Dylann Roof and the Death Sentence

Buried beneath all the other breathless headlines, I just now read that "Dylann Roof has been sentenced to death for the June 2015 Charleston church slayings."

Stories like this actually remind me why I oppose capital punishment.

Roof was clearly lost and fell into all the wrong influences as an impressionable, isolated person. He deserves life imprisonment without parole to reflect on his choices and the opportunity to reconcile with his own moral failures.

Unfortunately, the government-sanctioned execution of Roof will stoke the flames of martyrdom in future angry young men just like him.  In their racist ideology, it will only validate their persecution complex.  Notoriety in death is often the outcome that rampage shooters desire.  In our pursuit of justice, we should not be so unwitting as to play into white power delusions about their imagined persecution.

By sentencing Dylann Roof to death, the US government will affirm that our response to killing people is... killing people. We should not want for further blood on our hands after the tragic shooting in Charleston. This is not what those slain church-goers who follow Christ would want nor what we as a society should accept as our moral standard.

Death Penalty Around the World

Countries that still practice the lawful state execution of its citizens are generally not leaders in human rights: Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Syria, North Korea...  Should the USA be embarrassed by the ideological company it keeps on this issue?  More pointedly, why are the conservatives who generally distrust their government in other areas (social programs, healthcare, economic policy) and claim to be "pro-life" tend to be the strongest supporters of government carrying out the execution of American citizens?

Tea Partiers and the Death Penalty

"I'm amazed to see so many "conservatives" who are skeptical of government become so faithful when it comes to the ultimate act of government; namely the death penalty."

-Judge Andrew Napolitano, 9/8/2011

The cheers in the audience are completely vile and disgusting.  The hypocrisy among Tea Partiers on the death penalty issue is astounding. They get furious over the made-up controversy of "death panels" and are skeptical of government oversight of education, business, or industry... yet they have NO PROBLEM with government bureaucracy ending human life.