Michael Decker
Mrs. Robinson
AP English
To the surprise of anyone who knows me, I am all for capital punishment. Perry did deserve to be put to death. He committed the crime and admitted it was him who did all 4 acts. Regardless of his perception at the time, he knew that killing was wrong. He did it anyway. What was human in him had long-ago died. The only thing that died was the outer shell that only harbored an evil and vicious killing machine in it. I do not understand why people who assume that if someone is more oriented to kill then they are without fault when they do. Everyone has something intrinsic to them that may or may not be desired. It should not be treated aside from us. It is part of what we call ourselves. Regardless of whether he was a child and all that changed him, he was still Perry. His environment may have changed him but then that was him, was it not? If we were punishing another Perry then why had he never manifested himself? Murder was okay for this Perry and this is the Perry we were killing, was it not? Being more inclined to kill does not excuse the killing. He went there knowing he was going to kill. He knew it was wrong and that was why he had second thoughts about it. He went ahead with it. He was “proving a point” to Dick. Then let us “prove a point” to the world and extinguish those who kill. Dick on the other hand, did not deserve to die. Capital punishment is only meant for those who committed murder, which he did not. Perry admitted to all 4 murders. Why Dick was put to death is beyond me. He was only an accomplice to the crime. That is what his punishment should have been based on. He drove Perry there and pretty much got Perry to do the murder. He gave the plan. He was the mastermind. He wanted them dead. But he never killed. He was not a “[explicative] killer”. Yes, people do deserve the death penalty. I do like the way Green put it. Even if you come from a religious point (which is not where I am coming from but it at least proves it both ways). The Bible, on which our law is largely based, does call “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. Jesus kept the laws as is. The summation done by Green was the work of pure genius. My view comes more from a less noble perspective. I believe that if the law is in place and you violate the law, knowing the punishment, then you should receive that punishment. Also, if you do claim that some people are more inclined to killing than others, then why keep those with killing in their genes to propagate and create more killers?