Why I Support The Death Penalty Redux...

Last April, a 17 year old Kurdish woman was stoned by hundreds of men in her home village in Mosul, Iraq. Camera phones captured the event, and even the local police seen to be participating side by side with her uncle, cousin, and even her brother...

The crime? Falling in love with an outsider... an Arab Muslim.

According to the United Nations, around 5,000 women are murdered each year to "restore their family's honor"... Typically, these occur in non-Western cultures when a woman's behavior is seen as casting shame on the entire family.

It probably doesn't surprise anyone that this stuff happens in places like India, Syria, or Pakistan.

I wrote back in July about a woman in the U.K. who was murdered by her uncle.

This week, honor killings came to the U.S., and five people are now dead in two separate incidents...

In Chicago, an India-born Hindu set fire to the apartment that his daughter lived in, and 36 apartments in the building were destroyed. Not only did he murder his daughter, but also his son-in-law, three year old grandson, and his unborn grandchild, as the daughter was pregnant. Her crime? Marrying "below her caste" without permission....

In Dallas, an Egyptian-born Muslim allegedly murdered his 16 and 17 year old daughters in the back seat of a taxi he was driving, and then abandoned the cab in the parking lot of a hotel. Their crimes? Who knows... The father was allegedly distressed over their dating habits, and is still at large...

I find a little comfort in knowing that if the Dallas father is caught alive, he will be sent to Huntsville. While Allah may forgive him for restoring his family's honor, the State of Texas won't be as nice. He'll die strapped to a gurney. Makes me proud to have been a non-native born Texan...

Fortunately, here in the desert, we still execute criminals for capital crimes. There was only one execution in 2007 (compared to 26 in Texas...), the first in seven years. Time will tell if there will be any in 2008.

Unfortunately, while the Chicago father is eligible for the death penalty under Illinois law, he probably won't face the same. Thanks to former Governor Ryan, there's been a moratorium since 2000 on executions. In 2003, the Governor commuted all 176 death sentences for death row inmates, reducing their sentences to life. His successor, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has refused to lift the moratorium, but has not commuted any of the 11 death sentences issued since 2003.

I'd like to see Blagojevich or Ryan face the family of the murdered woman and justify their actions...