Comment & Debate
Paul Bosco, whose brother was murdered (son of Antoinette Bosco). – One of the great counterarguments death penalty opponents face is the challenge, ‘If it were your spouse/child/sibling who was murdered, you’d feel differently.’ Never did I feel that that boy’s shocked parents, who were losing their son as surely as my parents lost theirs, and who have the added pain of shame, needed to suffer more. An 18-year-old’s execution would not give back the dead. Nor would it have given me ‘closure’, which I regard as a myth – a politician’s fiction. Spare me, please, your feel-good vengeance.[1]
Kathy Bowman, who lost several family members to murder. – Even though I lost loved ones, I just don’t have the heart to do that to someone else…. It won’t bring family back. I’m a Catholic, and I believe in the sanctity of human life. I also know the legal system is fraught with error, and it could put to death someone who is not guilty.[2]