1000 and counting...

There's a lot of talk these days about the death penalty and what it means. The thousandth execution in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated happened just last week. The 1000th person to be executed was Kenneth Boyd. The execution took place in North Carolina on December 2, 2005 at 2am. Here's some international perspective: When Amnesty International convened an International Conference on the Death Penalty in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1977, just 16 countries had abolished capital punishment for all crimes. Today the figure stands at 86. The United States, obviously, is not one of those countries.
Closer to home, Stanley "Tookie" Williams is scheduled to be executed December 13, 2005 by lethal injection. His attorneys have a clemency hearing scheduled with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on December 8, 2005. Williams was convicted for the murders of Albert Owens, Tsai-Shai Yang, Yen-I Yang, and Yee Chen Lin, which took place in 1979 during two separate robberies. During the robberies, Williams shot Owens in the back of the head, execution style, and shot the Yang family up close with a shotgun, at point-blank range. He was also the founder, along with Raymond Washington, of the Crips, one of the most widely-known and notorious street gangs.
I heard a discussion on the radio this morning that gave me pause. After much hew and cry from opponents and proponents of the death penalty, a gentleman called in and made this observation: There is a penalty for parking in a red zone. That penalty is a thirty dollar ticket. Not everyone agrees that it is a fair price to pay, but it is the penalty. Death is the penalty in 38 of 50 states. Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin and the District of Columbia do not have a death penalty. Committing a crime with premeditation or "special circumstances" is a requirement for death penalty sentencing.
Meanwhile, across the globe, Saddam Hussein is (intermittently) on trial for his life. He was quoted recently saying, "I do not fear execution." The irony of his statement speaks for itself, as he and his co-defendants continue their trial in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims following a 1982 assassination attempt against him. The irony continues as the witnesses described the harsh treatment in the notorious Abu Ghraib. Saddam and his henchmen were the first to use the prison for torture, sleep deprivation and beatings with water hoses.
Who deserves to die? I can't answer that question. I have periodically had my own beliefs assailed by those who support a death penalty by having excessive and exploitive scenarios tossed at me along with the question, "Wouldn't you want that person (the one who raped/killed/maimed your family) to die?" So here it is, my bottom line: I don't know. I suspect that my gut reaction would be revenge - old testament style. Then I think that I would like to live in a world where the government wouldn't operate on gut reactions. I want my government to provide justice, not revenge.