Sunday, December 12, 2010

My Opinion On The Death Penalty

I believe that the death penalty should not be legal, but on some cases it should be. The only time you should put them to death is if it’s a horrific crime. Not just something like a drug deal gone bad. Something like a planed out murder. Or the way the killed them was horrible. For instance:
I read about this women who killed her two children! She apparently stabbed them to death while they were sleeping with her downstairs. But her husband and infant son that were upstairs sleeping did not get harmed. There were cut marks all over her, which were self inflicted. She told the police she saw only a back of a man fleeing the residence. Soon enough, the police came and arrested her and got charged with the murders after making inconsistent statements to the police. See, that’s sick. You don’t kill your own children and get away with it. That was on purpose, obviously. So it’s a good thing she got the death penalty.
Now this person is a good example, too, that should be put to death. This man’s name is Gerald Eldridge, and he has been convicted in the deaths of his former girlfriend, her 9-year-old daughter. He broke into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment, shot her  daughter while she was sleeping on a couch. Then returned to the living room, and shot his own, natural, 7-year-old son in the shoulder. After that, he chased his ex-girlfriend on a stairwell outside, shot her outside the apartment to death as she begged for her life. That’s pretty sick if you ask me. People like this should definitely get the death penalty.
But, in other cases, like this one, should NOT have to be put to death. This man’s name is Velez Manuel. He caused the death of a 1 year old child by striking the victim’s head on a surface or object unknown. He was arrested that night and brought to a jail. See, this isn’t as bad, but still bad. They have no proof that it was him. He should just get life in prison, instead of his own life. 
I believe that the death penalty should raise it’s limits on what you have to do to get the death penalty. It shouldn’t just be that since you killed someone or you’re a suspect of the crime that you should die. But that’s my opinion.