Just after 12am last Friday the following "tweet" was sent out:"A solemn day. Barring a stay by Sup Ct, & with my final nod Utah will use most extreme power & execute a killer. Mourn his victims. Justice"
A few minutes later:
"I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution. May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims."
And finally:
"We will be streaming live my press conference as soon as I'm told Gardner is dead. Watch it at..."
Those messages were sent by Utah State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff immediately before and after convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner was gunned down by a Utah firing squad.
Is it me or is there something ghoulish about announcing the state-sanctioned murder of a man on a thing called "Twitter?" The logo for Twitter is a cute little smiling bird for crying out loud! Oh, and next to these "twats" about the man who was just gunned to death is a photo of A.G. Shurtleff grinning like an idiot.
I'm not a fan of the death penalty. There is something inherently...well...I don't know...something inherently un-Christian about the death penalty. It seems so Old Testament and I am more of a New Testament kind of guy and Jesus couldn't be more clear about peace, love, and forgiveness. I guess there is one state sponsored execution in the New Testament but...well...you know the cross and all.
Today I read an article by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield. He is also not a fan of the death penalty but admitted he was oddly tolerant of the firing squad:
If citizens really long for the death of another human being, then let it be as messy and horrible as taking a life really is. And if doing so bothers us, perhaps we shouldn't be executing the person at all!
We have used technology to avoid the ugliness of execution for a very long time. First it was the electric chair which was supposed to be "more efficient" than hanging. Now we send in teams of people dressed in white coats who in a macabre parody of hospital procedure, strap someone to a gurney, hook up an IV and let the "drugs" do their job. If that isn't twisted, I don't know what is.
Was Gardner a psycho killer? Absolutely. Am I suggesting they should have given this lunatic a second chance? Absolutely not. Do I mourn for the death of this man? Not really, but we should always be sad when a life is taken prematurely no matter the circumstances. I hope I never hate someone so much that I rejoice in seeing them die.It must be the social worker in me but Gardner should have been locked up for his crimes never to see the outside of a prison again. Now that is the punishment that keeps on giving. Instead they gave Gardner exactly what he requested, execution by the firing squad.
2 comments:
Good points! I sway back and forth when it comes to the death penalty.
But what about the whole doctrine of having to have one's blood spilled in order to be able to obtain forgiveness for murder in the hereafter?
I can't believe they were twittering the death. I worked that night and the office is right across the freeway from the prison. They had a place set up on our side of the freeway for media and a place for the family and people protesting the death penalty. It was very odd to see this group of about 20 people huddled together in the dark waiting for their family member to die in 50 minutes.
I think (I can't really decide) that I am against the death penalty because it does not accomplish anything. The victims are still gone.
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