This is minor, but it’s annoying the hell out of me.
It seems every day on the Dope someone has to post to the outrage of the day (annoying in itself). Some baby is murdered. Someone is killed horrifically. And then someone has to post “I’m against the death penalty, but I’ll make an exception in this case.”
No. If you’re against the death penalty, it’s because you won’t make an exception for when people do horrible things. If you’ll make an exception, that means you’re for the death penalty. All death penalty cases, at least in the US, are already exceptional. Murder is exceptional, dammit.
I have no idea why this pisses me off so much, but it does.
For the record, I’m against the death penalty. Yes, even for Hitler and accused babyrapers and people who park too far from the curb. EVEN THEM.
I notice this too. Especially since I am not sure if I am for or against the death penalty. I guess I am for it because I often times find myself thinking “yeah, death is too good for that bastard!” but then there’s times where I think “Yeep! What if the court is wrong?!”
So yes you make a valid point. Statements like those are the ones that keep me on the fence
You’re absolutely right. I’ve said this in the past and recently begun rethinking this. If I’m really against the death penalty, it shouldn’t matter if it’s a drug dealer, a money launderer, or Timothy McVeigh in the chair. I should be against it no matter what.
And ZipperJJ, when I think “Death is too good for that bastard!”, that’s the time my opposition to the DP is at its strongest. Somebody who’s a complete and irredeemable fuckwit deserves to be aware for as long as possible that the world looks upon him with opprobrium and contempt. A couple of years of that (for appeals), followed by a needle-prick, oblivion, and nothingness doesn’t strike me as being much of a punishment…
I agree with the OP. But I’ve never taken the “I’ll make an exception in this case” line seriously. I take it as a hyperbolic or reactionary comment. If you actually put these people on the jury, they would still vote against the death penalty.
What if you’re in Detroit? I think I got ya there.
Anyway, you’re absolutely right. If you haven’t thought about whether a person that evil deserves the death penalty, then you’re undecided. And if you make an exception, then I would say you’re “haggling over the price,” as GB Shaw said. Opposition to the death penalty means even for the invisible nazi zombie babyraper and murderer that you just read about.
Big fucking word. I think the most I’ll say is, “I won’t exactly shed tears for the bastard.”
But it’s not like life in prison is so much better. Prison is prison-I can’t imagine being locked up for the rest of my life. Let them live and let 'em suffer.
ETA: and by suffer, I don’t mean torture. I mean let them sit and think about their crimes. Let them have to live without freedom, to contemplate the same four walls for the rest of their lives.
I am a death penalty opponent, and I agree with the OP. They don’t hand out the death penalty to minor offenders, you know? Saying that one guy who gets it doesn’t deserve it, and another one does is splitting hairs.
I’m personally for the death penalty but against its return to Canada because of the example provided by the Americans that show the whole thing is a huge circus and turns the criminal justice system into an appeals industry, wasting years and resources, i.e. I have absolutely no qualms about it morally, but merely practically. That said, there are a number of specific cases where I’d gladly and calmly perform the execution myself if the system was in place, but none for trivial reasons.
As a side note, I recommend the 2004 film Manners of Dying. Though Canadian, it’s gives a pretty good (albeit Twilight Zone-ish) account of the finals hours of a fictional prisoner facing lethal injection.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that I’m the straw that broke the camel’s back here. Earlier today I posted my own particular hypocrasy. For the record, I knew that’s exactly what it was when I posted it, and it was mostly just hyperbole.
Ehhh, you could be against it administratively, like Bryan. I’m against it from a null-hypothesis epistemology perspective: in absence of firm evidence that applying the death penalty will result in substantial tangible benefits versus life in prison without the possibility of parole, we should not take the chance, however remote, that we are executing an innocent person.
100% with you, jsgoddess. Being completely anti death penalty isn’t an easy option. Yes, I do think Saddam should still be alive. And Timothy McVeigh. It’s not easy to argue the case for this, but it has to be done if you really believe that killing another human is fundamentally wrong.
