But that can be said about any type of punishment, such as being imprisoned for life. If the “innocent victim of it” test were used, what we have for punishing and/or removing our most serious criminals from society?
I would disagree with that. At the very least it is grossly inefficient, and it should be a clear sign that the standard of evidence needed to put someone on death row needs to be fixed.
What kind of an argument is that? To have the moral right to support imprisonment as a punishment do we have to be willing to see one of our loved ones locked up unjustly?
Imprisonment is reversible.
Reversible? No. The victim himself can be compensated for the loss of his freedom and his time. For execution, on the other hand, the victim himself cannot be compensated as he’s dead.
But that wasn’t your argument. Are you willing to have your innocent loved one locked up for “x” number of years? If not, how do you justify imprisoning criminals for “x” number of years?
To me, Nicole sounded like a crime of passion, and Ron was collateral damage. How about 12 years plus a few million dollars?
Here’s the thing- I think that generally, someone who commits murder has killed the only person they will ever kill, especially in a crime of passion. They are not at any higher risk for killing again, so why send them away for life? Come up with a reasonable length of incarceration, plus a hefty financial restitution (the victim had kids, figure out lifetime earnings and use that as your guide), and move on.
ETA- obviously I am leaving out serial killers and perhaps gang members who kill multiple people, but I don’t think they don’t account for the majority of murders…
Actually, they are - 1.2% of all released murderers in the US commit another murder within three years of their release. (Cite, in case you need it.) I would be surprised if anything like 1.2% of the general public committed a murder during their lifetime.
Regards,
Shodan
‘Crime of passion’ needs to be stricken from the general lexicon. OJ didn’t come home to find his wife in bed with a stranger then shoot them both in the heat of the moment. He had a history of abuse. They were divorced two years. He stabbed her so much her head was practically severed.
Any proof wife beaters only do it in one particular relationship?
I found it odd when the press pounced on the racial aspects of the case rather than its reflection of what is basically a national epidemic of wives, girlfriends and exes getting murdered by their boyfriends, husbands and exes.
Remember what the comedienne Chocolate said about OJ?
Larry Holmes, former heavyweight champion, said much the same thing - “I remember when I was black. That was before I was rich.”
Regards,
Shodan
Note, though, that doesn’t say that 1.2% of those convicted or murder commit another murder within three years, it says that 1.2% of those convicted of homicide who were released in 1994 committed another homicide within three years, a small but important distinction. Homicide crimes will include murder and a number of crimes that don’t reach the level of murder, like involuntary manslaughter, intoxication manslaughter, or criminally negligent homicide. Murder tends to have a lower recidivism rate than other crimes, even other violent crimes, but that might be not so much due to the nature of the crime as it is the nature of the sentence. Murderers tend to serve the longest sentences and be older upon release, and the older an offender is the less likely he is to become a recidivist.
The cite states that they are arrested for another homicide, but not convicted. Just sayin’… And yep, homicides occur much more frequently than murders. Car accidents spring immediately to mind.
In any event, 1.2% seems like a very low number… 
It doesn’t say so directly on the USDoJ site, but the UCR to which they link defines homicide only as murder and non-negligent homicide (cite).
As compared to the general public? I am afraid I can’t agree. Keeping in mind that this covers only the first three years after release and not over a lifetime.
Regards,
Shodan
I think O.J. very possibly would have gotten a hospital for the criminally insane. The man has major issues and of course had money to pull some strings. (A hospital for the criminally insane is closer to a prison than to a mental hospital in terms of security and what not, but you’re probably less likely to be raped in the shower or shivved by an Aryan.)
I think had he been found guilty he’d have received life with eligibility of parole, but as it was a double homicide and high profile it’s unlikely he ever would have gotten out. (In a very weird way I think his life now- even with a low six figure income is at least punishment: he’s hated everytime he goes in public, and even the black supporters who [for God knows whatever reason] cheered when he was acquitted accept that he’s a murdering piece of coked up scum, he can’t trust anybody as he’s found several times (people selling stories to tabloids or stealing from him), and probably worst of all for him as a narcissist and hedonite is that while he lives a comfortable upper middle class lifestyle he’ll never have the “livestyles of the rich and famous” jetset lavish existence he once had and probably remembers so well- he can’t charter a jet to Paris or get a seat at any new upscale restaurant or charm people anymore and yet he remembers a time his “sit on my ass” income was over $1 million per year- that’s got to hit him hard. (Even sociopaths feel rage and frustration and self-pity.)
With good reason. The number of murders and non-negligent homicides appears to have topped out at a bit less than 25,000 in 1991. The population of the U.S. was then a bit over 250,000.000. That’s gonna help the math.
Let’s assume that each killer had only one victim, and each killer was killing for the first time. 0.0001% of the general population committed murder. Since then the number of murders has dropped and the population has grown; the rate can only have decreased.
If he was guilty, or found to be so, (which is what I believe) life in prison. I know for a fact incarceration is much worse, forvever to boot. Knowing you will die behind bars is the greater evil. Well, I guess for some people it’s not so. Having lived in a world of freedom and having that taken away, man, I couldn’t hang with that shit. It would just make me meaner. Choking that shit back is a struggle irregardless.
How’s that saying go? Better to live on your feet, than die on your knees?