Capital Punishment

[Lady Sidhe]

This is a subject dear to my heart...I wholeheartedly believe in capital punishment, and I'm offended when murderers, or multiple murderers, get life in prison (which, unless specifically stating "without the possibility of parole" does not actually MEAN life in prison), and we have to take care of them for as long as they're incarcerated. I don't know about every other prison, but here in Louisiana, Angola prisoners have cable tv, weight rooms, law libraries, medical, dental, visual, etc. and similar luxuries. I work my ass off and I don't have any of these things. A lot of people work their asses off and don't have any of these things, yet their taxes go to give them to predators. I resent the fact that these people, who prey on society, are being taken care of with MY money. Angola used to be self-sufficient, but it isn't anymore. Hunt Correctional center IS, though. They grow their own food there. The word "Penitentiary" once meant a place criminals went to become penitent of their crimes....

ANYWAY, not to get off the subject...opponents of capital punishment use the arguments that:

1. It's not a deterrent
2. It costs more to execute a prisoner than it does to support him

3. Innocent people are executed
4. Execution is revenge taken by the state, not necessarily justice
5. It's "cruel and unusual" punishment


If I may be allowed to retort:

1. Not one single executed criminal will ever commit another crime again

2. Only because they get a bazillion appeals. A rope is reusable. A powerful enough bullet can go through two or three people at a time.

3. DNA testing should be mandatory for all cases that carry the death penalty. It shouldn't be optional, and it shouldn't be only if whomever wants the test can afford it.

4. To quote a judge (can't remember his name offhand, but if you really need it, I'll find it) "Lawful execution is no more murder than lawful confiscation is stealing." I agree. Everyone knows that murder carries the death penalty. If you decide to take the chance and get caught, it's your own damned fault. Society deserves to be protected from those who would prey on it. And it shouldn't have to pay to support them and their cable for the rest of their lives in order to do it.

5. "Cruel and unusual" is what the murderer did to the victim, their friends, and their families. I think we should bring back hanging and the guillotine. I'm all for cruel and unusual. I'll bet it would make someone else take pause, when they realize that they may be drawn and quartered...Why on earth should their method of death be any less "cruel and unusual" than the method by which they meted death out to their victims? Why shouldn't they have to suffer for the suffering they put the friends and families through? Screw "cruel and unusual." They should die the same way they caused their victim to die. THAT'S justice.


The reason the death penalty is supposedly not the deterrent it was hoped is that it isn't carried out as it should be. Stop commuting sentences. Stop pardoning people. Stop giving them five hundred hearings. Every time a prisoner files a writ, the sentence is stayed until the Supreme Court can review it. One murderer delayed his execution for 15 years with appeals...appeals that cost us a fortune.

And I also have a problem with the insanity plea. As I'm sure Wolf can vouch for, "insanity" under the law is not the same thing as "insanity" psychiatrically speaking. Besides, if you're so psychotic that you're murderously dangerous, that's only my problem insofar as you're walking the streets. You deserve to die just as much as the next murderer. Now, I don't know how Wolf will respond to my next statement, as I'm sure our experiences with the mentally ill are bound to have differences, but I've found that truly psychotic people aren't usually murderous. They may fight to protect themselves from perceived threats, but once they no longer feel threatened, they don't continue the violent behavior (yes, I know some schizophrenics have delusions that may cause them to feel that so-and-so is out to get them, and may commit premeditated defense, but I have seen very few of those). And I don't think that a personality disorder, which cannot be cured, or sexual deviation, which cannot be cured, should be counted as a defense. It's been shown that a personality disorder cannot be "cured" unless the individual wants to change the behavior. Since the behavior only causes problems for others, the person often does not have the motivation to change the behavior. And sexual criminals, such as pedophiles, have been shown to be extremely resistent to treatment (read, "incurable"). Therefore, why shouldn't they be treated as the dangers that they are and be removed from society?

Personally, I think that while a death-row inmate is awaiting execution, s/he should have to pay society back for the privileges s/he gets, by becoming a lab rat. It's already been established that animals don't always give results accurate insofar as human beings are concerned. And I also think that executions should be put on pay-per-view...that way, anyone who wants to watch it can, and the money generated could go to the upkeep of the prisons.

Anyway, that's my two cents. Anybody else got change?

Sidhe