Timothy McVeigh

Tim McVeigh was exeucated on Monday, June 11, 2001 and was pronounced dead 8:14AM EDT. Some people may wanted him dead and some may have protested. Killing 168 innocent people because he was a "sick" man. Our government makes the killing of others illegal. However our government kills a man because he killed someone, in this case 168 people. Isn't our government killing someone too? How come they can kill people? The police could attack an innocent man because they are racist? So does this mean that when a murder is made by our government that it is OK?

Jeff Wong who is against the death penalty.

[Anne Lam]

I think the "a life for a life" mentality that the American government and society has should not exist. Executing Timothy McVeigh doesn't not justify anything or make it any better. His execution only added one more tragedy to the incident, and I don't think the families of the victims will actually feel "better" that the person who killed their loved one is made to cut short his life purposely. This is wrong and this practice should not continue.

P.S. I am sorry to sound like a political maniac but this really bothered me.

[Matt Leese]

I came to a simple conclusion when thinking about the death penalty recently. In a civilized society, no one should be killed. As we'd like to move towards a more civilized society, we shouldn't be killing anyone. Hence, there should be no death penalty. That makes sense to me, I don't know about anyone else.

Matt

[Carolyn Duncan]

I think the daeth penalty is EXTREMELY situational. Would it be better for Tim to sit in an air-conditioned jail cell, watching cable television, and getting better medical care than some people may get who are not in jail. I'm not entirely for or against the death penalty, I think it depends. I personally don't want to have my tax dollars spent on some criminal to get better things than some of the people who have done nothing wrong. Some of the people living on the street were once soldiers who protected our country in war, shouldn't we spend the money on them?
C~ya,
Carolyn who doesn't want to sound like a raving politician.

[Joe Johnson]

When I was younger, I was sure that the death penalty was right and just.

Now I am not so sure...

Part of me worries about taking an innocent life, but that does not cover the many other cases where guilt is not in doubt and even in these cases I have found myself arguing against a death sentence. Beyond this even, I wonder about the consistency of a thought process that is concerned about killing someone while I sleep undisturbed by the fact that it is just as possible (and in fact more probable) that innocent folks are living a life of hell behind iron bars.

While I am convinced that their are some crimes that do in a sense "deserve" death, that does not obligate us to carry out that sentence.

We need not match their voilence with voilence of our own.

Let them live.

My faith tells me that there is another judge reviewing the case. I will let that judge have the final say.

Joe J.

[Mike Soukup]

Up until a few years ago, I believed the death penalty was appropriate, but have since changed my mind. But I'll save my moral & political speech for another time

I get really upset when I hear the media say that McVeigh's execution would help the healing process for victims or famliy members. It's inconceivable to me how taking someone's life can help ease the pain of losing a friend or relative. All of the relatives I've heard on TV have said that the execution didn't help at all. There is an empty spot in their hearts, and nothing can be done to relieve their pain. I wonder when people will realize that you can't fix pains caused by hatred and violence with more hatred & violence.

Mike

[Joel J]

Only two people have the right to take a life, but presently you can't see them. If a man takes the life of another, he should be punished by the law, but it should not lead to his eventual death. He will receive the absolute punishment in due time.

~Joel trying not to get too religious....

[Becky Allen]

How much punishment was it for McVeigh to be put to death when he stated that he was ready and wanted to die? Just a thought....
Shouldn't there be a more productive way to punish someone?

-becky

P.S.
I believe that the U.S and Japan are the only two "first-world" countries that still implement the death penalty. Obviously there are other options.

[mike o'leary]

i am against the death penalty...but part of me thinks that maybe timothy mcveigh deserves it...
but then again, i figure that if he got life he woulda probably been killed in jail in a couple of years anyways...

[Matt Leese]

Here's something that I found interesting while listening to the radio today (I listen to NPR sometimes, so sue me :-p ): in the case against one of the bombers of American embassies in Africa (I'm not even going to try and spell his name), the jury refused to give him the death penalty because it was felt to not be terrible enough punishment. Basically, they said it'd be worse to give him life in prison without parole than to give him the death penalty. I found it interesting to say the least.

Matt

[A. Leese]

Originally posted by jOelster
Only two people have the right to take a life, but presently you can't see them. If a man takes the life of another, he should be punished by the law, but it should not lead to his eventual death. He will receive the absolute punishment in due time.

I agree with Joel. McVeigh will receive his just punishment. I am against the death penalty for that reason. Yes, he should get some punishment for his wrong, but the taking of his life just gives us too much power over other human beings.

Living in prison for the rest of one's life, from everything I've heard, is much more difficult than taking their life. Emotionally taking someone's life will always be more just punishment in my eyes.

~Angela who could never be on a grand jury in Florida

[David Kelly]

Please noone take this personally. these are my opinions. I think he should be executed and brought back to life at least 168 times for each person he killed.

Say hello to "Sparkie"


attachment deleted to save space.

[Andy A.]

Why are we so worried about punishing this guy?

Ok, maybe he's a little off the deep end and beyond therapy, I'll give you that. But why not listen to him? His views arn't unique, and he obviously belived them. Thing is, The US is very unpopular right now, both at home and globably. We should at least try to understand why.

For Tim McVeigh, to be a warrior in a comfortable, commercial, bourgeois culture was to be profoundly out of place. So in his mind he started a war. That someone could be unhappy with both the culture and the government of America seems not at all odd to me; I am, frequently. What we should be doing is trying to understand what drove him to do what he did were most people would protest, or imagine this, vote.

But of course we can't now, we killed him. We sat him in a cell for years telling him every day that we were going to kill him, and then we pumped his body full of drugs. Theres nothing humane about killing. It is Cruel. Sadley, its not unuseal at all in this country. I think this we need to learn the diffrence between justice and vengence.

I don't know who said this, and if anyone does please say so:

An eye for an eye leaves the world blind. -?

-Andy

[Brandon Martus]

Originally posted by Andy A.
I don't know who said this, and if anyone does please say so:

An eye for an eye leaves the world blind. -?

-Andy

Mohandas K. Gandhi

sources:
some poetry site and Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...world+blind%22

[Christina]

I have never understood how the government can say, "it's wrong to kill someone" and yet do it themselves. I remember, back in Junior High School, I had signed a petition, to not have the death penalty return to New York State. I have never believed in the death penalty. I don't see how it solves anything by killing someone. Killing Timothy McVeigh will never ever relieve the grief those familes are feeling, nor will it ever come close. And if there is someone out there, that feels so much better now that he is dead, does that make that person any better than Tim? Doesn't that make them hypocritical? I mean, Tim obviously believed in what he did, and he had his reasons. And so would the grieving relative or friend. And really, that puts them on the same wavelength. If someone killed one of my family members, I wouldn't want that person dead. Yes, I'd want them to pay for their crime, but it doesn't make me any better than a murderer to want that person to die because of it. It wouldn't bring me any "peace of mind" nor would it make the hurt stop at all. Timothy did a horrible thing. I will agree with that. He deserves to be punished. But, who are we to say, he deserves to die? Who is the government to say, he deserves to die? I don't know, I just don't see how this can be considered "just punishment."

~Christina ºoº