Originally Posted by Ibby
Having never had to remotely consider the possibility, I would say, as a brash, angsty 21-year-old, that I'd take the death penalty over even a 10-year sentence. But I say that as someone who would be at particularly high risk of abuse, persecution, rape, and discrimination in GenPop, and as someone who doesn't honestly expect to survive past age 35 or 40 even outside prison, given the rate of trans* suicide, murder, and hate crime, and considering my propensity towards self-destructive addiction and depression. So, given those factors, I would say living for a few years on death row and then going, without lengthy illness or infirmity, sounds like a better option than even just ten years in general population.
But I say that as someone who has struggled for years with a lack of self-worth, with self-injury, and with the constant looming threat suicide, and as someone who has never actually faced my own mortality or the real threat of death. It's easy for me to be flippant about saying i'd rather be dead.
I know that it's unfair to those, especially the falsely accused, who face the real possibility of death, to say that i'd prefer that. and I absolutely know that the fact that I might lean towards preferring to die than to linger should not in any way affect whether or not I think the government should be executing ANYONE.
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