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Can someone tell me if the Democratic Party platform takes a position on the death penalty? I know that Clinton's position on this was terrible.
I'm a former prison guard in NC and I've been to death row several times. I became an activist because of the group People of Faith Against the Death Penalty
Iraq, Syria, Iran and China all have something in common with the United States... something Great Britain, France, Canada, and most other Western states do not. We kill our criminals. State sanctioned homicide is popular (nearly 80% of Americans support capital punishment). We execute retarded criminals...and insane ones ...and minors. While some states still rely on the noose and the firing squad most use lethal injection, a form of execution akin to having a mad dog "put to sleep."
I look at Christians and I can not understand why anyone who also considers himself to be a follower of Christ can support capital punishment. Jesus himself was executed by a legal tribunal under the applicable laws of the day. When Christ saw a crowd about to execute a woman he commanded the would be executioners to select one from their numbers who was without sin to cast the first stone. In the sermon on the mount Jesus instructs us to turn the other cheek and to love our neighbor as ourself. The outstanding feature of Christianity is forgiveness. Those right wing zealots who wrap a bible around their narrow political agendas can quote the old testament all they want. They worship a different God than I do.
The death penalty does not lower the crime rate. If it did Texas would be the safest place to live in the US. Capital punishment is not cheaper than life imprisonment, it's more expensive. You can let an innocent man out of prison. You can't resurrect him if you've killed him.
In every argument about the death penalty that I've gotten into someone inevitably asks, "Well what if someone killed your daughter..or wife...or son?" That's not the way we should make laws in this country. We need to shed the portion of our heritage that causes our infatuation with guns, violence and death. We can leave that to Iran, Iraq, Syria, and China.
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