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Saturday, November 19, 2005 Capital Punishment - Yes or No?Lately Australia has been in the local media of different countries all for the wrong reasons. We have Shapelle sentanced to 20 years for alleged "Drug Smuggling' and we have Michelle Leslie who has got off with a three month sentance, finishing now for having drugs in her possession. We have the 'Bali Nine' awaiting court proceedures and most likely the death penality and we have another young man sentanced to death on Dec 2nd for drug smuggling.These instances have caused so much heartbreak for so many people. The mother of the young man who faces death on Dec 2nd was notified by Registered Post. How heartless and cruel to be told in such a way. Where was the tenderness which should have been given to a mother who's heart was being torn and crushed. There was a time when I believed in the Death Penalty. But I'm not so sure now. Several years ago I watched 'Dead Man Walking' and was a sobbing mess by the end of it. I was identifying with the victims, then with the Sister, then with the Accused and then with the parents of both the victims and the accused. How would I feel if the victims were my own loved ones. Would I want revenge? How would I feel if the accused was one of my loved ones. Would I want Mercy? So often we only think of ourselves and not how the other party may feel. Corrie ten Boon comes to my mind. The agonies that she and her family went through in the Prison Camps. The abuse, the degredation, the humiliation, and yet, when she met one of the prison wardens some years later, God gave her the grace to extend her hand and shake his and tell him that she had forgiven him. Would I be able to do that? Definately not on my own,but with God's help and grace - I pray that I could. I also think of Joe Korp who hanged himself after it all came out about his wife in the Car boot (I'm sure that other members from overseas would have heard about it in the media). I had people saying to me 'serve him right', but all I felt was pity and sadness that he felt that committing suicide was the only option. Everybody deserves some compassion. # posted by shellymac @ 9:55 am 1 comments
Comments:
Thx for that post Michele; I'm definitely and resolutely against the death penalty - after all, we know what we all deserve, from God's perspective!
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From our human perspective, if Nguyen had been caught in Oz, he'd be looking at a few years in prison (6 or 15? not sure). But it wasn't a lot of heroin, and when you hear the reasons behind it, he was trying to help a brother who was beholden to some loan sharks. Having been brought up without a Dad, in a refugee camp in I think Vietnam, his background was not the best to make sensible decisions in such matters like you or I (or I trust, our privileged kids!). Not in any way wanting to minimise the evils of drugs. But severely punish the big guys, the little ones need teaching a hard lesson - but not with their lives. Some mercy, I say. Many years ago, I sat on a jury for a Thai peasant, who had brought heroin into Oz and was caught red-handed. His defence, very convincing, was that he had been duped and didn't have a clue what he was bringing in. Sounds fishy, but to be honest that poor peasant didn't have a clue about lots in life. Twelve people gave him the benefit of not guilty within reasonable doubt, and the judge warmly thanked us. Time the hard people in Singapore showed mercy to a fellow human being. |
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