Oh Elysian, you know if you need someone to talk to, I’m here. I am so sorry for your loss and I wish we lived a little closer, sounds like you need a big hug and a good cry right now. If you’re gonna be in town for class, send me an email if you want to talk and get some coffee.
Thank you, sweetie. Did you get your invitation yet? I hope you have the time to stop by our place for BBQ.
Classes are over for the summer, thank god.
Indiana has dunes?
Yes. They’re a nice national park.
Now, as someone who does oppose the DP, I’d still probably kill him if it was up to me. Maybe that’s why I am opposed. I know I couldn’t be trusted with the power.
The bailiff may fire when ready?
The entire OP amounts to nothing but special pleading and is not a valid argument for capital punishment.
Yes the case is horrific but opponents of CP are not opposed on the grounds that people do not commit horrific crimes. I am opposed for two reasons, first and foremost because we do not have the ability to tell with complete certainty who is guilty and who isn’t. We know that many people who were convicted beyond a reasonable doubt have been proven innocent by DNA evidence. We know that poor defendants often get lousy representation and that the system is stacked against wrongfully convicted defendants. We execute retarded people. We execute the mentally ill. Too much of the system turns on the will of emotional juries who are blinded by the desire for vengence. Too much of the system can be manipulated by money. There is too much endemic human error (and malfeasance) on both sides of the adversarial system. All of those things make it unconscionable to enforce the death penalty simply because the possibility of error is too great regardless of whether it is inherently “moral” to kill bad people.
The other reason I oppose the death penalty is because it’s too easy for them. They get a shot and they go to sleep. Why should they be able to escape paying a lifelong price for their crimes. Killing them is letting them off the hook. How is that a punishment? I would take the death needle over life in a concrete box any day of the week. I’d rather see the bastards suffer than put them to sleep.
Indeed. Though now I start to wonder. Application of the death penalty is imperfect. But then so must the non-application of the death penalty be. What would be the result of a cost benefit analysis, wrongful executions vs. murder victims of released prisoners (prisoners who would have been executed in a death penalty system, but weren’t, and were released for whatever reason).
Ah, the other reason to oppose the death penalty – it is too good for some
Why would they be released? The choice, as I see it, is between the death penalty and life without parole. There is no cost to society in giving a convicted murderer life without parole instead of killing him. It’s even less expensive monetarily.
Frankly, I can’t see how the government can even consider any such thing as an acceptable number of wrongful executions and maintain any sort of ethical credibility. Moreover, let’s not forget that for every innocent person executed, a guilty person is getting away with it. and may have opportunity to commit more crimes.
The main reason I oppose the death penalty is that it completely ignores the possibility of redemption by the murderer. Sure, the guy is a monster today, but what if he is truly a completely changed man 25 years from now? Must we freeze frame someone at the moment of their most terrible acts and ignore any other redeeming qualities about their life or the possibility, however remote, that they may change someday?