The Hypocritical Taking of Lives
It seemed like a normal February night for Wanda Lopez, a single mother, working behind the register of the Shamrock gas station convenience store. That is, until she noticed a man loitering outside the door in the parking lot of where she worked. She called the police to report the drunk who had just come from the bar next door and was told to call back if he came inside. A few minutes later, the man walked into the store holding a knife. Frantically, Lopez dialed 911 for help another time. 77 seconds later, she was covered in her own blood, lying on the floor, bleeding to death. She had been brutally murdered.
The police found a drunk man hiding underneath a truck two blocks away and decided that he was their …show more content…
He was to be put to death by lethal injection, but the first drug intended to put him to sleep was ineffective. This innocent man died a horrible, painful death. He felt the full effects of the next two drugs pumped into his veins. Suffocating from the second, and poisoned by the third.
In simplicity, the only difference between capital punishment and murder is whether or not the taking of one’s life is performed by the government, and therefore lawful. The murder of Carlos DeLuna never received the justice it deserved because of the circumstances of his death. How can we continue to call this great nation fair if it is not held to the same standards as its citizens? It has been engraved in our minds since childhood that murder is wrong. We teach not to kill, preach the preservation of life, and punish those for not following these laws, yet we as a society are in turn ourselves killers for allowing the death penalty to remain an ineffective and inconsistent method of attempting to control crime in the United States. Even though we aren’t directly injecting the poison into the convict's bloodstream or pulling the lever for their electrocution, we are part to blame for the cause of their deaths; 1,389 deaths to be
It seemed like a normal February night for Wanda Lopez, a single mother, working behind the register of the Shamrock gas station convenience store. That is, until she noticed a man loitering outside the door in the parking lot of where she worked. She called the police to report the drunk who had just come from the bar next door and was told to call back if he came inside. A few minutes later, the man walked into the store holding a knife. Frantically, Lopez dialed 911 for help another time. 77 seconds later, she was covered in her own blood, lying on the floor, bleeding to death. She had been brutally murdered.
The police found a drunk man hiding underneath a truck two blocks away and decided that he was their …show more content…
He was to be put to death by lethal injection, but the first drug intended to put him to sleep was ineffective. This innocent man died a horrible, painful death. He felt the full effects of the next two drugs pumped into his veins. Suffocating from the second, and poisoned by the third.
In simplicity, the only difference between capital punishment and murder is whether or not the taking of one’s life is performed by the government, and therefore lawful. The murder of Carlos DeLuna never received the justice it deserved because of the circumstances of his death. How can we continue to call this great nation fair if it is not held to the same standards as its citizens? It has been engraved in our minds since childhood that murder is wrong. We teach not to kill, preach the preservation of life, and punish those for not following these laws, yet we as a society are in turn ourselves killers for allowing the death penalty to remain an ineffective and inconsistent method of attempting to control crime in the United States. Even though we aren’t directly injecting the poison into the convict's bloodstream or pulling the lever for their electrocution, we are part to blame for the cause of their deaths; 1,389 deaths to be