I have seen the best of Mudcat and the worst of Mudcat. This thread goes more to the latter than the former. We have a fella who is against the death penalty talking about whupping someone. Aside from sounding very foolish, he further goes on and calls a man who brutally murdered folks and bragged about it, who threw acid on guards, and had a death row conversion, a hero. What's wrong with this picture?

We have others rejoicing in state sanctioned murder, and acting as if it is fair, even in light of the DNA project of the near recent past.

The only folks with any credibility are folks like SunnySister who simply oppose the death penalty. I do as well. Here is why.

The maturing of society should equal growth in our laws and our national conscience. The inability to understand that killing someone because they killed someone is insane. Second, it has been shown time and again that this punishment primarily hits folks that can't afford big time lawyers. It is not meted out in an impartial way. I would much rather attack the root causes of the violence, and get the publicity for that cause, than publicity over someone like Tookie. Another problem with it is that there is no way to correct a mistake. Once they are dead, mistakes such as the type that caused the conservative Republican Governor of Illinois to suspend all executions, cannot be rectified. Death penalties, if we are to have them, must have a burden of proof that is beyond all doubt.

Spare me all this "Tookie was a hero" horseshit. He was a cold blooded killer. He bragged about the gurgling sound the family made when he shot them in the back. When you tell me that we should weigh his life after his conversion, I say OK, but only if we balance it with his deeds prior. This man started an organization that is responsible for untold misery, and deaths. He broke the law, was convicted by a jury of his peers, and suffered the legal penalty. I would prefer that he be put in a cell with no room to sit down, and be forced to work at hard labor for the rest of his natural life. No TV, no special privileges, and prison fare to eat. That would be a punishment that would be far worse than death.

The death penalty is barbaric, doesn't deter anything, is nothing more than revenge, and lessens us all when it applied. To sit here and try and act like this criminal was a hero takes away from the legitimate case against it.

And by the way, Bobert, I love ya and all ...... don't care much for Arnold ...... but he would whup yer skinny ass.

Mick