Til death
May 16, 2013, 2:54 PM | Updated: 3:13 pm
At 10:30 Thursday morning, 12 of our neighbors will assemble to decide whether or not they should kill someone.
The someone is Jodi Arias and the 12 citizens make up the jury that is charged with determining her fate. If it were up to you, what would you do?
Now I know that some of you, who have not been in the same room with her, whose only contact with her has been on a wall-mounted flat-screen TV, are quick to say, “Kill the monster.” Of course, your words would be that much more convincing if you were holding a torch and marching on a castle. But, why not execute her? She did it. She killed Travis Alexander. And, she did it in a state where capital punishment is allowed.
Why wasn’t that a deterrent? Why didn’t the fear of execution prevent her from committing the crime? Perhaps, a murderer will take a chance because lethal injection is so humane. Who’s afraid of going to sleep? Ah, but if we went back to burning at the stake or disembowelment, that would cause a criminal to stop and think. Now that’s what the jury has to do.
I’m Pat McMahon.
