Thou Shalt Not Kill

After nearly 50 years Stephen Truscott has been acquitted of a murder he did not commit. As a fourteen year old he was the youngest Canadian to be sentenced to "hang by the neck until dead" a graphic and grisly description of the form of execution to be meted out. Fortunately the death sentence was commuted and now he has been exonerated.

I don't believe in the death penalty for many reasons. There are miscarriages of justice which cannot be righted when the wronged persons are dead. But even when the perpetrators of the crimes have been fairly brought to justice the state should not be a murderer. I worked as a chaplain in Kingston Penitentary during my seminary days and I saw that some of those who committed heinous crimes came to the place of penitence for their wrongdoing.

Executing them might have brought some satisfaction for a few, yet capital punishment would not have brought back the dead victims, it would have removed the opportunity for repentance, and it would have made our society harsher. The United States is the only Western country which maintains the death penalty but there is little evidence there that capital punishment acts as a deterrent.

I have a button somewhere which asks "Why kill people for killing people to prove that killing people is wrong?" One of the Ten Commandments instructs us not to kill. This question and this commandment still make sense to me as a Christian.