Today in class, we discussed the death penalty. As I was driving home, listening to the radio (AM 780) they were talking about Brian Dugan, who, after spending 20 years in jail would now be going on death row. Click here for the text version
Dugan is charged with the murder and rape of a 10 year old girl in 1983, as well as two other murders of under-12 year old girls. While this is a horrific and disgusting tragedy, what stuck out the most to me is that one of the people they were interviewing said that Dugan was "incapable of feelings, so we don't really know how he feels about this." If you follow the link above, you'll see a picture of Dugan. He looks like the typical creep, with his wierd, almost smiling eyes. But is any human truly incapable of feelings?
In my opinion, I think Dugan deserves the death penalty because it is clear that he is guilty of a heinous crime. But I thought the death penalty was illegal in Illinois-- in fact, WBBM's website has another story dating from January about the expensiveness of the death penalty, which I know Maeli brought up in class today. The reasons given could have been for anything-- it was about the economics, not the morality. I read in one book (I think the Count of Monte Cristo) that it is morally unjust for people to assign the death penalty, because of religious reasons-- we are not God.
So when is the death penalty okay? Where can we draw the line?
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This is morally a really tough issue to tackle. The line has to be drawn somewhere, and regardless of where that is, someone will evidently have an issue with it. People commit a huge scale of crimes, and because of that, the scale of punishment is also vast. Since every crime is different, deciding when the death penalty is okay and when it is not is a difficult task. I don't think there is necessarily a right place or a just place to draw the line. But I do think that if someone commits a crime, they need to take responsibility of their actions and face the appropriate punishment. If the court decides that this means facing the death penalty- like Dugan- then we have to trust that this is the right punishment for the crime they committed.
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