While waiting for my food at a Chinese takeout recently, I read a teen magazine’s article about Krista McDaniel. When she was 16 years old, she participated in a robbery of an Amoco gas station at Fast Point (I don’t remember the state) that resulted in the murder of the station’s working employee. She’s presently in jail, leaving her baby - whom she gave birth to at 16 - in the care of others; it’s interesting to note that Krista’s mother had her when she was just 15. Krista’s sentence is up in the air (or was when the article was written), and this is what she has to say about it:

I don’t want to do life, but I don’t want to die. But I’d rather die and go to heaven than stay in here the rest of my life.

This statement puzzles me greatly. If someone believes in heaven, surely they must also believe that murder is wrong. (For that matter, I’m an atheist, and I think murder is wrong, too.) But how can a murderer possibly go to heaven? Even if her God is merciful, can a killer really be accepted into the kingdom of God? What if she repents and is “saved” while she’s on Death Row - does that mean she gets into heaven? It’s all a big mystery to me and it sounds rather contradictory.

If anybody has more recent information about Krista McDaniel, please let me know. I don’t remember which magazine carried her story.