Thursday, October 19, 2006

Unbelievable !!

Ok .. Before I begin, I must warn you that this is a volatile subject, one which carries passionate arguments on both sides of the issue. That being said ... Let's go on ..

Seventeen years ago, in the middle of April, the followers of a cult leader, dug a pit. Less than one week later, on April 17th, Jeffery Lundgren bound and gagged Dennis and Cheryl Avery, and their three daughters, ages 7 to 13, put them in the pit, and shot them to death. He then had followers cover the pit with dirt and stones. The bodies remained undiscovered for several months until one of the followers went to the police.

Mr. Lundgren was arrested and convicted. He was sentence to death. He has exhausted all his appeals, and was scheduled to die on October 24th by lethal injection. Now, an Ohio judge has stayed the execution, based on the fact that Mr. Lundgren is overweight and diabetic, and this would put him at greater risk for suffering during the lethal injection.

Hey, I don't want to see anyone suffer needlessly, but if it were me, we would take Mr. Lundgren out to a farmhouse, have him dig a pit the same size as the one in which he killed the Avery's, then shoot him five times in non-lethal areas of his body. Then, after he has felt just a small taste of what his victim felt, shoot him in the head and pile on the rocks and dirt.

How is it that someone is so concerned about the rights of the condemned not to suffer needlessly and yet, it was that persons total disregard of that right in others that got them there in the first place. All of a sudden, Mr. Lundgren is so concerned about others that he wants to join in a lawsuit that would change the protocol for lethal injection, to prevent others from suffering. If he had just a smidge of that concern some 17 years ago, he would be on the outside trying to change the protocols. However, I suspect, that if it didn't concern him, he would be opening his mouth.

Maybe God told him to try to change the protocols. According to him, it was God that told him to kill the Avery's. I don't know exactly who was talking to Mr. Lundgren, but it wasn't the God I know. The one I know said, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

I know the opponents of the death penalty are jumping all over this possibility of 'excruciating' pain and suffering from the lethal injection. Just as the proponents of the death penalty are climbing all over the brutality of the crime, and the fact that the Ohio Parole Board recommended against clemency. It doesn't matter where you fall on the fence on this one, it is a travesty, that someone with such callous disregard for the suffering of others should even ask us to be concerned about his own suffering for that disregard.

OK, I feel better now.

Feel free to post your disagreements. I am not afraid of those that disagree with me. It makes me dig deeper into my beliefs foundation, and that makes me stronger. Who's knows, you might change me mind.

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