Colonel Russell Williams presents one hell of a good reason for capital punishment in Canada. A brother of one of Russell's victims said this week that to hear Russell was to hear the "voice of the devil". Surely, there can be no better way to encapsulate Russell. He has shown himself to be utterly devoid of all sense of human decency. He has committed acts of murderous depravity that should put him completely beyond the pale of mercy. Yet he is being shown exactly that with his sentencing. He is being given the mercy he denied his victims. Two concurrent "life" sentences after he sentenced his victims to death? Sentences with a chance of parole in 25 years? A chance to be free again? How could anyone think of extending such mercy to a rogue animal like Russell?
When a domestic dog goes rogue and kills, it is euthanized. Period. When a wild animal, such as a cougar or a bear, attacks humans, it is hunted down and killed. Period. No-one agonizes over the decision or what it might say about our morals. The animal's actions are regarded as incontrovertible proof that there is no other way to handle it than to terminate its existence.
There are those, of course, who would answer such an argument with an immediate avowal of Russell's humanity, and say that is the reason why he should be imprisoned rather than executed; that is the reason why he should even receive the chance of parole. They would say his being human is the reason why we must treat him differently than we do the four-footed killers mentioned above, in order to maintain our moral standards. I say Russell differs from the above killers only in his premeditation. There is no other difference, and we should not pretend otherwise. He is an animal gone bad.
He has provided more than enough evidence that we have the killer in custody. No-one need worry that an innocent man would be mistakenly sent to his death. Russell himself has dealt with every possible objection that could be raised to killing him.
He should be marched out to the back of the courtroom and stood up in front of a firing squad. His death will not restore his victims so torturous endings for him would be pointless. An expedient end to his existence is all that is needed, to ensure that this animal never kills again. Russell needs to reap what he has sown.
1 comments:
Yes, some people say "that would bring us back to Texas Law", as if the rest of humanity is more evolved. I don't think I can agree with protecting human life as sacred, especially not when it does bad things, or proves that it is not capable of caring for other human life.
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