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.
No comments:
Post a Comment