Clifford Boggess should not have been executed. From the time he was born, it seemed that his fate was already decided. He was born into a family with a drug addicted, alcoholic, and abusive mother. After living as a baby in that terrible environment, he lived in an orphanage until the Boggess family adopted him. But, soon after this his adopted parents divorced and he was sent to live with his grandparents. Both of these factors very early in his life had a major impact on him and who he grew up to be. As he grew up, he recalled never feeling like he belonged. He had a very bad temper from the beginning, and never really learned the skills he needed to deal with certain situations. A person’s history contributes a lot to how they act as they grow up. His past does not excuse the crimes he committed, but they prove that who Clifford was wasn’t entirely his own fault. He was a really insane person at the time of the killings. He recalled being mentally aware of what he was doing at the time and in control of himself; he knew what he was doing. Then, he admitted, he just didn’t care. When we met Clifford in the movie, he had been on death row for years. He was almost a completely different person than the one described to and who I pictured would be the person brutally killing those elderly men. He was a talented artist and a devout Christian. He didn’t seem at all like a man who could kill people and fell any empathy towards them. He was described to be the best friend some of the other prisoners had, and his paintings were really beautiful. I think that Boggess was proof that any person has the ability to change. Maybe a brutal killer still lives inside of him somewhere, but I think that sitting in jail and through learning more about himself he was able to change. Any person is able to look within themselves and recognize they need to change something and do so. Even on death row, Boggess contributed to society through is artwork and as a Christian. He kept close relationships with some friends through writing letters and many of them sold his paintings for him and brought him money. In these ways, he was still a part of mainstream society, though not directly. It is not hard to see that his execution was wrong and was a mistake. For the families of those he killed, Boggess being dead or alive could never bring their loved one back. In these situations, I don’t really think that redemption or vengeance will do anyone any good. The victim’s families were still just as sad if not worse after Clifford’s execution than before. Nothing can bring the families complete peace. I don’t think our justice system has any reason to be fighting fire with fire. It needs to be objective; to not be supporting vengeance. Despite the evils a human can commit, nothing will be solved by ending their life. Every person’s life should be valued equally, no matter what they do throughout their lives. Justice is not about doing what they did to you. It’s about making sure it doesn’t happen again.
