1. What character qualities make Sister Helen Prejean such a helpful spiritual advisor? Sister Helen Prejean possessed many qualities that presented her as a helpful spiritual advisor. Although she was new to the idea of working with a convict, she was able to look past Matthew’s conviction and past and lead him to learn and seek God in the days leading up to his death. This makes Sister Helen forgiving and that is a vital quality to possess as a spiritual advisor. Sister Helen was against capital punishment for the reason being that you can not solve murder by murdering as it will not provide justice. Sister Helen was able to recognize even the deadliest man as a “son of God” and that deserved to be loved equally. She did not turn a blind eye to anyone, even the ones that many claimed did not deserve it. She helped Matthew recognize God …show more content…
The New Testament call us to protect life, practice mercy, and reject vengeance. For this reason, the death penalty is a form of hatred and bitterness because it denies mercy and forgiveness for the prisoners. As Sister Helen stated in the movie, how can you solve murder by murdering? The governments that enforce the death penalty, violate the international human rights laws in a way that is hypocritical. The law states that it is illegal to kill, meanwhile, they do the opposite of what they are enforcing in the country. This clearly shows the cynicism that the death penalty consists of for by standers and victims. A well known quote “an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind” shows how bitter and cynical the death penalty really is. Violence cannot be fought with more violence. Justice is important, but so is mercy and compassion. No person should be denied forgiveness and assistance to turn from his
Faith in Christ is the stronghold for Helen Burns. She considers living to the glory of God the purpose of her life. Her troubles and sorrows do not sway her faith, for she declares it her “duty to bear it” (56). For Helen, living a fruitful life means imitating the character of Christ. When Jane inquires why she allows her superiors to treat her unjustly, Helen first replies that Christ
In the public eye today, the expression "Capital punishment" mixes up a great deal of discussion and feelings. At whatever point the word comes up, in-your-face extremist from both sides hollers out contentions to bolster their position. One side says "eye for an eye", the other side says there 's a capability of executing a pure man; one says equity, reprisal, and discipline; the other side says execution is homicide. Wrongdoing is a clear a portion of society, and everybody knows that something must be done about it. A great many people know the danger of
People that support the death penalty argued that death penalty is righteously justified when enforced in murder especially with disturbing elements such as for multiple murder, child murder, serial killing, torture murder, mass murder, terrorism, massacre or genocide. It is said that the death penalty for murder is and should be "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".
Contradictory to Schorth, Robert Blecker goes on to that this punishment is not meant for revenge, using it as revenge would be as if we were using a person to send a message, the death penalty is much larger than that. We should kill for one reason and one reason only: They deserve it, in three words. In one word: justice”(Blecker). The death penalty is not used for revenge nor it does not continue a cycle, it ends the cycle. Criminals, such as the ones in the cases above, take from people, they take their lives, their peace, and their liberties in order to give themselves undeserved
Across America a battle of morals rages over the death penalty. Like many other controversial issues that consume our society, the issue of the death penalty is not easily defined. Some people feel that one should reap what they sow. However, the issue is more complex than the eye for an eye standard. With the death penalty in place, our country is stumbling down a twisted path with numerous complications nationwide.
Summary: In conclusion, when it comes to the death penalty the United States views and how we conduct them. The three branches of government have spoke and it looks like they are for implementing and enforcing the death penalty laws. As lawmakers continue to look for ways to combat our war on senseless murders, we must rally behind them and get Congress to send a strong message of accountability. It you commit the crime; you must do the time and pay the price. Even if means death, killing someone is never ok and it’s time to say enough is
Capital punishment on a balance does more harm than good. Even in the case of someone who has done the evilest things, forgiveness should remain. Our society cannot overcome violence with another form of violence. With everything that has been going in our surrounding – shooting and act of terrorism, our goal is to build a culture of life and solidarity with one
Society needs to change the eye for an eye mentality in order for civilization to advance past the revenge philosophy that leads to an endless cycle of violence (ACLU, 2012). The American Civil Liberties Union (2012) says that capital punishment is a violation of civil liberties and goes against everything that our democratic system stands for. The death penalty system in the United States is applied in an unfair manner against people based on how much money they have and the race of the victim (ACLU, 2012). African Americans are more likely to be executed than white people, especially if their victim was white (ACLU, 2012).
Helen was a nun who was often visiting Matthew to talk about his life, problems, or the bible. He knew he was sentenced to death row and felt as if he wanted to reach out to god. Throughout the video sister Helen believes that Matthew is innocent and tries to help him out with a lawyer to get him to a more lenient sentencing. That did not work as Matthew was again given the death row penalty. Sister Helen was never against Matthew she stayed by his side one hundred percent.
This is alarming for future criminals and already convicted prisoners. This serves as a caution so the criminal’s odds of committing the crime are reduced. For the thirty-four states that allow the death penalty, thirty-two use lethal injection as their primary execution approach. Even though lethal injection is most popular among convicts for execution, all methods prove to be quick, easy and rather painless. Thus, making the execution much more effective. The most supported reason as to why the death penalty needs to exist is the much cited “an eye for an eye.” People often defend their opinions with this mantra because they couldn’t care less about death row serving as a deterrent and view this as fair
From an early age, children are taught that murder is morally wrong. In today’s complex society that is impeded by unsettling periods of civil unrest, it is an expectation for everyone to acknowledge and accept that murder is one of the worst crimes individuals can commit. Perhaps it can be said that the death penalty is one of our legal system’s biggest contradictions of itself, as, if someone commits murder (or another heinous crime of that caliber), such ‘murderers’ will, in states that have capital punishment laws, be sent to Death Row and ultimately murdered in order to prevent potential future crimes by such perpetrators. I believe that the death penalty is wrong not only as it is immoral to take a life, but also, such ineffective laws waste money and do not deter crime.
The death penalty has been present, in one way or another, for virtually as long as human civilization has existed. The reasons why are apparent; it is intrinsically logical to human beings that a person who takes the life of another should also be killed. This philosophy is exemplified in the famous Biblical passage, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." However, in light of recent research into ethics, criminology and the justice system, the time has come for us to re-examine our ageless paradigm of revenge.
Would it be true that capital punishment saves lives? Edward Koch, in his article “Death and Justice” believes it does. Koch, using common techniques to influence his audience, suggests that killers should be handled within this tried and avenged form of punishment. Koch opens his article by quoting convicted murderers Robert Lee Willie and Joseph Carl Shaw, both in the last moments of their lives pleading for the justice system to put a stop to the endless cycle of killing. Using simple logic, Koch argues that the sudden changing of the killers’ moral character is not a result of remorse for the victims, but rather an attempt to save their own lives from the killing hands of the justice system. Koch effectively uses these quotes to suggest to the reader that a killer might have thought twice about his/her own actions if the death sentence were a belief.
Capital punishment, otherwise known as the death penalty, is a controversial subject which has been argued for decades due to the ethical decisions involved. People believe the death penalty is the right thing to do and that it is the perfect example of ‘justice’ while others believe that it is immoral and overly expensive. The death penalty is not a logical sentence for criminals, it doesn’t give them the right type of justice and it is immoral.
The preeminent leader of Indian M.K Gandhi, once said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” (gandhianpeace.com). This quote is saying that when someone making a wrong act to another person, that person will try to revenge on the same way like if a guy poke out a girl eye, that girl would try to poke the guy eye out, it will go on until both of them blind, also if the whole world were to do that everyone world will be blind, there won’t be justice anymore because no one can see. To see that problem, let 's look into death penalty, when someone committed to a serious crime, the judges sentence them to death. The reason that we have death penalty because some believe it will decrease crime since they fear death, and many other reason but not everyone agree on that, some believe that death penalty does not end or helping anything, the execution only wasting money and it is also murdering. Even though, a poll show that death penalty is being favor the most in 2014, now people still trying to debate whether to keep it or it should be abolished. Death penalty should not be legal because it is morally wrong, no one deserve to die,and “an eye for an eye” is never the answer to problem. Since the begin of death penalty, it has done nothing except taking people live away, not giving them a chance to fix their mistake, causing pain for their family members, so the government should just ban the death