Death Row gets another death to add to the others!

John Allen Muhammad was put to death yesterday. He was the so-called Washington Sniper. Apparently he was a schizophrenic. Plus he was paranoid and psychotic and delusional. Just the type to bung in the Death Chamber. There's a lot of death around at the moment. By that, I mean not by natural causes. There was the Brit gunned down by a trigger-happy guy in Amarillo. Then the Muslim soldier went on the rampage killing as he went in the army compound. Death in Afghanistan, now too much for many to bear. And a young footballer in Germany sends himself to the next world by getting hit by a train.

Death all around us. Many Americans think death is something of a punishment. In that they've got some kind of religious schizophrenia. The victims of Muhammad's gunfire were encouraged to visit the execution. All grist to the vengeance mill, quite out of keeping with Dominical Teaching. "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. I will repay". Not a message that the Correctional Centers like put to them. One visitor welcomed the death. "He basically watched my dad breathe his last breath," she told the Associated Press news agency. "Why shouldn't I watch his last breath?" No reason, but is that going to be repeated at the Last Judgement?

This execution will do not one jot of difference to the safety and wellbeing of Americans and visitors to the United States. I take it as read that if I set foot in the country I may not leave as I arrived. The answer to the justice question is to keep schizophrenics off the streets and to curtail their ability to buy guns. One wonders where the madmen actually are. My guess is that quite a few are sitting in Washington cleaning out their porkbarrels!