Perfect Vizion

What should happen to convicted murderers? - John Flanner


I am writing this article to help clarify things in my own mind as much as for anyone else's benefit. It is of course a highly emotive subject and one which has concerned me for many years. In trying to answer the question, "What should happen to convicted murderers?" , I am not the slightest bit interested in offering my own personal opinion. Indeed, on this and many other issues, I am weary of the opinions of men, no matter how well thought out or well intentioned they may be. I am a committed Christian and as such above everything else I want to know God's opinion on this very important subject.

Right at the outset I need to say that I am not a theologian, or indeed a scholar of any kind. I am an ordinary bloke with a deep concern about the subject. I am, as I said, a Christian and as such I have been in relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ for over 35 years.
Hopefully during that time I have come to know god a little and to feel a bit of his heart in certain situations. With regard to matters such as life and death I feel these are very important issues that relate to God himself.
They are sacred topics which affect the whole world and the societies in which we live.

I have to admit that I have through the years changed my stance on the matter of capital punishment. I have, since becoming a Christian, tried to reflect God's heart on this and many other matters. As a young Christian however I just had a few Scriptures at my disposal like "You shall not kill"
and "Whoever has anger in his heart is guilty of murder" to back up my mainly sentimental approach to this question. I had an impression of an all forgiving God (which he is) who was a big softy (which he most certainly is
not) who would not dream of appointing any of us to execute in cold blood another of his created human beings. I have, as I said, changed my mind on this however and set out below the reasons why I now do believe in capital punishment.

I begin by stressing this great truth - GOD IS LOVE. God's character is love and as such it is impossible for him to act in anyway contrary to his character. All of his laws and judgements are completely just and true. He does everything out of a heart of love.

Having firmly established that overriding truth on the foundation of love let us now look at the issues involved.

Firstly the victims of murder. These are the person who has been murdered along with their grieving family and friends. God loves them, he promises to comfort them in their mourning and he wants them to have justice.
Justice is an important part of the healing process. Grieving people need to feel that appropriate punishment has been meted out to the person who has violated them so deeply. I make the point again that God is both loving and just at all times. There is no way in my mind that I can conceive that putting a person into prison to serve a term for murder is sufficient justice for the victims of such an heinous crime as murder. I can only imagine that if one of my family was murdered and the convicted killer was in prison, my mind would be in turmoil thinking about that person, wondering what they are doing, when they will be coming out etc. In other words there is no closure to the nightmare. If capital punishment were the sentence then relatives and friends would feel in part compensated for the loss of their loved one and would in time be able to bring some kind of resolution to their suffering. As things stand at the moment, with our soft laws, there can be no end to that suffering for the victims of the crime of murder.

Now let us consider the convicted murderer. Here again I have to say that even this person was created by God and no matter how bad our lives become, where a person is truly repentant then god is merciful and will forgive sin.
I have already said that leaving a person in prison prolongs the agony for the victims, but also a long prison sentence extends the mental and emotional torture for the guilty person. To be forced to live in that way is unnatural and dehumanises an individual. I have come to believe that God's way of dealing with convicted killers is that they too should die by being executed on a given date. This ultimate penalty ensures that the person does not have to suffer needless torment but even more importantly gives that person the opportunity to make his peace with God. Most of us do not have the luxury of knowing what day we are going to die and it is therefore of vital importance to our own eternal destiny that we make our peace with God before it is too late. The person who is under a death sentence does know the day and time of his death and so has every opportunity to honestly repent and ask God for forgiveness and so escape the Hell to come. My understanding of god is that he is not sadistic, his judgements are short and sharp rather than being of the long and lingering type.

Critics of this approach say, "What about the executioners? Aren't we forcing them to kill and therefore break God's commandment?" My response to that is to say that God sets people in high office in the nations, be they Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers Judges/Executioners. They have a special dispensation from God to carry out the duties of their office and they do so as true public servants.

A legitimate concern raised by those who oppose the death penalty is the danger of executing the wrong person. This is not an easy one because from time to time it is clear that there are miscarriages of justice. IN life, however, we should never allow the fear of failure to cloud our judgements.
Had that approach been taken then ships would never have sailed the high seas, planes would not have flown and men would never have walked on the moon. Human error will always be with us, but it must not cause us to shrink back from making the tough decisions.

Other critics will say that killing someone in cold blood is just as bad as the original crime and barbaric too. Many of those same critics are just as opposed to corporal punishment being used in schools. I grew up at a time when the slipper and the cane were used as objects of discipline. We all knew the boundaries and within those boundaries we felt secure; step over those boundaries however and we all knew what to expect. I was capable and indeed did step over those boundaries once or twice and received the appropriate punishment. I also know that I am capable of murder. It is a shocking thought, but it is true of all of us. If I should knowingly and consciously take a life then I would expect to lose mine - that is justice for me and for the people I would have wronged. The punishment should be death by the least barbaric means possible.

Finally there are economic benefits for the nation when we take this approach. In the United Kingdom at the moment our prisons are bursting at the seams. Thousands of convicted killers are serving time, being policed by well paid staff, having two or three meals a day, receiving medical treatment and all in all being a drain on the nation's economy. Capital punishment would save a lot of unnecessary expenditure, money which could go into funding the ailing Health Service for instance. Added to this a lot of further serious crime, because many of these people re-offend when they get out, would be avoided.

There you are then. I said it wasn't going to be a very scholarly, or theological piece. Just an expression of my heart which I hope has found an affirming echo in the heart of God. If you know God better than me and have a greater understanding of the Biblical Scriptures so as to illustrate where I may be in error, then I look forward to hearing from you.

John Flanner

29 December 2006