Death Penalty

[Griff]

Todays double tragedy anniversary brings to mind the whole question of the states right to kill its or societies enemies. To me, violence begets violence and the death penalty is simply the manifestation of governments frustration in trying to perfect man. In other words, I don't buy into the whole death penalty as deterrent excuse. If we are going to kill our sociopaths, should we watch it on tv? Was the burning of Joan of Arc effective public policy? Did Jesus' crucifixion protect the Roman Empire?

[richlevy]

Originally posted by Griff
Todays double tragedy anniversary brings to mind the whole question of the states right to kill its or societies enemies. To me, violence begets violence and the death penalty is simply the manifestation of governments frustration in trying to perfect man. In other words, I don't buy into the whole death penalty as deterrent excuse. If we are going to kill our sociopaths, should we watch it on tv? Was the burning of Joan of Arc effective public policy? Did Jesus' crucifixion protect the Roman Empire?

The case of Joan of Arc is the most interesting. One Christian religious court declares her a witch for hearing voices and burns her. Another Christian court declares her a saint for hearing voices (and post-death miracles) and a martyr because of what the first one did.

[Griff]

I read a book a few years back called Crime and Punishment in American History. The author was quite successful in putting our criminal justice system in a different light. Things, like adultery, that in colonial times would have you in the stocks on the town square are not considered public issues today. I'm sure our drug laws will seem similarly absurd. What gets you sainthood in Rome gets you burned at the stake in Burgundy. If Pollard had been nabbed in wartime, he would have been executed for something that would get him the Israeli equivelent of a ticker-tape parade.

[jaguar]

My opinion on the death penalty seems to change very often, one one hand people who commit wholesale slaughter(colombine?), in my honest opinion don't deserve to die, they deserve to be locked in a very, very small cell with water and left to starve slowly to death, and even that is too good. Vengeful and cruel as that seems consider the terrible mental and physical(survivers) burden they have placed on the community, it is as bad as Vietnam Veterans(another pointless loss of life but don't get me started). lived have been ended for no reason or ruined becuse someone was angry and decided to take it out on someone else. Wouldn't you be out for blood if someone shot your daughter? On the other hand, yes, it can be used as a tool by goverments, but overall, i'm still for it, some people cancel out their right to live ten times over.

[Dagnabit]

To me the whole thing is bizarre beyond belief. On one hand you have politicians trying to kill as many convicts as they can because it's good for their career. On the other hand you have families and friends who are publicized if they have serious bloodlust. (If you sensibly say "killing this asshole isn't going to bring back my Joey", you aren't newsworthy.) And then you have the Masses, who just want all this trouble and upset to end. When will it all end?

Well killing all those criminals, even if they are all "guilty", isn't going to make it stop and my guess is it will only encourage more crime. You have a society that exhibits all this bloodlust and then you wonder why there's so much killing apparently going on. (I've never seen anyone killed in my lifetime, how about you?)

Well here's my prediction, if an execution does make it to TV, it will be followed in the next year with a dozen unstable personalities each killing a dozen people so they can become martyrs or famous or simply noticed.

What we have in this society is a branch furiously screaming "stop thinking of pink elephants!" and then become surprised when pink elephants is all anyone can think of. If society can find cause and excuse to kill, it's no small jump for Joe Sixpack with slighly-off brain chemistry.

[Griff]

If someone killed my daughter and I resisted taking my rifle to the courthouse, I would not give the state sanction to do what I had resisted. Lock him up forever. I've only been in a prison once, while doing a literacy volunteer stint in college. I have no idea how anyone can handle having those doors slam behind them. As much as I wanted to help at the prison, there was no way I was ever going back inside. I stuck with the GED students out in the world... cowards way out?