I’ve never been a proponent of the death penalty. I guess I have lots of reasons including the expense to the country, the lack of the death penalty as a crime deterrent, the possibility of condemning the wrong person, the inherent wrongness of ending another life (punishing murder with murder). I also have to admit that I have never been nor have I ever known someone who was a victim in any sort of terrible crime, so I’m not sure how that sort of anger would change my opinion.

So I was just reading this story in CNN about 75-year-old Charles Ray Allen who is scheduled to be put to death (funny how the media never says “scheduled to die” or “scheduled to be murdered”) for ordering 3 murders from prison. Gov Schwarzenegger has denied a clemency hearing for the inmate, not too surprisingly. The strangest thing about this story is that not only did Charles Ray Allen suffer a heart attack last September, he is also blind, deaf, and confined to a wheelchair. What’s the point of killing this guy now?

On the other hand, this man did some horrific things in his life and he should spend the rest of his life being punished. Maybe he should have been put to death decades ago, considering he was sentenced to die in 1982. Undoubtedbly he’s been racking up lawyer’s fees for the past 24 years. Personally, I don’t think he should be killed at this point since he’s so close to the edge anyway - he’s spent decades in prison and he’ll die there one way or the other.