Die If You Want To !

      In his article, An Argument for theDeath Penalty ACC blogger Tavar  Mark Conditt voiced his opinion in support of the death penalty. Using a case, presented by Todd Robberson, a writer for the Dallas Morning News, Conditt  argues why convicted murderer George Rivas’ execution was justified and well deserved. While I agree with Conditt that Todd Robberson is not an expert on the topic of death penalty, I do not agree that as a writer he cannot voice his opinion on the George Rivas death penalty case. Robberson was strong in his conviction, and clearly articulated reasons that would ensure “that the killer will indeed stay alive and be forced, every single day of his natural life to confront the fact of his crime”

Like Robberson, I believe that an eye for an eye will not stop the daily insensitive crime that is destroying our society although I realize that many times we are dealing with the devil.Yes I agree with Blogger Conditt “ that living criminals harm and murder again - executed ones do not.” However, it is important to note, that the executioner has botched evidence and presented incompetent witnesses. Statistics show that the State of Texas has one of the highest rate ofexecutions in the country. Since 1982, Texas has had 482 offenders with hundreds more on death row, including wrongly convicted victims. While that was not the situation with George Rivas' case, several of these “convicted criminals”  have been innocent minorities who were not able to afford adequate representation.

      It is good to know that as a convicted criminal on death row, George Rivas felt “like an animal in a prison.”  He and others like him “will spend their entire long lives, knowing that they will never, ever set foot outside a prison. They will never enjoy life on this planet as a free person. I want them to suffer in the blank, bleak unyielding solicitude of incarceration, for the duration of their natural lives. Then Die.”

   But instead of suffering as he should like an animal in a prison, and “confronting the magnitude of his crime” George Rivas is enjoying the freedom that he and Mark Conditt so desperately wished for.