Who Deserves the Death Penalty: Criminals or Babies?
On July 25th, Attorney General William Barr announced a new directive allowing for the federal executions of violent criminals to resume. Barr “clear[ed] the way for the federal government to resume capital punishment after a nearly two decade lapse, and bringing justice to victims of the most horrific crimes.”
While the death penalty is highly contentious, what is clear is that those who are scheduled for execution are among the worst of the worst. Barr’s directive cleared the way for “the executions of five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society – children and the elderly.” While we will leave the most morbid details out, one of the criminals murdered a family of three, including an eight-year-old girl. Another stabbed to death a 63-year old grandmother and then killed her nine year old granddaughter. And another violently raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl. These are absolutely evil acts, even without the gory details. These five executions will take place in December of 2019 and January of 2020.
Assuredly, reasonable people can disagree on the morality of the death penalty. Yet, the outrage we have seen regarding Barr’s announcement by many on the Left seems quite hollow and contrived. Several “presidential candidates condemned the attorney general’s decision, calling the death penalty ‘immoral,’ ‘cruel,’ and ‘flawed.’” Actress Alyssa Milano wrote on Twitter, “Your administration just reinstated the death penalty and scheduled 5 executions of ‘actual’ people. You’ve lost the right to pull your, ‘pro-life’ narrative-talking-point-[censored] with me.”
Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey replied to Milano’s tweet writing, “Let’s all get something straight here. It’s not hypocritical to believe murderers should get the death penalty and unborn babies shouldn’t. It is hypocritical to believe murderers shouldn’t get the death penalty but unborn babies should.” Indeed.
In addition, Garrett Epps, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Baltimore, wrote a piece decrying the federal death penalty as racist, and “a discriminatory and arbitrary relic of the era of slavery and judicial terror.” Epps goes on to say, “I can’t come up with a logical explanation for Barr’s feckless quest for death.” Maybe the explanation is that all those who are scheduled for execution have committed evil acts and deserve punishment?
But, what makes these comments so repelling is that those who are outrage by Barr’s decision were completely fine when the current governor of Virginia endorsed infanticide. Among the presidential contenders infuriated by Barr’s decision are some of the 44 Democratic Senators who recently voted against providing protections for infants born alive after a failed abortion. Current law does not mandate that doctors provide medical care for infants born alive, struggling to survive, after a failed abortion. In addition, were these people so indignant after an Alabama Democrat lawmaker admitted that abortion kills an unborn baby and said, “Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later.”
This type of anti-death penalty, pro-abortion hypocrisy from the Left is truly dismaying. Focus on the Family strongly opposes abortion and supports passage of the federal Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act of 2019.
Focus also sells a great book by Randy Alcorn titled Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments, which is a phenomenal resource for those who are looking for a way to respond to pro-choice arguments. In addition, if you, or someone you know need counseling, you can call us for a free consultation at 1-855-771-4357.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zachary Mettler is a writer/analyst for the Daily Citizen at Focus on the Family. In his role, he writes about current political issues, U.S. history, political philosophy, and culture. Mettler earned his Bachelor’s degree from William Jessup University and is an alumnus of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. In addition to the Daily Citizen, his written pieces have appeared in the Daily Wire, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Townhall, the Daily Signal, the Christian Post, Charisma News and other outlets.
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