Death Penalty

Bobby Wayne Woods is supposed to be executed on Thursday in Texas, unless the United States Supreme Court agrees to hear his case. Mr. Wood’s lawyer claims that he has an extremely low I.Q. and he is mentally retarded. In 1997 Bobby Wayne Woods was convicted of brutally killing an 11 year old girl and was sentenced to death. In 2002 the Supreme Court ruled that mentally impaired people are not allowed to be executed, but they state courts rule on who qualifies as mentally retarded. Mr. Woods struggled in school as a child because of his low I.Q. and had to drop out while he was in the seventh grade. Mr. Woods brutally raped and killed an 11 year old girl and molested her brother Cody as well. He left Cody in a cemetery basically dead, but somehow someone found him and he survived. Cody testified in court that Mr. Woods is the man who killed his sister and molested him. Wood’s confessed his crimes and there was clear physical evidence against him.

Although Bobby Wayne Woods clearly committed a heinous crime, I do not think he should be executed. I am not saying that just because he is mentally impaired, but because I am completely against the death penalty. I do not believe humans should play the role of god and decide when other people should die or not. I think we should let Mr. Woods live the rest of his life in prison and take away all of his freedoms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/us/04execute.html?_r=1&hp