[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Stanaccy

Jambutty speaking as the father of a victim of crime (my stepdaughter was raped) I can honestly say I felt so let down when the police refused to prosecute. I can also say that I know the indivisual concerned and if I had come face to face with him in the months following I don't know what I would have done but would probably have ended up in gaol myself.

However looking back on that now I am glad I didn't, I am also glad that my stepdaughter didn't have to go through seeing me face court or have to go through the following investigation and questioning that would have followed and her reliving her ordeal. So get your facts right before you jump on your high horse and attack my moral stance.

We do not have the right to vengeance, yes prison and the judicial system are there as punishment but also as deterrent and for rehabilitation. I also do not feel that being a victim of crime gives anyone MORE RIGHT than anyone else to have a point of view. It gives you a personal insight as to how a victim feels but not to disparage anyone else's viewpoint who has not been in that unfortunate position.

Just for the record my view on capital punishment is that it is state sanctioned murder and if you are a christian, the commandment says Thou Shalt Not Kill. So ergo if you live in a christian nation how can you level that with capital punishment.

As an atheist I personally believe that killing in any form is morally wrong and that taking a life by any means is repugnant and in the case of capital punishment is lowering oneself to the level of the individual who committed the crime.

My sympathies to your stepdaughter for her ordeal.

However the fact that the police refused to prosecute means that they did not have enough evidence to get a successful conviction. But by your own admission you felt like doing the guy some mischief and the only thing that prevented you was not meeting him. You were vengeful so join me on the ground off your moral high horse.

However be that as it may. When a criminal is caught s/he is charged, tried and if found guilty, convicted with whatever punishment that the law decrees. Isn’t that vengeance being executed by proxy? What is punishment if it is not vengeance? We all want criminals to be punished according to the law. We all want vengeance.

When the death penalty was in force it was the law that decreed that for certain offences the penalty would be death by hanging. Thus you cannot have ‘state sanctioned MURDER’. People use the word murder because it is more emotive than simple killing. But it is wrong, totally wrong. It is state sanctioned lawful killing of a criminal who has been tried by his/her peers in a legitimate court of law and found guilty of a crime where the penalty is death by hanging.

As a victim of several crimes I do have the right to express my feelings about the incidents more so than someone has not been a victim. They can only think how they might feel about it. And personal bravado comes into the equation where people will try to show off how tough they are with making claims of what they would do. When it comes to the crunch few people act on their feelings be they real or assumed.

We are going to have to agree to differ on the capital punishment point but your moral outrage will not make me change my view. If someone sets out to murder someone, and remember that murder is the PREMEDITATED killing of another human, then they deserve to forfeit their own life.