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Tookie should have been executed a long time ago. There are hundreds of "guilty" people of all sorts who should see the final judgment. Do people still remember the murder of 12yr old Polly Klaas about 5yrs ago-why is her killer still being granted appeal after appeal. I see nothing wrong with the death penalty as long as it is carried out with due process and no longer than 4 years after sentencing.

As a Christian, I abhor the death penalty.

In the case of Williams, the crime was atricious, yet, life without parole is a suitable punishment. While the survivors of the victim/s may disagree, my Christian experience leads me to believe otherwise. For me, as a human, the decision as to whether or not a person lives or dies is up to God, not other humans. In the case of the death penalty, a human can determine this. I would hope that human would choose life.

Shalom

Even the Kookie 9th District Court of Appeals wouldn't even turn this one loose. Wonder what that says about their stance on the death penalty now?

I once thought the death penalty was basically a waste of time. But when the man who raped and murdered 12yr old Polly Klaas and then, at the trial, told her father that she "asked for it", I knew that vermin like that deserve no compassion!

"Even the Kookie 9th District Court of Appeals wouldn't even turn this one loose."

I wonder why it is that so many people had the idea that the issue was whether to execute Williams or "turn him loose"? No one ever suggested that he should be set free, that I heard of.

Toby, from my Christian view, I hope that when you go before God, that God will have compassion. If not, eternity will not be as wonderful.

Shalom

Darryl: thanks for being concerned with my well being and the mercy of God. I fully expect God to have more mercy than God. You may have forgotten what Jesus said about those who harm children. And it wasn't one year in jail and registration as a sex offender.

ooops...I meant to say that I fully expect God to show more mercy than "man". To much holiday cheer I guess.

The Gov did the right and just thing. I feared he would cave to the pressures of the Tinseltown elite and the far-left religious clack. The problem is that we have lost all understanding of the important differences between the personal and the civil realm. The bleeding heart crowd is more intent on looking “compassionate” for political appearances than for the sake of justice.

The Bible differentiates between one’s personal relationship with God and the clear duty of the state to execute justice in a consistent and fair manner. Unfortunately, blurring this distinction has become a right of passage to board the P.C. humanistic bandwagon nowadays. Darryl says, “As a Christian, I abhor the death penalty . . . the decision as to whether or not a person lives or dies is up to God, not other humans.” In saying this he is failing to make this differentiation.

In fact, God HAS entrusted the civil magistrate (man), not Himself, with the obligation to dispense justice in the public arena. The entire Old Testament law passages prove this beyond dispute. And St. Paul reiterates this in Romans 13:1 ff. He declares: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God . . . For he is God’s minister to you for good . . . for he does not bear the sword in vain . . . (he is) an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” If the corruptions and horrors of sin are left un-checked by the “sword,” the safety and peace of any social order will collapse in anarchy, a hint of which we saw in the aftermath of Katrina.

Jesus also instructs persons to submit to the Temple authorities and to pay taxes to Caesar. And in the case of the woman caught in adultery, he was simply dealing with a bunch of vigilantes who were acting without due process, according to O.T. standards – as well as extending mercy to the woman on a PERSONAL basis: “Go and sin no more.”

Salvation is a transaction between God and the individual soul, not a corporate affair. On the Day of Pentecost, St. Peter requires that the people repent and believe and be baptized in order to be saved. They could not do it as a crowd, but only as individuals.

Point. Tookie could have – and hopefully did – repent of his sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to escape the sure wrath to come. And no one can blame anyone for seeking legal means to escape death. But the state’s legal responsibility, under God, to execute his well-deserved sentence was clear in this case; and was rightly carried out. Clemency is generally seen as the staying of a sentence because of legal error or complications, not the caprice of a governing official, or because the convict exhibits good behavior; especially in grievous murder cases.

Just warfare is another example of the confusion between individual morality and state responsibility. It is categorically wrong and sinful, as Jesus and the Law taught, to murder another individual(s). On the other hand, it is immoral for the state NOT to protect its citizens when they are under attack and the lives of innocent men, women and children are at stake. Pacifists seek to make themselves more spiritual than others by refusing to kill under ANY circumstances. They are to be commended for working for peace, but they are in error when they seek to undermine the just defense of a nation – or impugn police for using lethal force to save lives. They generally have little sense of the mindless and rapacious evil of the sin nature in man – and the physical means God has entrusted to us to check its power.

The problem today is that we have rejected God and His Word as the source for our thinking and practice. Consequently, we are prone to repeat all the confused and disastrous errors of those who perpetrated them in the past. Rather than studying God’s Word open-mindedly and faith-FULLY the engineers of a socialist state are trying to appear “super-compasionate” rather than thinking straight. Fortunately, so far, most Americans see through this charade. But even this common sense response of the general public is not born of comprehensive biblical understanding, and is subject to its own extremes and errors. What we all need to do is to submit to the Lordship of Messiah Jesus and the wise and just principles revealed in His Word – Old and New Testaments.

Civil justice is not, and cannot ever be, the same as personal redemption. To attempt to blur this distinction will result in the dissolution of our nation. But maybe that’s what the atheistic, leftist advocates want. Marx, Voltaire and Sanger would smile upon them if they weren’t so busy enduring the fiery torments of eternal judgment.