Yeah, coming into the light does lift a weight from your shoulders!

Welcome.

It's the strangest thing. I feel cleansed somehow.

Love love love ya!

With all of the people that have been on death row and exonerated because of faulty evidence, corrupt prosecution, and DNA evidence there's just no way I will ever be willing to take a chance on executing an innocent person. If that means someone guilty avoids the death penalty then so be it.

The state has no business killing people.

How's the road treatin' ya?

They told me there was no weather where I was.

Sit if it's the best option.

6:21 and done for the day

Be good

...that those seeking human vengeance might just be wrong as to which is the more severe punishment---- watching one's entire life count down one boring day after another with little to do other than ponder it all versus a quick death.

and now you're on the correct side of an issue.

I felt the same when I went atheist.

Sagan quote.

I adored that man.

Welcome to DU, 63splitwindow!

...definitely a good man.

work firewall is blocking the body of your post.

called "aftershock". it shows how the DA, detectives, etc. reacted after watching someone put to death. you can catch it on re-runs.

The name of that episode fit it perfectly, in more ways than one.

I don't support the death penalty, period. It has nothing to do with the possibility an innocent person might be put to death, but with the entire idea of compassion for fellow humans. So you might guess that I also don't support a kind of prison experience such as those in the so-called Super Max prisons, or a totally inhumane incarceration in isolation.

Yeah, I understand that some people are not very nice human beings, to put it mildly, but I still feel this way.

In case it matters, I have never really known anyone who was murdered. Actually, I have known two or three, but they were people I didn't know very well, or found out about the murder many years later. So I never had a strong emotional connection to a murder. If that makes a difference.

Speaking as someone who has taken a life and seen many lives taken, I still do support the death penalty in some cases. I may get heat for saying this but I've seen people who were so far gone and could be the definition of evil incarnate, do horrible things. As weird as it sounds, it was almost compassionate to put them down. I realize some may take issue with my wording, it's just a very hard subject to explain with words alone. Nonetheless, I am happy that you have found an inner peace. Congrats to you!

I don't know that I could ever go back "there" again.

I don't begrudge you your opinion... I just no longer agree with it.

Ending a life is something that shouldn't be taken lightly. Im just glad you've found your inner peace with this. Being sure of ourselves always helps to strengthen the core of who we are and leads to better decisions.

He is completely against the death penalty since, I can't remember which exoneration, several years ago. I've been against it nearly all my life. The very idea that an innocent person could be, and has been, put to death is enough for me.

when people ask why I'm against it. I also tell people that it costs more to execute someone than it does to house them. That seems to resonate with conservatives.

So many people wanted her exonerated - but George Bush, governor at the time would not grant a stay of execution.

in the case of war crimes: waging aggressive war, crimes against humanity and genocide or attempted genocide, all where there is an indisputable paper trail. I really want to see Cheney hang. Kissinger too, for that matter.

For those crimes and NO others.

I jumped from an airplane (figuratively) tonight, and came down on NEVER.

For me it's a religious conviction. What part of "thou shall not kill" in the ten commandments is not understood? Let God do the smiting, I say.

A person wrongfully imprisoned can be freed. A dead person cannot be un-killed. However a rightfully convicted person gets the rest of their life to reflect on their wrongdoings. Someone who's sentenced to death may not receive that pleasure.

And good that you're feeling good too

Someone I've never seen before struck up a conversation. We were watching the soccer OOPS football game. I don't even know how it came up, but after the conversation, and buying each other drinks/shots for a while we saw the prison escape thing.

My life has never been changed by so few words.

epiphany you experienced.

Really cool!

Congratulations to you on getting past the horrific idea of the state being authorized to kill people. Alas, there is an abundance of that outside of the crime/prison system, and our country and the military-industrial complex that has grown into a major cancer on the earth and that cares more for profits than human life is a major player in this. Beginning with Reagan we have been steadily spending the good will we might have won (if not wholly earned) in WWII via our subsequent criminal acts.

I hope that you use all your good karma for the greater good. It is a great relief to let go ... congratulations. Today is a good day for you and your spirit.

Maybe I never truly thought about it enough and I had a sort of enlightenment several years ago and have been against it ever since.

I also sat on the fence for a while.

but finally realized that it wasn't about justice- it was about vengeance. Welcome to the anti-DP crowd

It wouldn't make me feel any better, and it would just rip open the wounds again.

*hugs you*