Monday, October 16, 2017

I listened to an interview

 

It was with a 47 year-old man.  He said “I couldn’t join the military and fight for my country when I was 15.  I wasn’t mature enough.  I couldn’t vote.  They said my brain wasn’t fully formed.  I couldn’t buy a drink or even a pack of cigarettes yet.  I wasn’t old enough to be responsible.

 

But when I was 15 I made a terrible decision and killed another person.  I was tried as an adult and sentenced to spend the rest of my life in prison.  I understand that taking a person’s life is a horrible thing to do, but how is it that for every other thing I might have done when I was 15 I was not old enough to be responsible, but for that one thing, I am held responsible for the rest of my life?”

 

End quote.  This is me talking again.  I’m not in favor of the death penalty; I just have a logic problem with it.  “It’s so wrong to kill someone that we’re going to kill you if you do it.”  That doesn’t resonate for me.  I prefer something along the lines of putting the killer in jail for as long as the victim remains dead.

 

This however, is a different spin.  The thought of putting a person in prison for life for a decision they made when they were 15?  That’s tough.

 

 

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