The Execution Solution

When a person has been convicted of willfully committing premeditated murder, he or she has, by that fact, acknowledged that they are no longer human in moral value or character. That person has committed the vilest known evil against our common humanity and deserves the maximum solution that we as a society can give, the removal of that person’s biological life.

This is not about forgiveness, fairness, or prevention. This solution is not for that at all. It is for society’s benefit that upon conviction, a murder in the first degree should always result in death, not just sometimes - always.

Notice that I call this a solution not a penalty. A penalty generally means a fine or incarceration for a crime, a debt that can be repaid. Murder in the first degree can’t be repaid by anything; the closest repayment is taking the perpetrator’s life.

I feel that as a Christian, if I may call myself that, the Lord gave us the responsibility to govern ourselves on this earth, to constitute governments for our protection and to promote the common good.

Part of the need for governments is to address the solution phase of criminal convictions. It is not murder to kill a murderer, legally convicted of the highest capital offense. It is the legal killing of a person who has chosen, through his very own actions, to lose all of his rights and to face execution.

It is both a legal and moral duty of society to have the death solution enforced for three reasons.

The first is to not only protect itself against an attitude that a person can commit capital offenses and be released after many years and possibly re-offend.

The second is to strengthen our belief that our government has the strength, fortitude and ability to perform executions whenever they are called for, however repugnant that the act is.

The third is to reassure the family of the victim that the full measure of justice was served, a justice deserved by all even when another “life” is taken in the process.

I care about other people and I wish that we could all just forgive murderers, become happy and go on with our lives. Few of us are made that way. From my experience, I know that it is much easier to do if your family member has not been a victim. Try thinking the same way after you have lost a spouse, son, daughter or grandchild to murder. Try thinking about how you feel about genocide on a one-on-one level.

Your loss of love, affection, companionship and your feeling of even being a human yourself are claimed by the criminal. You have suffered an emotional rape of your mind that every victim has to deal with for the rest of their natural lives.

You have bars around your emotions. You have a kind of hatred that society seems not to care about. You are told that time heals all but you are still badly bruised and the bruises never heal. You live in a depression that medication can’t heal. Your goals and aspirations often seem to have been cut off. Your trust and confidence in others to perform their duties toward you has eroded. You talk things over with God and yet you still can’t find peace in your heart. You cry often, sometimes out loud, sometimes at work softly. But you still hurt, every day.

Daily, you hear of some other victim and the extended victims, the friends and family of the person who was killed, and know that there are now more people walking that same walk that you walk.

We can’t allow murder to control us; we must control it actively not passively. Give the execution solution a chance.

Richard & Linda Christie
Paternal Grandparents of Evelyn Miller
Murdered 7/1/05 – Floyd, Iowa

Evelyn would be entering the second grade this week. Our prayers are with you and your little ones as the school year begins. Please love and protect them.