To: New Mexico – Governor Bill Richardson , the Legislature, prosecutors and

                                          media throughout the  state
 
Re: House Testimony,  Muina Arthur
 
From: Dudley Sharp, contact info below
 
Everyone should have justified sympathy for Muina Arthur, whose son Karl Eugene Chamberlain was executed. Chamberlain was executed because he raped and murdered 30 year old Felecia Prechtl.
 
However, she was in error, by saying: “I am the survivor of a murder victim,” meaning her son’s execution.
 
Make no mistake, Felicia Prechtl was the innocent rape/murder victim. She was murdered.
 
Karl Chamberlain was the guilty murderer justly executed for that crime. His just sanction was execution for that murder.
 
There is a huge moral difference between the murder of an innocent rape/murder victim and the just execution of the guilty rapist/murderer who committed that crime. (see
 
Please do not confuse the innocent and the guilty, the victim and the perpetrator, the crime and the just sanction.
 
Be as opposed to the death penalty as you wish, just don’t equate murder and execution. It is an amoral or an immoral equation.
 
No one wants any parent to suffer the horror of knowing their child is a rapist/murderer.
 
Nor do we wish that the parents of the true murder victim, Felecia Prechtl, will have to hear that someone is trying to find some moral equivalence between the rape/murder of their daughter with the execution of her rapist/murderer. Even the hint of it should not be approved.
 
Please.
 
————
 
See Killing Equals Killing, below
 
 
Dudley Sharp
e-mail  sharpjfa@aol.com,  713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas

Mr. Sharp has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS , VOA and many other TV and radio networks, on such programs as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, etc., has been quoted in newspapers throughout the world and is a published author.

A former opponent of capital punishment, he has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.

 
 
 
Killing equals Killing: The Amoral Confusion of death penalty opponents
Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters, contact info below

There is a very common anti death penalty slogan:

 
 “Why do we kill people to show that killing people is wrong?”

We don’t. Even with no sanction, most folks know that committing murder is wrong.

We execute guilty murderers who have murdered innocent people.

The difference between crime and punishment, guilty murderers and their innocent victims is very clear to most.

The moral confusion exists when people blindly accept the amoral or immoral position that all killing is equal.

The anti death penalty folks are just looking at an act —  “killing” —  and saying all killings are the same. Only an amoral person would equate acts, without considering the purpose behind them.

For those, like some anti death penalty folks,  who believe all killing is morally equivalent, they would equate the slaughter of 6 million innocent Jews and 6-7 million additional innocents with the execution of those guilty murderers committing that slaughter. They would also equate the rape and murder of children with the execution of the rapist/murderer.

This is what the anti death penalty folks do, morally equate killing (murder) with the punishment for that murder, another killing (execution).

For such anti death penalty folks to be consistent, they must also equate holding people against their will (illegal kidnapping) with the sanction for it, the holding people against their will (legal incarceration) or the taking money away from people (illegal robbery) with a sanction for that, taking money away from people (legal restitution).

Most folks understand the moral differences.

Some anti death penalty folks are either incapable of knowing the moral differences between crime and punishment, guilty criminals and their innocent victims, or they are knowingly using a dishonest slogan by equating  killing (murder) with killing (execution).

 
Either way, it’s time to stop it.  It is just too grotesque a tool.

copyright 2000-2009 Dudley Sharp: Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part,  is approved with proper attribution.

Pro death penalty sites 

homicidesurvivors.com/categories/Dudley%20Sharp%20-%20Justice%20Matters.aspx

www.dpinfo.com
www.cjlf.org/deathpenalty/DPinformation.htm
www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/links/dplinks.htm
www.coastda.com/archives.html       see Death Penalty
www.lexingtonprosecutor.com/death_penalty_debate.htm
www.prodeathpenalty.com
http://yesdeathpenalty.googlepages.com/home2   (Sweden)
www.wesleylowe.com/cp.html

16 thoughts on “Murder and execution – Very distinct moral differences. New Mexico

  • April 21, 2011 at 6:02 pm
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    Be sure not to limit yourself. Lots of guys limit themselves to what they think they can do. Remember you can gothat far as your mind will let you.

    Reply
  • April 27, 2011 at 9:09 pm
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    Hi!
    There are a few questions on your site.
    How can I contact the administration?

    Reply
  • February 19, 2013 at 9:26 pm
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    I was going to respond to this point by point. I was going to try to demonstrate how intellectually bankrupt you are. I was going to call you out, in detail, for dressing up bloodlust in the veneer of reason.

    Then I realized that your site is called “Homicide Survivors”. I think that choice pretty perfectly captures all anyone needs to know about your grasp of logic.

    Reply
  • February 19, 2013 at 10:02 pm
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    Well Mr. “Full of yourself” Emmett Rensin if you were so smart you would have noticed the article was not written by the owner of this domain. I am the owner, and I maintain the articles. Mr. Sharp is NOT a homicide survivor therefore your stupid reaction is just that, and speaks volumns to what type of bleeding heart you are.

    I imagine you are from somewhere like OHIO, CA, or NY too. Or perhaps there is a murderer in your family. People like you put no thought into the rights taken from the victims and glorify the killers and pretend that your kind are above horrors like murder and the death penalty. I find that emotionally scatterbrained.

    Say something worthwhile why don’t you instead of using a typical anti death penatly cop out and calling people names.

    Patti March

    Reply
  • February 20, 2013 at 2:07 am
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    Perhaps you should reflect on the meaning of your words, and just who would count as a `homicide survivor’

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  • February 20, 2013 at 3:52 am
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    Again, proof of an emotionally scatterbrained individual with no research or forethought.

    The law in most states define the victims of homicide as the parents, siblings, children & grandparents. These people are not the true victims so they describe themselves as Homicide Survivors because they are the ones who must survive the insane justice system where people like you trivialize the murder by giving all the rights to the criminal. They must speak for their loved ones but they are not the victims. They survive the murder of their loved ones.

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  • February 20, 2013 at 5:55 am
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    Only the silly/stupid attempt to understand the term “homicide survivor” as someone who has survivied their own homicide.

    Obviously, that is not the meaning of the term.

    If not that, what? A survivor who was very close to someone who was murdered, lkely a family member or very close friend – a survivor of that terrible event within their lives.

    You simply have to think.

    Reply
  • February 20, 2013 at 6:56 am
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    Emmett:

    I get a lot of that “I could rebut your article” nonsense and then those folks, like you, just run away with some excuse, as you did.

    Man up.

    I grasp the logic of folks like you, that criticize, but completely lack any conviction to follow through because they can’t, because their criticism is empty, and they know it, as with you.

    Reply
  • June 25, 2013 at 12:39 pm
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    If thinking is your strong suit, then I challenge you to think of a more accurate term to use when speaking of the families and friends of a murder victim.

    Words make a difference, Dudley. The families and friends of murder victims are most definitely NOT homicide survivors. The term may be a convenient shorthand but, like most attempts at shorthand, it is not accurate. It can also lead to sloppy thinking generally.

    But perhaps that is your intention. If it is, then excuse me for saying, “Gotcha!”

    Reply
    • September 26, 2016 at 10:45 am
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      Caroline:

      It is my understanding that homicide survivors have been using that term for quite a long time.

      When I first saw Patti’s site, this one, I understood exactly what it meant, which was “I am a survivor of a loved one who was murdered.”

      I am certain that everyone knows that homicide victims do not survive, by definition. Therefore, it is, instantly, understood what the term really means, which was my experience.

      Reply
  • June 25, 2013 at 2:37 pm
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    Caroline,

    Why do you challenge Dudley Sharp to find a word to describe people who are the family and friends of homicide victims? Why do you feel that that the family and friends as you stated above should not be called homicide survivors just because they are NOT homicide survivors. Taken literally, of course, they are not homicide survivors. Do you think they don’t realize this?

    If you could take a moment to think about it you could understand that the term was certainly not made up by Dudley. The term was coined by the family and friends of murder victims a long time ago.

    As one of those “family and friends of homicide victims” myself, the term makes total sense to me. It is not just shorthand. If you have had a child or any loved one murdered you are certainly NOT the victim. True. But what are we? The constitution of NM says close family members are to be considered “the victim/s”.

    The NM Constitution says:
    “victim” means an individual against whom a criminal offense is committed. “Victim” also means a family member or a victim’s representative when the individual against whom a criminal offense was committed is a minor, is incompetent or is a homicide victim; and New Mexico Crime Victims’ Rights LawsPage 4 of 9

    We, the homicide survivors, do NOT want the actual victim to be forgotten as we are forced to live and work through our justice system. We are also surviving the loss of our loved ones and we are living through the pain and horror of that loss and most of us will suffer even more as we go through the justice system and have to listen to the details of our loved ones deaths at the hands of a brutal killer. I call that surviving homicide. If that makes you uncomfortable, oh well….

    I don’t really see any “Gotcha” here.

    Reply
  • September 26, 2016 at 12:16 am
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    The heartlessness and callousness of those who berate survivors of murder(aka Homicide Survivors) is infinite

    Reply
  • October 16, 2020 at 10:08 pm
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    You make better points than other people…

    Reply

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