OPEN LETTER TO RACHEL SUTPHIN: PLEASE DON’T ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY, WE WANT JUSTICE TOO

                

“If the death penalty is to be abolished, let those gentlemen, the murderers, do it first.” - Alphonse Karr

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2015/11/alphonse-karr-challenges-abolitionists.html

 

         We, the comrades of Unit 1012: The VFFDP, will write this open letter to Rachel Sutphin in regards to her reason of wanting to abolish the death penalty in Virginia. We will be discussing about capital punishment, victims’ services, the Bible and murder victims’ families.

            Dear Rachel Sutphin,

            Let us begin by telling you that we are sorry for the loss of your father. Our group Unit 1012, also consists of murder victims’ families, so we walk in your shoes. We remember murder victims’ families every year on National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims, Peace Officers Memorial Day and also on Tree of Angels during the Christmas Season. If you see this album, we remember your father on those events.

Whatever we write here in this Open Letter, is not an attack on your character or your personal life, we know you are a nice person and we love you. However, we want to say that we disagree with your stance on capital punishment. We will discuss the Bible as some of us in Unit 1012 are Christians and also speak of victims’ services and other murder victims’ families who have suffered. 

The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them. - Lois McMaster Bujold

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lois_mcmaster_bujold_389472]

 

            Let us first see what you said on an article and we will respond to what you wrote:

Sutphin wrote the following about her stance on abolishing the death penalty:

My father was killed in 2006, when I was nine years old. Despite being so young, I still think about him every day. I think about his love for practical jokes and for building anything from Lincoln Logs to tree houses. I think about him singing in the kitchen and on the way to school. I remember our numerous camping trips – catching crawdads in the creek and spending time looking up at the stars. It was my dad who taught me how to ride a bike and brush my hair. It was my dad who would pick me up from Sunday School and coached my church baseball team. I was proud of my dad- proud of his Medal of Valor, proud of his annual memorial programs for National Police Week, and proud of his stick-figure drawings that he would put in my lunchbox every day.

On August 21st, 2006, my father, Corporal Eric Sutphin, was gunned down by William Morva after a massive manhunt in Blacksburg, VA. For the ten years following, I heard of the lengthy trial and series of appeals. Again and again I heard the details of my dad’s death. I was plagued by all of the uncertainty and was repeatedly forced to relive the worst day of my life. Toward the end of the trial, I heard questions surrounding Mr. Morva’s mental health. Despite these concerns, the judge set an execution date.

My moral and religious convictions led me to plead with Governor Terry McAuliffe to change Mr. Morva’s sentence to life without parole. I believed clemency and a change in sentence was a fair and just punishment. However, I heard no answer from Governor McAuliffe and Mr. Morva was executed by lethal injection on July 6, 2017. In theory, the death penalty may make sense: people who commit heinous acts forfeit their right to live. However, in my experience, the death penalty is not that simple, and it is inconsistent with the basic responsibilities of the government. Instead, I have experienced the death penalty to be an ineffective, outdated punishment.

Mr. Morva’s execution brought no solace to me, but, instead, it strengthened my resolve that the death penalty needs to be abolished. With the abolition of the death penalty, families like mine will no longer suffer through the long process of mandatory death sentence appeals. Instead, a sentence of life in prison without parole offers a resolution and legal finality to murder victim family members more quickly than the death penalty. By saving time and resources from not pursuing or carrying out the death penalty, the Commonwealth would be better able to serve victim family members as they adjust to their new normal by offering much-needed services and counseling.

As the Virginia General Assembly prepares to convene for a new legislative session, I wish to tell Virginia voters and government officials my story and my desire for the end of the death penalty in Virginia. It is time for the death penalty to be abolished in order to better care for the victim’s family members, to better serve the public good, and to protect human life. I will continue writing and speaking until such a day comes.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.whsv.com/content/news/Families-of-murder-victims-urge-Virginia-lawmakers-to-abolish-the-death-penalty-565343661.html

My father was killed in 2006, when I was nine years old. Despite being so young, I still think about him every day. I think about his love for practical jokes and for building anything from Lincoln Logs to tree houses. I think about him singing in the kitchen and on the way to school. I remember our numerous camping trips – catching crawdads in the creek and spending time looking up at the stars. It was my dad who taught me how to ride a bike and brush my hair. It was my dad who would pick me up from Sunday School and coached my church baseball team. I was proud of my dad- proud of his Medal of Valor, proud of his annual memorial programs for National Police Week, and proud of his stick-figure drawings that he would put in my lunchbox every day.

RESPOND: First of all, sorry for your loss and we are happy and we support you in remembering the precious memories of your father. Unit 1012 also encourage our murder victims’ family members to do the same, we remember the victims on their birthdate and death date. That is very sweet of you and we agree with that. Some of our comrades from Unit 1012 are Christians and we do pray for murder victims and their families (your father and you included).

On August 21st, 2006, my father, Corporal Eric Sutphin, was gunned down by William Morva after a massive manhunt in Blacksburg, VA. For the ten years following, I heard of the lengthy trial and series of appeals. Again and again I heard the details of my dad’s death. I was plagued by all of the uncertainty and was repeatedly forced to relive the worst day of my life. Toward the end of the trial, I heard questions surrounding Mr. Morva’s mental health. Despite these concerns, the judge set an execution date.

RESPOND: The problem of the appeals do not lie with death penalty, it is the fault of the ACLU who choose to delay and delay the execution when there was no doubt about his guilt. Virginia use to be a conservative state where killers were usually executed 7 years after the crime was committed.

 

Christopher Scott Emmett

Michael William Lenz

Mug shot of John Allen Muhammad

            Christopher Scott Emmett was executed by lethal injection in Virginia on July 24, 2008. He murdered John F. Langley on April 27, 2001. Notice that he only spent seven years on death row after being sentenced to death on November 2, 2001! He is just like the D.C Sniper and Michael William Lenz, who also spent about 7 years on Death Row before being terminated from the face of the earth.

            We believe that William Morva was faking his mental illness to give an excuse to escape execution. Dr Michael Welner and the late, Dr Thomas Szasz will agree that mental illness is used as an excuse to escape punishment.  

  

Mental illness is a myth, whose function is to disguise and thus render more palatable the bitter pill of moral conflicts in human relations. - Thomas Szasz

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/952116]

            Morva did not only murder your father but also Derrick McFarland, a security guard. He was also a threat to prison staffs. He could be another Robert Gleason Jr. - Together with other violent criminals, Gleason has now be demolished for good. Why should he be allowed to live? He has murdered someone outside prison, given a life sentence and killed another inmate and he succeeded in murdering another inmate.

 

On this date, January 16, 2013, a double Prison Killer, Robert Gleason Jr. was executed by the electric chair in Virginia.

My moral and religious convictions led me to plead with Governor Terry McAuliffe to change Mr. Morva’s sentence to life without parole. I believed clemency and a change in sentence was a fair and just punishment. However, I heard no answer from Governor McAuliffe and Mr. Morva was executed by lethal injection on July 6, 2017. In theory, the death penalty may make sense: people who commit heinous acts forfeit their right to live. However, in my experience, the death penalty is not that simple, and it is inconsistent with the basic responsibilities of the government. Instead, I have experienced the death penalty to be an ineffective, outdated punishment.

RESPOND: Apart from protecting the public from vicious killers like Morva and those murderers mentioned above, we feel that life without parole is not fair to murder victims’ families like us, as the late Polish President, Lech Kaczynski said: 

  

“Countries that give up this penalty award an unimaginable advantage to the criminal over his victim, the advantage of life over death.”

[Mr. Kaczynski said in July 2006. His coalition partner, the far-right League of Polish Families, wants to change the country’s penal code so that pedophiles convicted of murder will face execution.]

 [PHOTO SOURCE: http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/in-loving-memory-of-lech-aleksander.html & https://themightymenregiment710.blogspot.com/2017/04/in-loving-memory-of-lech-kaczynski-18.html]

Here are some murder victims’ families who support the death penalty, here their stories: 

 

Three extremists who #beheaded two #women in the Atlas mountains, Morocco, have been sentenced to death by firing squad. ☠️☠️☠️🌟🌟

Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were both found dead on December 17 last year. They had pitched up in a ‘remote mountainous region’ 6.2 miles away from the village of Imlil, at the foot of Mount Toubkal, when they were killed in their tent.

Today ringleader Abdessamed Ejjoud, Younes Ouaziyad, 27, and Rachid Affati, 33, received the maximum penalty for their murders. The group, who pledge allegiance to the Islamic State, previously admitted filming themselves killing the women before posting the footage online.

http://soldierexecutionerprolifer2008.blogspot.com/2019/07/three-militants-sentenced-to-death-for.html

https://www.facebook.com/VictimsFamiliesForTheDeathPenalty/posts/2177071872414767

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/respectaustraliarally/photos/a.1523716971240889/2448503832095527/?type=3&theater]

Helle Petersen, who is the mother of the Dane woman beheaded in Morocco. supports the death sentence for the killers. We, the comrades of Unit 1012: The VFFDP, stand with her and walk in her shoes and we not only agree with her strongly but with also went through what she had to go through and we will not forget her daughter. She wants justice and she is not revengeful at all. Here are two quotes from her.    

"The most just thing would be to give these beasts the death penalty they deserve, I ask that of you," said Helle Petersen in a letter read by her lawyer in an anti-terrorist court in Sale, near the capital Rabat. "My life was destroyed the moment that two policemen came to my door on December 17th to announce my daughter's death," the mother of 24-year-old Louisa Vesterager Jespersen wrote in the letter, read out in total silence and with the defendants' faces impassive.

“It will bring some sort of justice to our daughters. They go around and kill people, now they will feel what is like to be sentenced to death. That is the bigger picture I try to focus on, justice for our girls and our families and to prevent them from killing again.” – Helle Petersen, the mother of Louisa Jespersen, told the news after the killers were sentenced to death.

 

Helle Jespersen with her daughter Louisa Vesterager Jespersen.

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://nyheder.tv2.dk/2019-06-11-mor-staar-frem-for-foerste-gang-efter-hendes-datter-blev-draebt-i-terrorangreb]

A girl carries pictures of 24-year-old Dane Louisa Vesterager Jespersen (left) and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland during a candlelight vigil outside the Danish embassy in Rabat, Morocco, on Saturday. Photo: AP

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/2179425/morocco-arrests-emir-group-blamed-beheading-scandinavian-hikers]

            The parents of Hadiya Pendleton wanted the killer to pay with his life but they were disappointed that Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011. See this article, ‘Illinois Death Penalty was Abolished Based on a Lie Posted By Daniel Greenfield’

Nathaniel and Cleo, the Parents of Hadiya Pendleton

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/local/hadiya-pendleton-s-parents-say-her-killer-deserves-death-penalty#]

“We can only go speak to a grave. No. I think it's totally unfair,” Nathaniel said. Hadiya’s father says that if the death penalty were available in Illinois, Michaeil Ward would deserve it. Hadiya's mother agrees. “I don't think its cruel to say that you incited this on these people, so why are you still able to live the rest of your days out and have, possibly, the opportunity to enjoy the later part of your life?” Cleo said.

 

Diana Alvarez and her suspected killer, Jorge Guerrero

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.nbc-2.com/story/38170502/state-will-seek-death-penalty-for-diana-alvarezs-accused-killer]

 

Without hesitation, Hernandez said, she wants Guerrero-Torres to pay with his life. “Because if my daughter is not alive, he doesn’t deserve to be living either,” Hernandez said. Rita Hernandez’s daughter was murdered brutally and the suspect was caught with child pornography. Guerrero-Torres has already been found guilty on federal child pornography charges for having pictures of Diana on his phone, and is serving 40 years.

A woman holds up a sign with ‘Too many terrorists in prison’ written on one side and ‘Kill them all’ written on the other during a rally in Tel Aviv on April 19, 2016 to support Elor Azaria. (Photo: Jack Guez/AFP)
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/08/israelis-palestinian-attackers/ ….. ….. http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-group-of-50-families-in-israel-for.html]

            Truth is the death penalty does help murder victims’ families, abolitionists can name victims’ families who did not feel happy years later even after watching their loved ones’ killers getting put to death. But for us, the comrades of Unit 1012 (some of us are former abolitionists), we can use Sharron Mankins’s and many others, as example of how victims’ families can be satisfied that justice had been served when they look back. 

Tuesday September 4, 2012 - Even after 20 years, Mankins has no regrets about watching Robert Alton Harris die by cyanide gas for the 1978 murders of her 16-year-old son, Michael Baker, and his friend John Mayeski.

"We saw justice served," the 69-year-old Southern California woman said in an interview last month. "It took a long time, but it helped us all. I think it helped the whole family." 

‘Pope Francis is dead wrong about capital punishment. God has commanded government to use the death penalty to demonstrate the seriousness of murder: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man” (Genesis 9:6).’ 

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2018/08/pastor-robert-jeffress-pope-is-dead.html

            You mention “that the death penalty is not that simple, and it is inconsistent with the basic responsibilities of the government. Instead, I have experienced the death penalty to be an ineffective, outdated punishment.” 

DeWayne Antonio Craddock (October 15, 1978 – May 31, 2019) was identified by police as the perpetrator.

  

We disagree with you on that. Take the May 31, 2019 Virginia Beach Mass Shooting for example, the shooter, DeWayne Craddock killed 12 people in a Virginia Beach municipal building before being shot dead by police. Had Craddock survived, the shooting, we want him to be sentenced to death like Dylann Roof too. Regardless of whether the police killed him in self-defense or if he was executed by the state in capital punishment, it is neither violence nor violating the 6^th commandment. It was a lawful killing.

The late Chuck Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship who was a death penalty opponent but became a supporter said:

While the thief on the cross found pardon in the sight of God - ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise’ - that pardon did not extend to eliminating the consequences of his crime - ‘We are being justly punished, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.’ (Luke 23:39-43)". Neither God nor Jesus nor the Holy Spirit nor the prophets nor the apostles ever spoke out against the civil authorities’ use of executions in deserving cases - not even at the very time of Jesus’ own execution when He pardoned the sins of the thief, who was being crucified alongside Him. Indeed, quite the opposite. Their biblical support for capital punishment is consistent and overwhelming. Furthermore, Jesus never confuses the requirements of civil justice with those of either eternal justice or personal relations.

- Chuck Colson

Mr. Morva’s execution brought no solace to me, but, instead, it strengthened my resolve that the death penalty needs to be abolished. With the abolition of the death penalty, families like mine will no longer suffer through the long process of mandatory death sentence appeals. Instead, a sentence of life in prison without parole offers a resolution and legal finality to murder victim family members more quickly than the death penalty. By saving time and resources from not pursuing or carrying out the death penalty, the Commonwealth would be better able to serve victim family members as they adjust to their new normal by offering much-needed services and counseling.

RESPOND: Sorry but to inform you, but if Virginia succeeds in abolishing the death penalty, life without parole will be the next target to be abolished. See this article written by Shari Silberstein: Ending the Death Penalty Is One Step Toward Ending Mass Incarceration. The arguments they use to abolish the death penalty are also the same arguments they will use to end LWOP.

            On this date, June 25, 2012, the United States Supreme Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. To add insult to injury, on January 25, 2016, the United States Supreme Court held that its previous ruling in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. ___ (2012), that a mandatory life sentence without parole should not apply to juveniles convicted of murder, should be applied retroactively. This decision potentially affects up to 2,300 cases nationwide. This case is one in a series since 2005 that have mitigated the harshness of sentencing of juveniles.

            Lee Boyd Malvo (born February 18, 1985), also known as John Lee Malvo, is a convicted murderer who, along with John Allen Muhammad, committed murders in connection with the Beltway sniper attacks in the Washington Metropolitan Area over a three-week period in October 2002. Currently, he is serving multiple life sentences at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, a supermax prison.

            Now due to the two new laws which made LWOP unconstitutional for juvenile offenders, Malvo is now trying to get his life sentence reduced. This is a great example of the consequence for allowing a killer to keep his life. This also proves that LWOP will end after death penalty is abolished.

            Whenever an Anti-Death Penalty campaigner claim that capital punishment is more expensive than LWOP, please keep in mind, they are the reason why the death penalty system is expensive. If they claim that the money saved can be used for victims’ services, why not help fight for the end of the inhumane parole. Truth is ‘expensive’ is a word use to manipulate the public in order to leave criminals unpunished. Do not be surprise, as they are also complaining that mass incarceration and victims’ rights services are also expensive and need to be abolished too. 

            For example, if you see the recent case of the killers of Paula Bohovesky, who were applying for parole. We did not see any Prisoner Rights organization mention Paula Bohovesky and her families’ name. We did not hear any of them from those criminal rights organization attend the candlelight vigil. We notice, that not a single criminal rights activist showed their outrage by protesting the inhumane parole of the killers, they remain silent.

            Many crime victims’ families who support Marsy’s Law, are hard broken to learn that the ACLU also fights against this Law and also attack all victims’ services. They will use the same excuse they use to attack death penalty and LWOP.

ACLU Of Ohio Opposes Issue One - Marsy's Law

By Jo Ingles • Oct 18, 2017

Originally published on October 18, 2017 4:47 pm

One of the state’s leading civil liberties organizations is opposing Issue 1 – the victims’ rights constitutional amendment known as Marsy’s Law.

The ACLU of Ohio’s Gary Daniels says many parts of Issue 1 are already in law, and if there’s a problem with enforcement, he says that should be addressed. He also worries putting Marsy’s Law into the Constitution would make it difficult to fix possible problems. But Daniels says this ballot issue would endanger due process for people accused of crimes. Daniels says it would allow victims to refuse interviews or depositions.

“And there are perfectly logical and reasonable reasons why somebody might seek information from a crime victim when they are being accused of a crime. That’s just part of the everyday give and take of the justice system but this amendment would shut down many of those avenues.” - Gary Daniels, Ohio ACLU

Aaron Marshall with the Issue 1 campaign says that’s not the case.

“What we are trying to stop are these fishing expeditions that have nothing to do with the case which we are seeing around Ohio. If a defendant needs a piece of information from a crime victim to help their case and it is pertinent to their case, they can go through the proper procedures to get a judge rule on whether it is pertinent and admissible, and then they get their evidence.” Aaron Marshall, Issue 1 campaign spokesman

The state public defender and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys’ Association has also opposed the issue, though some individual prosecutors are supporting it.

Albert Flick was convicted of killing Kimberly Dobbie, 48, years after he murdered his wife

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/19/man-judged-too-frail-to-kill-again-murdered-mum-in-front-of-twins-after-release-10424836/]

On this date, August 9, 2019, Albert Flick, a 77-year-old man previously deemed "too old to be a threat" was sentenced to life in prison on for fatally stabbing a woman in front of her children, four decades after he was convicted of a nearly identical crime.

A judge who sentenced him for assaulting another woman said in 2010 that Flick would no longer represent a threat because of age by the time of his release in 2014. The judge disregarded the recommendation of the prosecutor and probation officer for a longer sentence.

"At some point, Mr. Flick is going to age out of his capacity to engage in this conduct, and incarcerating him beyond the time that he ages out doesn't seem to me to make good sense," Crowley said.

20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. - Mark 7:20-23 (KJV)

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://twitter.com/my_daily_bible/status/694209823257133056]

The case of Albert Flick (or any recidivist murderer) and the words of Jesus Christ shows that every human being on earth is totally depraved and we cannot say that, “People are more than the worst thing they have ever done in their lives.”, we should call them to repentance and condemn their evil deeds by punishing evildoers with death.

As the Virginia General Assembly prepares to convene for a new legislative session, I wish to tell Virginia voters and government officials my story and my desire for the end of the death penalty in Virginia. It is time for the death penalty to be abolished in order to better care for the victim’s family members, to better serve the public good, and to protect human life. I will continue writing and speaking until such a day comes.

CONCLUSION:

            In conclusion, hear this quote from Marc Klaas, the father of Polly Klaas, who was a death penalty opponent but turn supporter:

"It diminishes the victims when people burn candles and mourn someone who has committed a heinous crime," Klaas said. "People on death row are some of the worst individuals that appear on the face of the earth. The abolitionists refuse to acknowledge that evil exists and evil has to be put down."

            Rachel, we hold no ill against you. We love you and we never forget your father and other murder victims’ families. If you just take a look at those people from both those Anti-Death Penalty and Prisoner Rights Organization, do you notice they do not care at all about your father and our loved ones who were murdered. They are only using you as a propaganda tool to abolish punishments (both death penalty or LWOP). Whenever a murderer gets paroled, they never do anything to assist us in blocking parole.

Please review these two cases of Cop Killers getting paroled:

1. Widow of NYPD officer Anthony Mosomillo heartbroken to learn killer’s gal pal granted parole.

2. Parole Board Robs Murdered Officer's Widow Of Right To Oppose Killer's Release

https://www.facebook.com/VictimsFamiliesForTheDeathPenalty/posts/2410519132403372

https://defensemaven.io/bluelivesmatter/news/parole-board-robs-murdered-officer-s-widow-of-right-to-oppose-killer-s-release-BGQfubVO5EWIPLfDMSBKag/

Notice that there is no outrage from those Prisoner Rights Activists. They remain silent. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali said: 

Some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice. - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://au.pinterest.com/pin/316870523756264477]

            We will remember your father and other murder victims’ families on the date they die and their birthday every year. As mention above, please feel for murder victims’ families like ours, we want justice and protection. 

  

Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. Christians care about all injustice, especially injustice against God. – John Piper

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/425660602280647888/]

            Pastor John Piper was quote from his sermon, “Christians Care About All Suffering and Injustice.”

Christians care about all suffering. That half of the sentence is designed to prick the conscience of Christians who are hesitant to mobilize themselves or others to care about all suffering like disease, malnutrition, disability, mental illness, injury, abuse, assault, loneliness, rejection, calamity.

This caring has to be restricted, they feel, because if we give ourselves to caring for all suffering, we will surely then diminish the real concern of the Christian life, which is caring about eternal suffering. I want to say no: No, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to trade one off against the other. Jesus is our model here over and over again in the Gospels.

The Bible says that he had compassion; he cared. He had compassion on the crowds (Matthew 9:36); on the sick (Matthew 14:14); on the hungry (Matthew 15:32); on the blind (Matthew 20:34); on the leper (Mark 1:41); on the demon-possessed (Mark 9:22); on the bereaved (Luke 7:13).

When he told a parable to try to explain what “love your neighbor as yourself” means (Mark 12:31), he told about the Good Samaritan. He ended by saying he had compassion on the man on the side of the road (Luke 10:33). Embedded in “love your neighbor” is “care about the suffering of your neighbor.”

            We know that if Jesus Christ was on earth today, he will show support for crime victims and their families.

            John Piper was also quoted in his Q&A: Is It Wrong to Want Mercy for a Criminal Who Deserves Capital Punishment?

To want mercy for him (the killer) is good! But that mercy would take form in a social setting where you don't release criminals on the world. It would take the form of wanting him to be forgiven, praying for him, perhaps even visiting him in prison and offering to forgive him. But that forgiveness does not say, "I think it would be a good idea if he got let go."

He will be let go in heaven, but here society won't work. Romans 13 sets it up so that the government carries the sword to reward the good and to punish the evil, because society won't work if governments don't carry swords, prisons, fines, death penalties.

So yes, it's right to want mercy for criminals—to forgive them, not to hold grudges against them—and to want them to be punished.

Love mercy, do justice.

But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel

hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

- I Samuel 15:33 (NKJV)

Samuel kills Agag
Artist: MERIAN, Matthaeus the Elder
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://colonialart.org/artworks/571A]

[Blog Link: http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/samuel-versus-agag-christian-article.html & http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/samuel-versus-agag-christian-article_20.html]

Most Christians who support the death penalty will quote Genesis 9:6 & Romans 13:1-5. We, the comrades of Unit 1012, will strongly agree to that for sure. We encourage Christians to read I Samuel 15. King Saul, who was the head of State, was anointed by God but he feared to obey the Almighty and did not execute a mass murderer like Agag. He got his Kingdom rejected.

I Samuel 15:33 is obedience to the verse, Genesis 9:6. Samuel was NOT PLAYING God when he executed Agag.

    

            The lesson we can learn from here is that those in authority will answer to God for failing to put murderers to death. If this was occurring in the New Testament, King Saul had failed to obey Romans 13:1-5.  

            We will close with a quote from our beloved Judge, Rayner Goddard:

“There is one other consideration which I believe should never be overlooked. If the criminal law of this country is to be respected, it must be in accordance with public opinion, and public opinion must support it. That goes very nearly to the root of this question of capital punishment. I cannot believe or the public opinion (or would I rather call it the public conscience) of this country will tolerate that persons who deliberately condemn others to painful and, it may be, lingering deaths should be allow to live…”  - [Speech in the House of Lords, 28 April 1948] 

 

OTHER LINKS:

http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2017/08/corporal-eric-e-sutphin-end-of-watch.html