Hello, this is pastor gary from first baptist church of laplata. Did you hear about the convicted triple murderer who appealed his lethal injection execution sentence? A lower court federal judge granted his request, but the US Supreme Court rejected it by a narrow 5-4 decision. The man was guilty of the crimes and had earned death as a consequence; the issue was that the man did not prefer to die by lethal injection because…wait for it…he is afraid of needles! The State of Alabama does offer a choice of execution styles, but this guy tried to exercise his option too late. While he may be afraid of needles, called trypanophobia, some are afraid of being murdered which is called foniasophobia. Did this murderer consider that his victims may have suffered from foniasophobia? Neither should we consider his trypanophobia. Even if he suffered this fear for the rest of his life—that would be less than 5 minutes. The Bible supports the death penalty explicitly in the Old Testament and implicitly in the New Testament. The death penalty in the Bible is much more severe providing no allowances for appeals or options to die. I support the death penalty after necessary due process; however, allowing a convicted murderer to sit on death row for 23 years, as in this case, only to make an almost successful 11th hour appeal is no deterrent to future would-be murderers. Jesus said in Matthew 26:52, “…all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”
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