Letter to Obama asking him about his attitude towards the death penalty

President Obama,

First of all I want to commend you for the amount of progress you have done for this country and the amount of help you have provided for countless of other countries.

I write you today in hopes that you answer the questions we pose. I say ‘we’ for this issue is more important than ‘I’. The issue being Capital Punishment otherwise known as the death penalty.

We are curious to know how such a great man like you supports this? It goes against the image you present and it’s such an inhumane punishment. How do you justify the killing of a human being done for and by the state? When and where will you draw the line? Please help us understand the whys on the matter for we have so many unanswered questions.

Being one of 3.297 death row inmates in the U.S. I can’t help but bear witness to the deterioration of countless of “human beings”. I emphasize “human beings” because even though there’s a statue of limitation on our rights we all still have a beating heart! This inhumane and cruel punishment is slowly but surely doing what it’s meant to do and that is killing us slowly.

Since I’ve been on the row I’ve seen countless of people commit suicide, die of natural causes, lose their mind and the very essence of their soul. If this isn’t cruel and unusual punishment then I don’t want to know what is!

The point is that it is not only a cruel and inhumane punishment, but it also does not deter crime or even prevent it! Numerous false convictions and innocent men/women have shown that this system is faulty. How many more individuals have to lose their lives in order to show that there’s something wrong with the system? How many more people will this country kill? The government shouldn’t become murderers themselves! What about being the example of a humane nation? Gandhi said it best: “Be the change you want to see in the world!” President Obama, we ask you to be that change! I end this letter with a slogan you made famous: “Change we can!”

Respectfully,

Carlos M. Argueta Jr.

http://deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com/2007/02/barack-obama-and-death-penalty.html