The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Murder is murder, two wrongs don’t make a right

    By Sara Patrick
    Editor in Chief

    According to an article by Associated Press Legal Writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins, an Ohio inmate was injected with untested drugs during his execution, which led to over 20 minutes of pain and agony before his death. His lawyer, Allen Bohnert, argued against the new method of execution, stating that the drugs could lead to “air hunger.” This phenomenon became a reality for Dennis McGuire, 53, when he gasped and snorted during the longest Ohio execution since capital punishment was resumed in 1999.
    How would you feel having to suffer for a prolonged amount of time, gasping for air while people sit around watching you die?
    This new method of lethal injection was clearly morbidly painful, and it could even be classified as cruel and unusual punishment. When I read about this lethal injection, I was horrified that our justice system thinks this is acceptable.
    According to the AP article, Ohio state Assistant Attorney General Thomas Madden noted that although the U.S. Constitution bans cruel and unusual punishment, “You’re not entitled to a pain-free execution.”
    Personally, I don’t think anyone on earth deserves a painful death. One of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shall not kill,” and there are laws making murder illegal to make sure you know it’s wrong whether you’re religious or not. Murder is a heinous crime. I am always disturbed to read about killings or hear about them on the news. It’s a sad part of our world that people kill each other, but murder isn’t the only crime taking place in the world.
    Issuing someone the death penalty for a crime is like playing God. The justice system is taking life into their own hands and deciding that it is OK to tell a doctor to kill a man. What they fail to realize is that only God has the power to judge like that. Only God has the right to decide how a man dies, painful or not. When the justice system steps in and sentences murder as a punishment for murder, how does that make things any better? If it is not OK for a person to kill someone, then what makes it OK for the justice system to kill them as a punishment?
    McGuire was convicted for the rape and murder of pregnant newlywed Joy Stewart in 1989. As monstrous as his crime was, it does not make him any less human than any of us. Many people would argue that a murderer deserves a painful death, but I have to disagree. It is my personal belief as a Catholic that McGuire and every other murderer and rapist out there will face judgment day. On that day, I believe God will decide where they will spend their afterlife: in the bliss of heaven or suffering to pay for their sins.
    I know not everyone is religious. I also know that not everyone who is religious is against the death penalty. But being pro-life, I am a strong advocate against the death penalty. A person is a person, even if they have a mental problem that leads to them hurting others. What McGuire did was absolutely disgusting, but if we want to teach people that killing is wrong, then murder is not the right way to do it. After all, two wrongs will never make a right.
     

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