Victim Campaigns for Change in Shooter's Death Penalty Sentence

Racism, paranoia, and violence rage throughout our society; but in a blog post by Scott Henson, a former journalist and public policy researcher, I have found a ray of hope in our ever darkening world.

Henson reports of a hate-crime victim who was shot in the face by a white supremacist who was shooting middle easterners in response to the 9/11 attack. The victim, Rais Bhuiyan, was the only survivor from three other shootings by the same white supremacist. And as scarred as Bhuiyan might be, he now wishes to confront his attacker, Mark Stroman, by means of the victim-offender mediation program provided by the state. The only problem is that Stroman is scheduled to be executed this week; and though Bhuiyan could get some closure by watching that wacko's execution, he insists Stroman's sentence be changed to life without parole and has launched a campaign in the efforts to do so.

After reading Henson's post, I was certainly surprised. A middle easterner trying to change the sentence of his death-row shooter so that he can live out his life and so that the victim could have an opportunity to obtain closure, information, and possibly even forgiveness is definitely something one doesn't hear everyday. However rare this situation must be, it shows that people are still able to look over their ethnic differences and religious preferences in order to have peace or restorative justice.

As for the issue of the death penalty, I believe this should be kept in tact but not used often. The fact is that there are some people in Texas and in the world who have committed such awful and terrible crimes against humanity that even a death sentence would still be too good for them. Sadly, these kinds of evil persons are better off dead. The end of WWII is a good example of this kind of penalty, where the Allies sought out those who committed such crimes in order to try and then hang them.

This post is a good read for those readers interested in victim rights, restorative justice and the death penalty. The post also provides additional links for readers who wish to go further into the story.