Institutionalized Murder

Institutionalized Murder

What do you do when you execute a person? Do you say that he doesn’t deserve to live? That by doing what was done, that individual “deferred” for lack of a better word, the right of life. Many people think, and I did kind too, that after committing executable crimes, the person shouldn’t be using resources like food, and tax money, while other “good” people are starving, and need those resources a lot more. There’s of course the chance that the crime can be committed again, and so the person will just continue to stay locked and use up resources in our already extremely “overcrowded” and critically deficient prison system.

As far as I know, two great movies came out on the topic of the death penalty. Monster and Capote. Interestingly, both earned their lead characters Oscars for best actor.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time; I haven’t, to see Capote. After seeing the extremely highly regarded Monster, I would have never put Charlieze to death. Movies are great when they help you emphasize. Every human being in this world should be empathized with, and that includes multiple homicides.

Selby: I just wanna live, Lee. I just want a normal happy life. I don't know why you did this.
Aileen: Because I love you. Because I love you and I never wanna to loose you and that's all. I love you from my heart, my soul, my mind. And I never let you down. All right? Because it was me. It was only me. And I'll tell them that, ok. It's over for me now. And I never gonna see you again.
Selby: Yeah, I know.
Aileen: I wish there was a way that people can forgive you for something about this, you know. But they can't. They can't, man. So I gonna die, Sel.... Hey Sel, I'll never forget you. Good bye, baby. Bye baby.
Selby: Good bye, Lee.

This is an excerpt from the fictional movie Monster. I understand that I’m using dialogue from a fictional movie to help justify a very serious issue. This is very unheard of, but I believe that a movie of this stature makes a very important social point.

Many people believe that people who committed horrible crimes are disturbed, mentally abnormal in a significant way. There is no denying this, they are. What else could have driven them to those crimes?

Maybe they aren’t in the least mentally ill, and are simply evil. They have calculated their crimes with full knowledge, of the consequences, of who is going to be hurt. So these people are just like the majority of the population, but are extremely not like the rest, because their motivation and morality are completely skewed or absent. No, people like this don’t exist, there is no such thing. If maybe there is one person in a million like this, then that person would be mentally ill. Exhibiting such traits is a sign of illness.

According to Amnesty International, over half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The US joins the ranks of countries like China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia as the number one perpetuators of this crime globally. For the year 2005, 94% of all executions come from these four countries.

It’s alarming that we are among these three countries. In 2005, we have executed 60 people and condemned 106 to death sentence.