I’ve decided to write my blog about a late breaking story that is occuring locally. I found an article that descibes the events in Margaretville, NY. The events in the article describe how a 23 year old man, Travis Trim, shot and killed a New York State Trooper and woonded two others. Trim was able to steal a minivan and drive to a farmhouse in Margaretville, where he was exected to be inside. Just recently, as I was watching the local news they had reported that a fire had erupted in the house Trim was thought to be in.
Out of this controversy many people are questioning whether or not New York State should have a death penalty law. Currently there is not one, however many believe that if a person kills another trooper or law enforcement person then they should be charged with the death penalty. When speaking of the death penatly the article stated, “Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said his chamber would approve legislation next week to bring it back for the killing of police officers and prison guards and in cases of deaths caused by terrorists.
Obviously there is still alot about this story that needs to be uncovered, but who should choose whether or not a person should get the death penalty? It’s definitely a terrible crime that has been commited and the trooper who was killed in the line of duty leaves behind a wife and a 7 month old infant, so should personal effects be thought of when penalizing a criminal?
Only time will tell what the outcome of this story will be…
I think it’s really interesting that legislators would consider using the death penalty when a person kills a trooper or other law enforcement person. Honestly, I feel like this relates a lot to what we discussing today in class in regards to saying that a child’s life is worth more than a woman’s. In this situation who’s to say that a police officer’s life is worth anymore than the average person who gets killed? I don’t mean to take anything away from the fact that this trooper has left behind a wife and small child who will unfortunately not remember his/her father, but many other people who are victims of crimes also leave behind family members and friends. Obviously the death penalty is an extremely controversial so I won’t really get into that, but I really don’t understand how legislators could decide the death penalty is appropriate when a cop is killed, but the loss of other people’s lives isn’t as important if they’re killed.
Comment by Christine — April 26, 2007 @ 8:08 pm |
I don’t agree with the Death Penalty in any way, shape or form. To be honest other than this being a moral issue for me, I also feel like it’s a complete cop out. Here you have a person that’s done a horrible deed. So instead of putting him through the pains of prison and confinement, you kill him. I think that he should have to suffer, lethal injection kills them quickly and relatively painlessly. I’d rather have someone go through prison and live, knowing and regreting what they did every day. I also would have to agree with Christine in regards to a police officer’s life being more valuable than a average person. A life is a life, plain and simple. I think that if this happened to a normal, average person he should suffer the same consequences.
Comment by spinmymotivation — April 26, 2007 @ 8:53 pm |
I think that having the death penalty be the punishment for killing an officer of the law is absolutely ridiculous. Why do pepole of the law have any significance over other innocent people who are killed. So a man can kill a child and just get life in jail but heaven forbid you kill an officer you get the death penalty. If a crime is commited towards a person who has no tie to the law that person who commited the crime should suffer the maximum consequence as well!
Comment by kellyb816 — April 26, 2007 @ 8:59 pm |