Justice or Vengeance?

Last week’s headlines were full of stories of the trial of Michael Rafferty, co-accused in the abduction, rape, and murder of 8-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford. The trial continues this week in London, and so will the media coverage.

The testimony is chilling and disturbing.

Terry-Lynn McClintic has already pleaded guilty of murdering Tori, and is currently serving a life sentence.

The trial will hear testimony concerning Rafferty’s role; his lawyer that McClintic was the mastermind in the incident, and that Rafferty was an unwitting accomplice.

Comments posted on various media websites express disgust and revulsion at the details that have been revealed.

Many have suggested that this is precisely the type of case that demands the return of the death penalty.

In the SooToday View Room, poster Budster commented. “I'm not really a fan of capital punishment however in cases such as this I can make an exception.”

Indeed, there have been many such comments on most of the media discussion forums I have been following.

The question, however, is whether or not putting perpetrators such as these would be “justice.”

Certainly it would make some people feel better, knowing that the perpetrators will never again be able to commit such horrific crimes. In some respects this is similar to the Middle-eastern practice of chopping-off the hand of a thief.

The difference is, the thief can make the choice to abandon his or her criminal ways.

Putting a convicted criminal to death offers them no such choice.

Of course, it can be argued that their victims had no choice, either. Still, do two wrongs make a right?

There are those who maintain that capital punishment is just that; the ultimate punishment that can be meted out.

punishment • the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offence. _{(Oxford English Dictionary)}

To me, a punishment or penalty should be something that the person being punished is aware of, and that may – or may not – affect a change in that person’s behaviour.

When, as kids, we were punished for whatever misdeed we committed, the goal was that we would not commit that same misdeed ever again.

Since there is no opportunity for the guilty person who is put to death to change their ways, can that really be called “punishment?”

Some suggest that bringing back the death penalty will serve as a deterrent to others. Judging by the number of murders and other serious crime that is committed in jurisdictions that do have capital punishment, this would appear to be a fallacy.

To me, the ultimate punishment should be life in prison: a true life sentence.

Denying a person their freedom, keeping them locked away from society for the rest of their natural life, would be punishment. Every single day they would wake up knowing they would never set foot beyond the prison walls; every night they would retire knowing that morning would not bring any change.

In between they would be trapped in their own minds, craving the freedom that they have been denied, tormented by the knowledge that they will spend day after day for the rest of their lives behind bars.

Whether that time behind bars causes them to rethink their lives, whether or not they “find God” and repent their sins, they would still have to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

To me that would be punishment.

I know that some would not consider that a sufficient price to pay, that they believe that a killers life should be forfeited to pay for the life, or lives, that was taken.

But is that justice, or vengeance?

If someone breaks into your house and steals your TV, would it be justice for you to break into the thief’s home and steal something in return?

If someone hits you, is it justice to hit them back?

Many people have commented on the demeanour of Stafford’s father throughout the trial. While we are disgusted and sickened by the horrendous details, Tori was just a little girl in another city who met a very horrible fate.

She was his daughter.

View Room poster statusquo says, “How he maintains his composure is beyond me. If it was me I would be a basket case! Ripe to be shackled and locked away.”

I understand his sentiment, as did a number of other posters on this site and others.

Still, I am reminded of a comment made by Rodney Stafford at the beginning of the trial.

“It's not about Rafferty. It's about a little girl who lost her life."

In an interview, Stafford said his emotions over the past three years have been, "Up, down, all over the place. It's hard to explain. You can't even put it into words. One song can change your total demeanour from being positive into being a whimpering fool."

He also was quoted as saying, “As hard as this is, it needs to get out there.” Stafford has had regular contact with the media, and has frequently shared his pain publicly since his the trial began.

I do not know how he has found the fortitude to sit in the courtroom and listen to the horrific and gruesome details of his daughter’s murder. But he does.

He has not, however, lent his voice to the call for the return of capital punishment.

I have read comments from family members of other murder victims who wanted to see justice done, but were not seeking vengeance. Many state the obvious: killing the murderer will not bring their loved one back to them.

They can find “closure” in seeing the convicted murderer locked away for life.

It is, of course, easy for us to say from the sidelines, “If that was my child I’d want to see the killer dead.”

Some even suggest they could save the taxpayers the expense of a trial. Well, the first trial, anyway.

Taking “justice” into our own hands is not justice.

Whether the killer is put to death by the state or at the hands of a parent or loved one of their victim, the moment of death ends their consciousness. Period.

Why let the monsters off that easily?

The families and friends of their victims will have to spend the rest of their lives without their loved one. Why not make the killers spend a similar amount of time locked behind bars, denied the freedom the rest of us take for granted?

It is not punishment if the killer is not aware of his or her fate.

Vengeance, retribution, pay-back – this is not the purpose of our justice system.

Granted, our justice system has not always served us perfectly. Accused who were most certainly guilty have been released on “technicalities,” while innocent people have been found guilty and sentenced to prison.

Overall, however, the system works.

In the Stafford case, as in many before it and those that – sadly – will follow, there will be calls from may quarters for the return of the death penalty.

We must reject these calls.

Putting convicted murderers to death will certainly prevent them from killing ever again. So, too, would sentencing them to prison for life.

Life. Not twenty years. Life.

I want them to spend many long years reflecting on what they have done, all the while knowing that they will never again set foot outside of the prison walls.

To me, that would be justice.

But… that’s just my opinion.