Regarding the death penalty - I am completely 100% against the death penalty and always have been. What if?

Question

I know all the arguments that death penalty opponents use against the death penalty and I use them myself but something ocurred to me recently.

Why should the mother of a condemned man or woman be forced to undergo the agony of knowing exactly when and how her child is going to be killed? She is innocent and it is a Mother's instinct to love her child irresepective of what he/she may have done

How does a Mother (sister, brother, child, father) of the executed inmate recover? How can they expected to recover when the state has killed theor loved one?

I am not interested in answers that are vitriolic against the inmate - I would like people to answer who have thought through exactly what I have said.

How would an innocent loving mother ever recover from the lead up to the execution, the actual execution and the aftermath?

Does anyone ever think of this?

Why should she suffer the death of her child when she has done nothing wrong?

Answer 1

I think of this all the time to tell ya the truth.

I personally think it's wrong to punish someone with death for the reasons you said that they will know the exact time they are going to die, sit there and dwell on it, I mean come on, how tortuous is that making them walk down a hall to the execution, laying on the table awaiting their injection knowing this is it.  I am completely against it, and I have had the argument about well what if someone harmed your child.

I still and I obviously can't say 100% but as of now I wouldn't want them to die.

In most instances the victim didn't know they were going to be raped or murder at that moment and so forth, so I don't think it's fair. Unsuspecting death penalty sure... why not... tell em they're going to prison for 20 years and just walk past and shoot em.. at least they didn't know it was coming..

but I know how much I value life and how much I dwell on dying and I believe that the death penalty is not a fair punishment unless they are doing it like i mentioned above

Answer 2

no one really deserve to go through that kind of situation really....

but i suppose you're only  thinking about a specific situation wherein the parents or the mother became the best mother in the world she could be....responsible, loving and all of that bringing up her children to be good citizens they can be......

but for some unexplainable or uncontrollable reasons, the child committed a crime to be condemned to death.

in this situation i have nothing to say.....

but it's not always like this....many criminals are often results of broken family or irresponsible parenting and many other factors......in this kind of situation we probably might not care at all about the parents of the one to be executed.

but you know....

how would a parent recover from the pain of suddenly losing a child that they know he/she suffered before death(just for example)

at least the parents of the person to be executioned will know that they can be with the child at the last moment and will know that he/she wouldn't suffer a lot (physically). ironic isn't.

Answer 3

that is absolutely ridiculous! i know it would be extremely

sad to have your child die that still doesn't mean that they

shouldn't. parents don't like seeing their kids fail in school,

so should we just give everyone an A? of course not!

it's crazys like you that do so much to mess

up our country and government

--by the way, it costs more to keep an inmate

alive in prison every year than it does to feed

a small family; idk about you but i'd rather feed

a family than an evil prisoner

Answer 4

Probably in the same way that the mother of a kidnapped, abused and murdered child feels as she sits by the phone or makes TV appeals for her child to be returned to her, all the while knowing the chances are that her child has died, 1 minute ago, 1 day ago, 1 week ago or maybe in 1 minute, in 1 day in 1 week or maybe right there and then as she sits there her child is dying a horrible death.

The mother of the executed prisoner at least knows why her child is dying, the mother of the innocent babe can only ask 'why?' over and over again with no real answer forthcoming.

Answer 5

there have been parents of the condemned who thought their child deserved the death penalty, and I can't really blame them.  Living with the knowledge that your own flesh and blood has done something like this and having to go and visit them in prison and be constantly reminded of it must be soul destroying.

Answer 6

This is one of my strongest reasons for being against the death penalty. Imposition of the death penalty may provide closure to the victim's family, but it is also creating more victims. Most people have someone who love them and care about them, whatever they have done, and they are always he people that are forgotten by most supporters and opponents of the death penalty. Well done for raising such an important and often overlooked issue.

Answer 7

This is a difficult question to answer because I have always wondered about the people who raise children who do things bad enough to deserve the death penalty. I can't say I am for the death penalty, but I am not against it.

If the mother was over bearing I suppose she will never get over it. But maybe the person had parents who weren't very involved in his life and that is why he chose to do these things.

I just find it odd that you say "How would an innocent loving mother ever recover from the lead up to the execution..."

How do you presume she is so innocent? I don't, and that is why I can live with the law.

EDIT: In response to Laura S. I want to say I completely agree with you. I think that is why I have the point of view I do is because my parents raised me to live with the consequences of my actions. And if that meant death, so be it.

Answer 8

You have a valid argument. But what about the victim's family? They are seemingly innocent as well and have to deal with the knowledge that the accused has killed their loved one and yet, the accused's family (if the death penalty were not implemented), still gets to somewhat enjoy the company of their loved one.

Knowing when one's loved one is going to die, if given enough time, could act as a buffer for the grief they will feel when their loved one is gone. They are actually better off than the victim's family who had no such buffer or previous knowledge of how and when their loved one was going to die.

In all ways, the accused's family is better off than the victim's family. Why not worry about them?

Answer 9

Yeah. No one cares. It's about the victim's family and you know, nothing she does has anything to do with her psycho killing kid. She should want him to be punished for taking someone else's life and ruining not only the victim's family, but her own.

Answer 10

First off, you are making several assumptions, that the mother is innocent and loving.  However, let's assume that she is.  She would cope with it in knowing that her child that she raised, has killed someone and will now be punished for it.  Somewhere, she made a mistake in raising her child and that child ended the life of another child.  Her punishment for making that mistake is the death of that child.  She made the mistake and now her child, and the child of another, and the mother of that child is paying for it.  So, in effect, she is getting off rather lightly.  If you think my answer specious, then you have discovered the flaw in your own argument.  People are not natural members of the human race, except biologically.  People earn the right to be in society by following the rules, morays and forays.  When they disregard these, then thier rights are revoked and they are removed.  Sometimes with prison, sometimes with death.

Answer 11

Maybe she should suffer as well. You make the assumption that she is innocent. After all, she is the one who raised him to be a murderer.

Answer 12

Well, a mother never does "recover" I would say. I recently got in touch with some distant family and found out that my aunt went through this. There is something completely unnatural about knowing when someone you love is going to die and having no control. She made the best she could out of the situation and tried to see it as we would any other funeral...I just don't see how. Is the death penalty not hypocritical to anyone else? I mean, killing someone as punishment for killing someone. What is learned here? People need to stop playing God. What's sad is the thought of innocent people going through this. It's an off chance, but you know it happens.

Answer 13

I haven't thought of this, in this particular context. In high school we had a huge debate on this. I led the "against" crew. As a mother, I can tell you I would NEVER recover from the death of a child. Regardless of how my child might die or how old they were, I would not recover. Most of us would simply go on living, day by day. Eventually the pain would get to be less and less, but the hole - that terrible space, would always be there. She shouldn't suffer, but she would.