| Subject: Re: The Death Penalty – the most controversial of subjects |
Author:
Chuckie
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Date Posted: 07:44:41 06/11/01 Mon
In reply to:
Vivien
's message, "Re: The Death Penalty – the most controversial of subjects" on 09:02:45 06/09/01 Sat
Wyldchilde:
>>Racial inequites run across every branch of the legal
>>system. So it is not a problem with the death penalty,
>>but with juris prudence. Now as far as guilt or
>>innocence... if you went to any prison anywhere in the
>>world you would find that nearly every inmate woudl
>>tell you they were innocent, tell you they were
>>framed, or railroaded. They would tell you they
>>shouldn't be there, and they may very well be right.
>>So should we let them go? Say that all their trials
>>and appeals can be overturned by taking their word for
>>it? Incarceration, forced labor, or the death penalty,
>>we are punishing them because our legal system
>>determined they should be punished. You can't just
>>overrule this decision, or that one. You either have
>>to accept it's validity and work within that system or
>>toss it out entirely and let out those who are guilty
>>of their crimes as well as those falsely accused.
Vivien:
>If I understand you correctly, it seems to matter
>little that innocent people are executed, and by that
>I don’t mean those professing their innocence, but
>those that after their death’s have been found not
>guilty. If a legal system is so unsafe, surely it is
>unwise to pursue the death penalty. Can you really sit
>there and say “oh it doesn’t matter if we execute a
>few innocent people as long as we have the pleasure of
>killing those that did commit heinous crimes, such as
>Timothy McVeigh”?
If Wyldchilde had said it was a "pleasure" to execute McVeigh, then you might have had a point there.
I resent people referring to me (as an American) as a barbarian, as an unfeeling, ignorant brute who kills for pleasure and retribution.
That kind of language completely removes any sympathy from me that I might have for your arguments.
My personal feelings about the death penalty in the United States are conflicted at best. I've never thought it worked, even a little, as a deterrent to crime. People who murder someone generally speaking are too stupid and short-sighted to consider the consequences of their actions beyond the act of killing someone. While I consider life in prison without possibility of parole a better sentence than death, it's only because I feel that is a more harsh punishment.
Should people who murder someone receive the sentence of death? Yes. In this country, that is a legal sentence. It doesn't deter crime, and I feel sorry for people who are proponents of the death penalty as a means of retribution. What this sentence ultimately does is remove a threat to innocent lives.
It's striking to me that the people who are most ardent about saving the murderer rarely talk about the person or people who were killed by that murderer. Maybe it's because I have a good imagination, but I get a clear picture of the terror and pain of the little old lady hacked to death by some creep who sneaked into her house on a quiet night, or the fear and hopelessness of a woman who tried to divorce her asshole husband being stalked through a parking lot and gunned down by that same asshole, or pain of the young woman who is run over as she bicycles down a peaceful country lane so that the guy who has knocked her off her bike can fuck her and strangle her till she dies and then dump her body in a ditch somewhere.
Because I feel something for these people, I think murderers who receive the death penalty should be put down so they will absolutely never be able to commit this kind of crime again.
Yes, it does bother me - a lot - that our justice system is full of holes. Death penalty cases should be handled by lawyers that have experience, not the usual just-out-of-college public defender. There should be absolutely no doubt about the guilt of the convicted. It should be a hell of a lot harder for rich people to buy their way out of crimes.
And because I know there are problems with the legal system, I don't trust it to keep murderers in prison till they die. They've been trying to let Charles Manson go for years. Isn't the average time served for murder about ten years?
This is by no means a yes/no, black/white, right/wrong question. Anyone who is not severely conflicted by the whole question has a problem, if you ask me. But that's just me being an American, I guess.
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