Juvennille Death Penalty
I still remember the day clearly. It wasn't what he had done that changed my mind at first. It wasn't even the verdict. It was the moment of his actual death.. seeing & hearing about it on television.. that made me firmly re-think my own beliefs on the subject and endorse the death penalty for juveniles. On January 5, 1993, behind a wall where I imagine he may have heard the voices of people cheering outside, Westley Allan Dodd was hanged by the state of Washington. He wasn't a juvenile .. but his death made me understand why juvenile murderers should be equally subject to capital punishment. I realized at that time that the people parading outside were not sadists. They were merely displaying their agreement with the verdict and the sentence. They opened champagne bottles and set off fire crackers not because they were simple minded but because they wanted it to be over. Families waited for justice and it was within arms reach. I understood how someone could want a minor -- an older child -- dead.. The people demonstrating believed -- as I had come to-- that Dodd was a sadistic psychopathic pedophile incapable of empathy, that his greatest fear was being 'a nobody,' and that he had successfully manipulated us into making him 'a s
And so, at this stage of life, my beliefs on this issue are set. I once thought in simple terms .. death was wrong-- lengthy rehabilitation's made sense.. All of the "ethical" hoopla that righteous anti-Capital punishment activists threw around made sense to me after only cursory examination. But Westley Allan Dodd's hanging was a real "wake up call" -- one that made me really think the issue through and agree that the death penalty works .. serves a greater good .. and should not, by any means, be limited to the adult capital offender. Clearly, death for juveniles who would be put to such is older only makes sense as juveniles will most likely only "get worse" when exposed to an adult prison population as prisons are notorious for being crime schools and young boys are targets for rape. However, this would not be a factor on death row. Further, from what I know, polls on this issue are not necessarily a true reflection of public opinion as this is a hot button issue where people don't want to appear cruel. Perhaps a mom is being polled when her fifteen year old son enters the room loudly and she cringes at the thought of him being erroneously arrested. Further, people are not adequately informed and questions are too general. If a particularly brutal crime had been described perhaps the results would have gone the other way. At the same time, if an adolescent could be successfully rehabilitated, then perhaps the death penalty would be cruel. If we knew that Johnny could become a model citizen after undergoing a particular course of treatment, certainly his life should be spared. While groups I've heard about such as Amnesty International will continue to oppose the practice, particularly for young people, the debate will never cease. I'd be the proverbially "first" to admit that no one can prove
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Approximate Word count = 1228
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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