What it means is that many people at 14 and 15 and 16 who were living a really crazy, rebellious, out of control lifestyle, are now 50 and mature human beings. We're still paying to have them locked up when they really could be making a contribution to society. The Death Penalty is a Spiritual Issue Bryan I regard the death penalty, in many respects, as a spiritual issue. You know, when we say we're going to execute somebody, we say their life has no purpose, we say their life has no value, we say they're beyond hope, they're beyond redemption. My faith plays a role in encouraging me to reject that.
Every life has purpose.
Every life has value. There's always hope for redemption. And because that's what I believe and that's what I accept and that's what I've always experienced, I've been representing death row people now for nine years. I've never met anybody who I thought was hopeless, who was beyond redemption, whose life didn't have any purpose or value. I know that somebody's committed a terrible, tragic, horrible, mindless act, but you're wrong.