From: kebarnes@memstvx1.memst.edu
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: A Stolen Life, A Dying Soul
Date: 28 Dec 92 14:56:43 -0600
Organization: Memphis State University

In article <nate.990@psygate.psych.indiana.edu>,
nate@psygate.psych.indiana.edu
>(Nathan Engle) [Our intelligent-liberal-in-residence] wrote:
>
> sbooth@lonestar.utsa.edu (Simon E. Booth) writes:
>]I read this and was sickened by it.  All I've got to say is that's what
>]the death penalty is for.  I honestly hope those three killers get the
>]gas chamber, no appeals.
> 
>     I read the original post, but my reaction was merely to be saddened. 
> Perhaps my study of history has inured me to violence, but it's difficult 
> for me to get too overwrought about individual cases like this one.

Reminds me of a quote (don't infer insult from this):
"A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths
is a statistic."--Joseph Stalin

"Uncle Joe" [The Great Satan] knew whereof he spoke.
 
>]Call me crude, but something must be done.
> 
>     I think that your gut reaction may lead you to wish for something less 
> than purely poetic justice. IMHO the most appropriate thing that could be 
> done would be to throw those three guys and a case of A1 sauce into a cell 
> with Jeffery Dahmer. (There you go, Simon, you weren't nearly as crude 
> as me)
> 
> Nathan Engle                        Software Juggler

What are we to make of the case of Wesley Allan Dodd, convicted serial
child rapist-murderer in Washington state who says he wishes to
be executed by hanging, since that is what he did to the 4-year-old
boy who was his last victim?

I find it discouraging that the ACLU wishes to contest this proposal,
and that the only way it seems for someone such as Dodd to be put
out of his own misery and everyone else's is for him to request that
the execution be carried out, ala: Gary Gilmore's request for a
Utah firing squad.

It also seems curious that liberals who would no doubt fight for
Jack Kervorkian's right to kill, would have any qualms about seeing
this man die, who has violated the civil liberties of the innocent
in the most extreme way. Though I may not agree with Rush's strict
"pro-life" position on abortion, he has a point about the effect
of the cheapening of human life which is brought about by rampant
abortion, and even euthanasia, in a society where the unjust taking
of life goes unpunished in many cases.

Does execution deter?
If we were to execute any criminal who murdered while committing
another felony, we could have our answer. If there were fewer
murders associated with the commission of felonies, the effect
of such a law could readily be demonstrated. The necessity
of convicting the accused twice, first of the felony, and then the
capital murder charge, should add an extra measure of protection
against executing the innocent. It would be a good experiment to
try, and might ease jail overcrowding :-}.

How we should deal with the juveniles in this particular case
[Bob Greene's column] is a far more difficult question.

Might we simply delay executing them until they are adults,
mercifully granting them at least a fraction of their lives?
Or, can such children be "rehabilitated"? Are child criminals
any more capable of "rehabilitation" than adults?

Accepting for the sake of argument that these children became
"soulless" thanks to their parents, or their environment, what
can be done to help other children who are similarly endangered?

For the sake of the victims now, and in the future, our national
"soul" must be found, and healed. And fast. 

[Standard disclaimers appply.]

-- 
*.x,*dna**************************************************************
*(==) Ken Barnes, LifeSci Bldg.                                      *
* \'  KEBARNES@memstvx1.memst.edu                                    *
*(-)**Memphis,TN********75320,711@compuserve.com**********************
"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged
to stick to possibilities, Truth isn't."--Mark Twain