Mitchell said:
I strongly disagree. Why is it wrong to kill a cold blooded murderer?
Mitch
Why indeed.
Well here is the POV as I see it. If you fight fire with fire, you end up with a blaze twice the size. There is no cogent reason for retaining the death penalty in America. The only possible reason that actually stands up to scrutiny is "if someone takes someone's life away unlawfully, why should they keep theirs?" In fairness it's a pretty good reason for CP proponents. However weigh it against the reasons for life in Azkaban without parole... ever.
1/ States with the most prolific execution rates have higher instances of homicide per capita than states that don't. Texas, California and Florida (all well known for their homicidal tendencies, not least towards children who seem to be being executed in greater numbers than ever in America - something eschewed in scumholes like Iran, China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia because they consider it inhumane and themselves far too civillised to stoop so low) have hugely higher murder rates than any other state.
My personal opinion is that the middle-ages opinion that a lot of Americans have for life in general (largely due - also only in my opinion - to the rampant protestant non-secularism in America) doesn't teach people to respect it. Murder rates in states that don't have CP are far lower on average.
2/ Our justice system is far from perfect. Miscarriages happen all the time. Do we really want more Derek Bentleys on our conscience? Didn't one of your founding fathers (or some other dude whom you respect mightily) say it was better for 10 guilty to go free than one innocent to get convicted? If that goes for the conviction, shouldn't it apply to the sentence too? Or is it only valid when the evil British are inflicting show trials on your rebels?
If someone has been in prison for 30 years for a crime that they've subsequently been proved innocent of, at least they can be released and financially compensated. The most you can do to someone who's been executed is lay a wreath with a card saying "sorry mate". How would the Irish-american population feel if we'd hung the birmingham Six?
Even DNA profiling, that new science that was considered the be all and end all for phorensic investigation, is being proven fallible in certain circumstances.
As I posted in another thread, there was a minimum of 23 instances of CP applied to innocent persons last century in America, and those were the only ones the researchers could prove!
3/ Expense is actually the reverse of what you'd think it to be. It is cheaper to imprison someone for life, in solitary confinement, at the maximum level of security for forty years - than it is to try, convict, sentence them to death and then sucessfully carry it out. Bizarre, but true.
4/ Juries faced with a death sentence in the event of a conviction are less likely to convict a criminal than ones where life in prison is the result. This results in more criminals free to walk the streets. The responsibility of weighing a suspect's life in the balance weighs too heavily on some juries minds with the result that they're too afraid to make the right decision in case they turn out to be wrong. Life in prison as the ultimate penalty takes more criminals off the streets.
5/ When our kids are bullied in the playground at school and they retaliate in kind and we end up with a pitched battle that results in bloody noses, torn shirts and suspensions from school, what do we pontificate to them?
Two wrongs don't make a right. You should have walked away and told a teacher!
How many of us were frustrated to hear that from our parents? Most of us I would suspect. I certainly was. Then why do we forget this as soon as it applies to us as adults, when there is nothing to restrain us from indulging in our basest tendencies and inclinations?
This is the one that directly counter-acts the only
true and honest reason why CP should be retained. What do we gain by sinking to the level of those we despise? Why should we let ourselves sink so low as to become them to combat them? Once we do that, in my opinion, we've lost the battle. We've used the One Ring to overthrow the Dark Lord, only to sit on his throne and take his place.
6/ For those of you who are of a religious bent (I include this because there's many of you reading this who consider yourselves to be religious): It stops someone who's done a bad thucking fing from repenting and mending his soul. By executing that person we've essentially added 1 to Satan's score without giving said criminal time for his conscience to re-dress the balance in God's favour. I believe this is vaguely the reason for the Pope's decision to come out against CP as a policy of the RC Church.
For those of you who are religious and who regard "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" to be your main reason for righteous justification, consider that at the coming of Christ, this was repealed in full. Your Lord specifically preached against this mode of thinking, which you are subsequently ignoring to give yourself the satisfaction of watching someone die, whilst still making yourself believe you are following God's word. You are, in effect, ignoring Christ's gospel message and choosing what you want to believe, ergo you don't follow the religion you say you do.
Well there are six reasons (I know there's another one, but I can't remember it at the moment) why CP should be abandoned to the past, one of which directly contradicts the only honest reason FOR it. CP hasn't achieved a single thing except allow the savage minorty to dance in the blood of a criminal. Now mabye that criminal deserved to have his claret spilt, I'm sure this guy Petersen probably does, but have you any idea how low you've stooped by apeing him?
That, in short, is why I beleive in life imprisonment over the death penalty. Many would label me a liberal for doing so, I prefer to think of myself as a humanist. I don't tend to agree with liberals very much, as many don't agree with conservative solutions but don't have many effective ones of their own. Perhaps I am therefore a moderate conservative, I don't know. I'm sure whatever I say people will form their own opinions of me and those like me anyway.
