Kristina's Journey to Life

Talking more about the death penalty, I did a bit of research as I was intrigued by the topic and it’s history and origins within humanity. The death penalty, I’m sure like all punishments for breaking the law, stands as a deterrent – something put into place to be carried out as punishment if one were to do or participate in certain acts and behaviors. Though… throughout the history of mankind, crimes are still committed and these deterrents do not show any relief in the amount of crimes existing. So then one must consider… if the threat of death or being put in jail for the rest of one’s life does not stop one from acting out certain behavior, is it really doing it’s job effectively? Or is there something else we are missing ? I mean to have the death penalty or life in prison be the reason that keeps one from committing a crime yet people commit crimes still… there must be something else we are not considering in terms of WHY certain behaviors exist. Though, from my perspe...

The other day I was sitting around with a few people and one person was reading/mentioning an article about a state that was considering bringing back the firing squad for an option in acting out the death penalty. This spurred an interesting discussion. One person mentioned that in such a situation of a firing squad, one person was always handed a gun that was a blank, yet out of all the shooters, no one knew which was had the blank and which one had the loaded gun. In this, it was so that the shooters did not feel guilty or have to face that they may have been the one to in fact shot the bullet that killed another human being. I thought this was absolutely fascinating – that it’s the concern for the shooters and their potential guilt and regret for participating in a firing squad, that one of the guns would be shooting a blank. Does this not in fact reveal how the very act of the death penalty, and the firing squad specifically, is not an act that is in any way righteous or ju...