Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/14/first-federal-execution-in-17.html
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It’s very hard for me to be anti-death penalty when I read the reports of the crimes. I fundamentally believe that these depraved people should spend their lives in jail, with no parole. But reading their crimes brings up a real sense of revenge. Ugh.
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That’s because it’s political and you’re being manipulated to feel that way.
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That seems to be a normal, human response, though. I don’t think there’s any dissonance in looking at this person, at what he did and who he was, and being disgusted/horrified and wanting some kind of retributive justice. While on the other hand, believing that even though there are plenty of people who may “deserve” it, the death penalty is still not acceptable.
Shit’s complicated, yo, and terrible people doing terrible things only make it more so.
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Yeah, I don’t support the death penalty in any circumstances, just because the only way for it to be just is if you have an infallible justice system.
Such a system does not exist. But someone like this, who does something like this, should spend their life in prison.
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The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime. The death penalty just leaves you with another dead body.
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Trump administration taking every opportunity it can to kill people. As usual.
Oh, and fuck the death penalty.
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I’m not opposed to specific uses of the death penalty when it involves executing people involved in heinous crimes.
I am opposed to it legally, because they state too often gets it wrong.
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You can’t separate the two.
I think of it this way: I have zero sympathy for serial rapists, but it would diminish us as a society if we took out our collective revenge upon them by employing professional rapist-rapers as a part of our criminal justice system.
Same goes for murderers.
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Wait, why not? If someone opposes the death penalty, are they not allowed to have their own reasons?
I happen to be opposed to the death penalty pretty much across the board* for several reasons, and if someone get to the same place from just one of those reasons, I’m not sure of the problem.
*obvious historical examples always through a wrench in this for me, at least, but consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds and all that
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It is getting hard to even advocate for people to “rot in jail for the rest of their lives” when they will likely be abused in cruel and now-common ways, including exposure to deadly diseases like COVID.
Currently donating to Vera Institute of Justice. Anyone have better ways of changing this?
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Well, you can. I am not morally opposed to ending the life of a horrible person. I am morally opposed to ending the life of an innocent person. I am also morally opposed to the idea of the death penalty being used to coerce false confessions.
Therefore I have to live with the idea of horrible people living out their days in prison, and support the idea of making the death penalty illegal.
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People don’t become a “horrible person” in a vacuum, often there’s other people who have a part in that. Since they share part of the responsibility, wouldn’t they then also have to face a part of the same penalty?
My thoughts exactly.
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I guess I wasn’t clear - it’s not about a person’s morality, it’s about the argument. I don’t think you can be for killing horrible people (horrible because of their actions) but not having a death penalty because the state gets it wrong.
It’s like having your cake and eating it too.
This argument puts the person on the side of the easy eye-for-an-eye argument, while they can remain comfortable knowing that nobody has been wrongly killed. It’s not consistent.
Remember G.H.W. Bush - “I’m FOR clean water!” (but of course, his policies indicated otherwise)
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I justify better treatment in prisons and no death penalty by having it as the base line for prisoners like him. If people like him gets treated well, then there is no excuse for treating anyone else badly.
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I don’t see how it isn’t consistent? I oppose the death penalty because I think killing people is wrong, and that we should use the minimum force possible to protect society from dangerous criminals. But I don’t see how it is inconsistent to think we should use the death penalty because it is impossible to implement without mistakes.
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But he said he didn’t do it. How would we know he’s not telling the truth?
