Truth Out Loud

October 01, 2005

Now A Life Sentence is Inhumane

I am not a fan of the death penalty. I was not always that way. Once I realized people were being sent straight to hell without every chance to repent I could no longer support this form of punishment. That’s right; I oppose the death penalty for religious reasons. Now I only support death for those that present a continuing threat to society. Basically crooks that keep getting out of jail or for defense of the public while trying to capture said crooks.

I have supported instead life sentences along with others that opposed the death penalty. Now we find out that support was lip service.

Now it appears that even a life sentence is inhumane.

Mr. Thompson did behave himself, learned quite a few trades in his 35 years in prison - he is an accomplished carpenter, bricklayer, electrician, plumber, welder and mechanic - and earned a high school diploma and an associate's degree in business.

So exemplary is his prison record that when Mr. Thompson, now 50, asked the state pardons board to release him, the victim's father begged for his release, and a retired prison official offered Mr. Thompson a place to stay and a job.

How could such a pillar of society find himself in such a circumstance you might ask?

In the winter woods near Gaines, Pa., on the day before New Year's Eve in 1969, four 15-year-olds were hunting rabbits when Charlotte Goodwin told Jackie Lee Thompson a lie. They had been having sex for about a month, and she said she was pregnant.

Mr. Thompson has spent 35 years in a Pennsylvania prison.
That angered Jackie, and he shot Charlotte three times and then drowned her in the icy waters of Pine Creek.

If execution is inhumane and imprisonment is inhumane what are we to do these bureaucrats that keep trying to release brutal killers into our society based on these sob story examples? It’s a shame people commit acts that result in a life sentence in prison but if the only way they can leave is in a coffin I consider this a sign of progress.

Posted by Sid at 02:01 PM | Comments (2) | Crime and Punishment | TrackBack