If dissenters from the death penalty wish to argue that these men don't deserve to die (actually they deserve far worse), or that regardless of what they deserve the state should nevertheless refrain from taking their lives, then they're saying that the lives of these men are far more valuable and precious than the lives of Mrs. Petit and her two daughters and that no crime could ever be bad enough, no act could ever be evil enough, that a criminal should be executed for it.
Such a view is, in my opinion, dehumanizing. It devalues the victims and devalues innocent life.
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| Joshua Komisarjevsky (left), Petit family (right) |
