arts of death penalty
...t should be (Stewart 50). If the death penalty has been declared legal, then the federal and state governments must employ it to its fullest as a means of stopping previous murderers from recommitting their crimes. Since most of the prisoners on death row are there for murder, executing them would ensure that they would never kill again. Obsessive murderers, who know no alternative to killing, need to be executed to protect both prison guards and society. This view is perhaps best illustrated through the words of Judge Alfred J. Talley of New York who explained “If I as an individual have the right to kill in self defense, why has not the state, which is nothing more than an aggregation of individuals, the same right to defend itself against unjust aggression and unjust attack?” (Kaplan 28) About two and a half years ago, my dear cousin, Jaime, became the first victim of a serial killer named Brian Duffy. Jaime, a beautiful twenty-year-old college student at SUNY Binghamton, had been walking back to her dorm after class when she was abducted by Duffy at gunpoint. Wearing a black ski mask and gloves, Jaime’s friends were unable to identify him. Having no idea who this man was, they watched in horror as Jaime was grabbed, threatened, and taken away. Jaime was thrown into the front seat of a red Nissan Sentra with no license plates. Later that day, the police located the vehicle, which had been reported stolen, but Jaime and her abductor where nowhere to be found. There was not a single trace of evidence except for the fact that the car was stolen from Jaime’s hometown community. Weeks went by and there were still no answers until the day two women, from Syracuse University, were abducted at gunpoint, the same way that Jaime was. The police soon realized that the three kidnappings had significant connections linking them together. These three women had all gone to high school together. Not only did they go to the same high school, they had all dated the same man at one point in time- Brian Duffy. It wasn’t long before police tracked him down for questioning. Brian Duffy was arrested in April of 1997 for the rape and murder of my cousin Jaime and the two other young women. They were found buried in his backyard, severely decomposed, beaten, and raped. Each of them had a bullet lodged in their brain. Duffy was sentenced to death two months later. He never stated a motive for what he did, nor did he show remorse. It is now more than two years later and Brian Duffy is still alive and breathing. I am physically sickened when I think about how this killer gets three meals a day and a bed to sleep in, while someone I loved dearly lies dead in a coffin because of his actions. Brian Duffy, or any other convicted murderer, should not have the right to leng...