer...but because, of his imposed death sentence, he was given a humane ending. Which was actually a lot kinder, then the ending he would of had, if he had been allowed to live out his life.

A prime example of that, is the woman who killed Sharon Tate, now, I believe, she was sentenced to life imprison...now while serving, she came down with the worst cancer of all. I believe it was brain cancer, it's one of the worst ways a person can die! But look what she did, she stabbed a pregnant lady, while the lady was begging, for her unborn baby's life. This monster killed her anyway, and then cut out her baby, and tied the baby's umbilical cord, around the mothers neck. It was one of the most vicious murders, in American history.

If she would have been executed, for her unspeakable crimes, she would not nearly have suffered as much, as she did, with brain cancer. I think, what death had planed for her, was, much, much, worse...then what any executioner, could have done to end her life. And that's exactly, why, I don't believe in the death penalty. Exactly, what is mercy, and what is punishment? And which of us, are willing or qualified, to be the executioner? I don't believe, that anybody, really gets away with anything! Everything we do wrong, we pay for in this life! So, I believe, people should be made to pay for what they have done, but not with their lives! Why? Because killing is wrong, and revenge killing is even worse! I understand why society's, have to have executioners, but is it wrong, to try to extract revenge, on someone, for a life that can never be brought back? I really believe, that it is wrong, and there is no way, to justify a life for a life!