Earlier this year, Robert Holsey was taken to court on charge of murdering a police officer. He was tried, found guilty, and placed on death row. There were many adverse factors that lead to Holsey being found guilty. One of the major factors was that his lawyer was drunk while the trial was being held. It was later found that he drank a quart of Vodka every day during the trial. With this now know, isn't it possible that Holsey was incorrectly accused of murder? Could the trial have come out different if Holsey's lawyer wasn't drunk during the trials? Would the punishment have been different if the jury knew during the trial that Holsey was abused so harshly during his childhood that his neighbors referred to his house as "The Death Chamber?" These are some of the questions that raced through my mind as I read about this incident. Holsey was just another one of the 3,000 plus people that were on death row since the start of this year. I would like you all to consider this as you read on: Is it morally correct for us to justify a murder with another murder, even if the guilty party is actually guilty?
There are thousands of people that the U.S. government has executed for committing capital crimes such as murder. The American Judicial Court System is based on one party proving another party wrong, not finding out what actually happened. For this reason, multiple people are sentenced unjustly for crimes they have not commit. Weather they were purposely framed by another or they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, these people are found guilty and suffer unjust consequences. The most serious of these cases are those involving capital punishments that are punishable by death. You are probably reading this from an impersonal stand point. But what if that person was you? What if you knew of your innocence but were unable to prove it due to an incompetent lawyer or many other factors? Most of the people who are found guilty and put on death row have lost everything, their family, friends, and all the others who believe in the guilt due to an erroneous trial. How would you be able to go on? It is difficult to understand this as a third party, but we must place ourselves in the shoes of those who are on death row and try to understand. Imagine how you would feel knowing exactly when you were going to die, how, and because of a crime you did not commit. I want you all to truly, sincerely, and honestly think about what that would do to you. And this applies to people who actually DID commit the capital crimes. They also run through all the emotions of an innocent person. Weather a person is guilty or not, is it still correct for us to do this to them?
Isn't it scary knowing that this happens to multiple innocent people every year? How do they feel? Imagine its you, who is standing in the court room with bright hope in your eyes that shatters like a plate when you see the disproving looks on the jury's faces. Hearing the sharp crack of the gavel as it condemns you with a smirk of injustice. Watching the stern judge's eyes dart back and forth as he/she reads out your death sentence for a crime you may or may not have commit (The situation applies to both scenarios, weather you're guilty or not). Imagine time slowing down and hearing the voices drown out until all that is left is the sound of your heart frantically beating with fear, pumping the blood into your head and making it feel like its about to explode. Imagine the feeling of the bile that would surge up your throat, making you vomit, knowing it may be the last time you do. Imagine your parents bursting into tears as the accept the fact that their beloved child is actually a crazed killer. The disappointment would stab you like a knife, plunging deep into your heart and stopping its frantic beating. Your brothers and sisters would continue their lives in secrecy, trying to hide from everyone that they're related to a blood thirsty assassin. And that is just the trial, you have yet to wait for your death to actually be carried out. The justice system carries out punishments in order to teach the culprits a lesson, but what lesson is there to be learned when the justice system is killing you for killing someone else? Makes us seem like hypocrites doesn't it? And after we do carry out a death sentence, who is there to carry out our death sentence, for we have also killed someone haven't we?
Death Row Phenomenon. It is a term commonly used to refer to the mentally ill state of those who are scheduled to be exterminated. People on death row are not killed immediately after the trial. They are sent to a facility that accommodates the proper tools for executing someone and then they are kept there for some time while the tools are prepared for the sinister deed. So you have all that time to think to yourself about what you did/didn't do and how your going to suffer for it. You are locked up in a small room and kept a prisoner for your last days and given plenty of time to consider what is yet to come. Imagine hearing the thunderous clang of the metal jail door, as it seals you inside, seals you to your fate. Imagine all the things you took for granted such as the bright sunrises when the air is just right and you see the shimmering disc of gold barely peak over the horizon at first and then gain confidence and come all the way out, showering you in buttery warmth, kissing your skin with comfort and familiarity or your family members who kept you safe for all those years, raised you with kind hearts and devoted their life to you, the same family members who you thanked by ripping their hearts out and shooting them with the bullet of betrayal at the court trial. Many mental illnesses result from being put on death row. People are driven to insanity as these gruesome thoughts plague their minds and corrode their hearts with acid so strong it makes snake venom feel like honey. And we are the ones who brought this upon those wretched souls. We have not only justified a murder with another one, but we have justified it by forcing this type of mentality on those who were condemned. The judicial system makes animals out of these normal people who are unable to deal with the stress of knowing that they will die.
Nature is the creator of life. It gives birth to young saplings that sprout from the soft soil every spring, ready to strive for the sky and it gives birth to newly born deer. Nature is the cause of the beautiful flowers that unfold their petals to proudly display to all and it is the reason the bees move about so swiftly among them, darting like drones rummaging for their precious pollen. From the dew soaked grass we find refreshing every morning to the flock of birds in the bright orange evening sky, nature has given birth to it all. Nature is also the death that every living organism must face at one point or another. Nature is reason that the antelope is so mercilessly crushed under the lion's weight, and it is the reason we hear the pitiful shrieks of the birds as they are murdered by unforgiving claws. Nature is the rotting carcass with the foul stench that flies and vultures admire so desperately and it is the fire that ravages through forests, killing all in its heated anger. It is nature's duty to determine when we die, how we die, and what we die for. This is a massive responsibility and nature has taken it up because it is capable, it is just, and it is stable. So who are we to determine weather a human is killed, how he/she is killed, and why he/she is killed? Who gave us the authority to determine monumental decisions such as that? We don't even know what happens after death and yet we have the audacity to force it upon people just because they did the same thing to someone else as far as we know? If it was nature's decision to bring someone to life, then it is its decision to sap the life out of someone. We have given ourselves the authority to take the gift of life that nature handed someone, and we have given ourselves the power to decide what is done with that gift. We say that we are so civilized in this day and age, that we have technology that couldn't even be dreamed of 100 years ago and yet, we are so primitive when handling the most important thing in life- life itself.
-Jalees N.
Sources:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/representation-georgia-death-sentence-upheld-despite-drunk-trial- attorney
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_row
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