God gave us a commandment saying “Thou shalt not kill”. What is not understood about this is that the correct interpretation is “Though shalt not commit murder”. There is a difference between killing and murdering. David killed Goliath in Gods name. When Jesus stopped the people from stoning Mary, he did not tell them they could not stone her. He simply said “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. He only made them realize they all had sin in their lives. He did not say it was wrong to stone. Jesus himself was nailed to a cross as a criminal would be. He never said it was wrong to punish the criminals like that. Simply put, even in Gods eyes, the death penalty is acceptable.
When someone commits murder, it is killing the innocent and doing it oustide of the boundries of the law. In my own opinion, if someone commits murder, they do not only give up their right to live but they give up their rights. It really bugs me when people complain that criminals have rights too. Recently there was a misshap in Florida when a criminal was put to death. The needle did not make it into the vains and instead of killing him, it gave him chemical burns in his arm and they had to give him another shot to kill him. There was an outcry that it was a wrongful and harsh death and all Death Sentences were suspended. Personally I think they need to investigate whether it was an accident or not. Punish the wrong doers. yet to scream that he was robbed of his right to die peacefully is ludicrous. I really dont think he was on death row for shoplifting. I doubt he was there for cheating in Monopoly. If he was on death row he was a hardened criminal and likely a killer. Did his victims have a right to die peacefully?
One could ask the question “what is the difference between disciplining a child and abusing a child?” The answer is that one is done through anger and the other is done witha cool head and out of love. Yes there is a fine line between them, but still they are different. The same can be said of the difference between murder and the Death Penalty. One is done out of malice and the other is done with justice. Both are killings, but only one is murder!