Electrocution is being proposed as the sole means of execution, thanks to two of our fine members of the Florida Legislature. Meanwhile, health care services are delivered for the purpose of preserving health, and otherwise to prevent and delay death. As health care services continue to be available to the general public, inmates have a right to health care services as well. However, for those on death row, receipt of health care services may prove to be a tease.
House Bill 325, filed by Representative Brad Drake & co-sponsored by Senator Don Gaetz (whose districts run west of Tallahassee), proposes that lethal injection be replaced by electrocution! And the rationale behind this change is what, again?
To read my article, click on the above title (How would you choose to die?)above.
2 comments:
I was once for the death penalty. It seemed at the time the right thing to do. You kill somebody, you die.
I hold this view no more. First it was because of the financial impact to the state. When you consider the years (decades) of legal battles for appeal after appeal after appeal, with a last-ditch effort for clemency, that whole process gums up the court system with a wasted effort and costs a lot of money. It would be cheaper to leave them in jail with a life sentence than it would be for them to die a few years earlier on death row once you figure in all of the costs to the government.
Second, I now have a greater appreciate for life, yes even the life of a criminal. Not that I want them free, but alive they can serve as a witness to others that might be going down a dark path. They have the time to reflect on their lives... to reflect on what they did... and an opportunity to seek redemption. No, they'll never be able to take back what they did, but again they might convince another person to not go through with the same thing, thus saving the lives of people in the future.
It's sort of like the people that have long/life sentences because they were the drunk driver that killed the family of four, but they lived. They don't recall what happened, but they came to know what they did in the days after. Judges often make it part of their sentence that they have to speak to groups of people that may be at risk of drunk driving themselves. They essentially tell them "Don't do it! Look at me! You DO NOT want to be where I am!" If that convinces even one drunk to get a ride home, to sober up before heading home, or to not drink at all (being responsible), a tragic accident may be avoided. We'll never know about the accidents that don't happen, but you can be certain the responsible actions by that person certainly increase the odds of avoiding the accident.
More than that, let's consider the value that a person have in seeking redemption. These people may do bad things, VERY bad things, but there is still a chance to save their souls, even if their body rots away in prison. Once killed, there's no longer any chance for that person.
I recall the life of Saint Maria Goretti. She died days after her neighbor, Alessandro Serenelli, attacked her with the intent to rape her. She was 11 years old, he was 20. She would not submit, however, protesting that what he wanted to do was a mortal sin and warning Alessandro that he would go to Hell. She desperately fought to stop Alessandro from abusing her. She kept screaming, "No! It is a sin! God does not want it!" Alessandro first choked Maria, but when she insisted she would rather die than submit to him, he stabbed her eleven times. The injured Maria tried to reach for the door, but Alessandro stopped her by stabbing her three more times before running away.
The wounds penetrated the throat, with lesions of the pericardium, the heart, the lungs and the diaphragm. Surgeons at Orsenigo were surprised that the girl was still alive. The following day, twenty hours after the attack, having expressed forgiveness for her murderer and stating that she wanted to have him in Heaven with her, Maria died of her injuries, while looking at a very beautiful picture of the Blessed Mother.
Alessandro was captured shortly after Maria's death. Originally, he was going to be sentenced to life, but since he was a minor at that time the sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison. He remained unrepentant and uncommunicative from the world for three years, until a local bishop, Monsignor Giovanni Blandini, visited him in jail. Serenelli wrote a thank you note to the Bishop asking for his prayers and telling him about a dream, "in which Maria Goretti gave him lilies, which burned immediately in his hands."
After his release, Alessandro visited Maria's still-living mother, Assunta, and begged her forgiveness. She forgave him, saying that if Maria had forgiven him on her deathbed then she couldn't do less, and they attended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Communion side by side. Alessandro reportedly prayed every day to Maria Goretti and referred to her as "my little saint." He attended her canonization in 1950.
Serenelli later became a laybrother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, living in a monastery and working as its receptionist and gardener until dying peacefully in 1970. The final point being, everybody deserves a chance at repentance.
Post a Comment