this news was an eye catcher for me:



Musumeci said he was tired of dying a little bit every day.

We want to die just once, he said, and "we are asking for our life sentence to be changed to a death sentence".

It was a candid letter written by a man who, from within his cell, has tried hard to change his life.

He has passed his high school exams and now has a degree in law. But his sentence, he says, has transformed the light into shadows.

He told the president his future was the same as his past, killing the present and removing every hope.

Italy inmates seek death penalty
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6707865.stm





On June 6, 2006 the senate of the Philippines abolished the death penalty by a 16-0 vote. Even senators who supported the death penalty voted for abolition, in effect conceding that the death penalty experiment had failed, replacing it with a sentence of life without parole sentences or 40 years in prison, depending on the offense.
http://www.ecpm-us.org/ getinformed_featurednews_philippines_abolition.shtml

i know that many filipinos prefer capital punishment over life sentence.

i hope to get views here..

On June 6, 2006 the senate of the Philippines abolished the death penalty by a 16-0 vote. Even senators who supported the death penalty voted for abolition, in effect conceding that the death penalty experiment had failed, replacing it with a sentence of life without parole sentences or 40 years in prison, depending on the offense.
http://www.ecpm-us.org/ getinformed_featurednews_philippines_abolition.shtml

i know that many filipinos prefer capital punishment over life sentence.

i hope to get views here..
[/quote]

Hi linsi,

i think Filipinos are just too religiously inclined that they don't want death penalty to be the answer for every hideous crime done by a person.

personally i dont like death penalty. its like an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth things. with my young mind and a heart of a Christian, i always walked my life under the guidance of the words of the Lord. i know its hard to forgive people who done hideous acts to your family and they should be punished but death penalty is not the answer for that. let the criminal suffer and think it all what he/she have done and let his conscience hunt him down.

for example if a person killed my dog (coz i loved my dog and its just an example ) i just want him to rot in the cells and not to punish him by death penalty. he also have a family and relatives and i don't have the right to take his live away from them. if i chose to punish him by death penalty i will be like him (a murderer) or more than a murderer. i hope you got the point killing him will not bring my dog back or bringing justice into it. you are just punishing the person who done a murder by doing a crime to him which is also a murder.

well i live with this bible verse:

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES,
BLESS those who curse you,
DO GOOD to those you hate you, and
PRAY for those who despitefully use you, and persecute you
THAT YOU MAY BE THE CHILDREN OF YOUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN(Matthew 5:44-45)

Good day to all forumers!

When Linsi rised the question, I started to answer, then I cancelled it. Why ?

As a Christian, I think that God gave us birth and no one human has the right to put an end to it.

In another way, for what my country is involved, a lot of killers, specialy of children, and rapers do it again when they got free from jail.

Do we have to do : respect the live of everybody or the life of potential victims ?

Help me to choose

Hello to all,

this issue was raised again in last few days in my country to, as the trial to murderers of prime minister Djindjic were sentenced to 40 years - maximum penalty.

One of ministers from last government publicly stated here regret that there is no more death penalty. Point is that last government, which she was part of too, voted for cancelling of death sentence.

Anyway, I'm too against it. However, I'm also having same thoughts as Jacques:

Jacques wrote:

QUOTE:

Do we have to do : respect the live of everybody or the life of potential victims ?

Help me to choose

I prefer respecting the life of potential victims, and so I would choose a life sentence without parole.

Hi Rafael,

In fact, me too. If I have to privilege between the life of a killer and his potential victims when he will freed, I prefer to protect the innocent potential victims

I am strongly against death penalty not just because of what the Bible says or what our respective beliefs dictate but also because it hasn't really served its purpose and that is to lessen the occurence of crime in the country. Not to mention the fact that most of the time, only extremely poor and powerless "fallguys" get to die... no prominent corrupt politician, no manipulative, distabilizing top military brass, no scheming, financially-backed terrorist.
I never was a fan of death penalty because it was like gasoline on a fire of incompetence and dishonest placement of influence within the judiciary system. It just made the stench worst.
A much more severely strict and transparent law enforcement backed by honest serving of justice within the correctional system will more than suffice. What is doing time for a rich personality when he/she has an airconditioned cell and all the unnecessary amenities at his/her disposal right?
Whatever the punishment, justice must be served first and foremost.

linsi wrote:

QUOTE:

perhaps easier said than done specially
when our dear families are well and has
never been under such horible experiences..

this is true linsi and i just realized it just now.
just want to share you what happen today..
6:00am (Philippine time) i woke up because of a gun fire and by the shouting and screaming of my mom. the sound that i heard at first i thought it was just a firecracker but the voice of my mom shouting is not just an ordinary shout that she always do everytime she wakes me up.

my friend's dad was shot at the head just this morning. after i hear the shout and screaming of our neighbors i run out from our house and check whats happening and i was shocked what i saw. my friends dad is bathing with blood while his brother is holding him so i rush to them to help coz all of our neighbors was shocked. and i shouted "@#$%^& (sori for the charcters coz i said a vulgar word) start that freaking van!". i checked the pulse but theres no pulse even my younger sister who was studying nursing checked also the pulse but we didnt feel. then they rush him to the nearest hospital.

my friends dad was one of the head in a government agency wherein they "demolishes" "squatter areas" in certain area in manila, and one of the witnesses said that the killers where the people who was once thrown from their places coz they where "squatters"

my friends dad was a good man. i saw my friend's younger brother shocked on the street. the incident happen at the store near our house and my mom was there and was just one to two steps away from my friend's dad when the incident happened.

the streets gone wild coz all of our neighbors came out from their home some of them are crying, some of them are angry but most of them are sad because of what happened. on that spot where i looked at the body it is clear to my mind and to my heart the he was dead already and i felt im so useless that i cant do anything! i wish i have this power like in the TV series "Heroes" wherein i can bend time! but i cant and never will be.

when i went home and to get ready for work even i was taking a shower i felt in my heart the anger and i want to take revenge and i want those people to be killed also but in my mind is a shady cloudy question "do they deserve death" i told to myself they deserve more than death!

on the way to work, the picture of the body and the blood of my friend's dad still hunts me then i remember what linsi wrote here on the thread that it is "easier said than done"

with or without death penalty crime will still be there no matter what. the bible teaches us and guide us on how we should scale what is good and what's not. on the issue of killing, we should be aware that we dont have the right to take others lives.

and now my mind is still shaded of this dark clouds of thoughts and my heart is screaming for justice and revenge.

P.S.
to AO admins. i dont know if my post is correct or not but if it is wrong its ok with me if you'll delete it.
I'm sorry guys if i posted what happened today. its just posting thoughts of mine in forums and in anything is my way of how i express what i feel right now.

oh my! i had a double post! <br><br>Post edited by: stormrage10, at: 2007/06/06 03:37

hi stomrage

sorry to hear about that, it was dreadful.

i have my own story to tell in response to yours
this happened when i was in the nursing school.
one of my classmates' life was also included in
manila film &quot;marikina files&quot; that was 1994-
when rape terrified metromanila.

she was actually in the school of midwifery
where we have common subjects in maternal nursing
that time,during summer, she worked as a counter
staff in the cindy's cakeshop in Isetan Shopping
Mall, Recto. I don't know if cindy's still
exist now.We often go there to window shop
and dine and always drop-by their shop to greet her.

there was a time she stopped studying just
to raise money for the next school year's enrolment.
and that afternoon, after seeing her i bade
her goodbye- she waved and smiled as i found
my way out of that mall.

a week later, the local newspaper flashed
her name- she was raped and murdered in marikina.
chills ran down my spine, we were in the
school canteen when we were all shocked and
terrified.she was declared missing for several
days and was found dead and raped.

that was also the time we have night
shift duties from 11 pm - 6 am
in maternity centers in marikina
where we have to take pedycabs to reach
the health centers-travelling
through dark alleys and streets
i was so petrified.

the whole class went to their house
I found her remains, she doesn't
look like the old cheery, fine young
lady we once knew.she was bloated,
signs of strangulations and a victim
of violence. i never thought that our goodbyes
one afternoon would be the last.

i grieved for days and asked myself
where justice could be? (my prayers were fervent)
after two years, the criminals were
caught, prosecuted and convicted-

It was not clear to me wether they
were given capital punishment because
i was out of the country at that time-

.



<br><br>Post edited by: linsi, at: 2007/06/06 20:18