A twenty-one year old man sneaks into a garage when the 85-year old woman owner was outside gardening. She returned to the garage and closed the door. The man could easily have escaped by running out the door or hidden in the storage area of the garage. Instead, he threw a blanket over the woman's head and smashed he head and torso against a brick wall. Her face was so badly beaten, she was unrecognizable. After she fell to the floor unconscious, the man first stomped on her head and body and then pulled her panties off. She was near death when she reached the hospital and died of brain injuries within hours.

The man was witnessed leaving the garage by three people who positively identified him. He left both DNA and fingerprint evidence, and finally he confessed to the crime.

The crime occurred in Illinois where crimes of violence against the elderly, children or the disabled are called 'Class X felonies', meaning there is no chance of parole. The sentence must be served in full.

The man had a criminal record, multiple convictions for non-violent crimes. He was not a drug addict nor was he mentally impaired. The jury took only an hour to reach a guilty verdict. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty and the man opted to have the judge declare his sentence, not the jury. The maximum penalty in Illinois for first degree murder is 60 years, although a jury or judge can reduce the sentence to any amount of time less than thre maximum.

The man was convicted of first degree murder, as well as burglary and breaking and entering. The maximum sentences for those crimes is 7 years each.

The elderly woman was my Mother. Were you in my shoes, what sentence would you feel provided you with justice?
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Making a long story shorter, after the convicted murderer badly misbehaved at his sentencing hearing, the judge sentenced him to the maximum for all three crimes, to be served sequentially--a total sentence of 74 years, essentially life in prison with no chance of parole.

Would you be satisfied? If he was sentenced to substantially less time, would you be satisfied that justice had been served?

I was was not upset that the sentence was not the death penalty sought be the prosecutors. In fact, I probably would not have been distraught if the sentence was even less than the maximum. Why, you might ask?

While it took me some time, I finally resolved the situation by re-visiting what I had been taught by my Mother and Dad as a child...that we must forgive those who act against us. For that reason, I was satisfied with the sentence, as I would have been with whatever sentence was handed down by the judge and the Court. I concluded that the Illinois courts were simply not all that important in the grander scheme of things. I know and believe that unless the murderer confesses his crimes to God and seeks His redemption, he will be sentenced to a much longer and more terrible sentence at a higher, final Court. As we know from the Old Testament, God is not necessarily as kind and considerate as many here on Earth who mount various arguments on the fairness of humans judged by other humans.

A lot of the arguments for and against the death penalty that you hear set forth in forums or discussions like this one take on new meaning when you are personally involved. When that happens the victims must somehow reach whatever conclusion they are capable of regarding "justice" without consideration of issues like cost to the state or supposed "moral considerations". I should remind you that God's laws are quite clear, as are his penalties. He does not necessarily consider some of the common arguments against the death penalty, including some presented here.