I have a lot of complex feelings on the death penalty. Firstly, I think the death penalty is immoral and wrong. Quite frankly this is an extension of my religious convictions, I’m Catholic and it is well known that the modern day Church rejects the death penalty. I agree completely with the Church’s stance on this matter.
Even the most heinous criminal gets a second chance before god (or a third chance, or a fifth et cetera) so I feel they should get the chance to reform themselves in our society as well. While I believe certain criminals should be imprisoned and never released, I do believe they should be allowed to live out their lives while incarcerated. They should be given some means to meaningfully educate themselves and find value in their lives.
I think almost all persons convicted of premeditated murder should spend the rest of their natural lives in prison. This is not a view born out of vindictiveness but simply one that I view as practical. My feeling is, prison should exist for one reason and one reason only, to separate those who are too dangerous to be in society from the rest of us. Prison should be seen as a necessary evil–and just because we don’t want those who are locked up out on our streets does not mean we should deny them their basic humanity.
I also think that the vast majority of offenders in this country do not belong in prison. They belong in treatment facilities (for persons who are sent up on substance-abuse related crimes) or they should be required to pay hefty fines and perform lengthy community service. For example I have a cousin who has spent years in prison because he frequently fudges checks (not dissimilar from the villain in this thread.) My cousin is a menace, and he does cause others harm by stealing their money. I agree that he is a criminal and I agree he needs to be punished for his actions.
However, I think most people who commit such crimes would be better off toiling away at community service and paying fines to the government versus being made effective wards of the state in our prison system. Simply put, non-violent offenders should only be put into segregation from society in extreme circumstances (such as a habitual check forger who shows no ability or desire to reform himself and thus is a constant nuisance upon society.)
This raises into question the idea of equity. One reason the death penalty has long been popular is because it isn’t entirely illogical to view the only appropriate punishment for taking a life to be the taking of the offender’s life. This view would make a lot of sense to me if I were an atheist. For example the Church of Satan (despite its name) is a group of atheists whose leadership has gone on national TV and said, “If you take someone else’s life, your life should be taken.” They feel this way because they believe this mortal existence is all there is, and if you steal someone’s time away from them the only just punishment is for the same to be done unto you. If we lived in our simple lives, died, and passed into oblivion, I would find no compelling argument for any punishment for death other than death itself. If there is nothing other than our existence here on earth, then stealing ANY of that time away is the greatest wrong imaginable and can only be punished in like manner. No amount of time spent even in the worst prison will provide anything approaching equity.
However, the flip side of that is, since we must view the loss of life as the greatest tragedy possible (if we’re working from the atheist world view) we can only take life as punishment when we are absolutely certain the person is guilty. I am not familiar with any case in which we can be absolutely certain the accused is guilty, so even under this world view I do not think I could support the death penalty without absolute certainty of guilt.
I think the matter of deterrence is overrated by both sides. I do not think one should support or oppose executions based on whether it is or is not a deterrent. I think punishments should be decided based on what is just punishment for the crime, and if that doesn’t deter future crimes, that is unfortunate but we should not apply an unjust punishment simply because it may serve as a good deterrent. We also should not fear applying a just punishment just because it may not work as a deterrent, either.
So while I accept that certain arguments for the death penalty are compelling, I think that morality and the simple fact that we cannot attain absolute certainty of guilt are the two biggest things that should lead people to not support the death penalty.
The last argument I’ve heard is that sometimes violent offenders, even when incarcerated permanently, are such a threat that they put the very lives of correctional workers at constant peril. Furthermore, there is the argument that persons serving a life sentence in a jurisdiction without the death penalty will have no reason not to kill others in prison. For this reason it is not uncommon in the United States that the killing of another inmate in prison by a person serving a life sentence constitutes a capital offense. It is often the case that killing a correctional officer will also constitute a capital offense in jurisdictions where “simple” acts of murder aren’t enough to warrant the death penalty.
I view these as valid concerns, however I feel that those persons who are so dangerous that they cannot even be trusted within the confines of prison can be dealt with without killing them. They can be put into a type of pervasive confinement like you find at Federal “Supermax” prisons. Kept in the same room 23 out of 24 hours They can be kept totally segregated from all other inmates, they can be kept under constant surveillance, they can be brought out of their cell by correctional officers only when heavily restrained and with multiple guards present. An expensive solution, but one that would probably only be necessary for a very small number of people (I feel a lot of the people who are serving time in “Supermax” facilities probably shouldn’t be. Ted Kacyznski for example doesn’t strike me as dangerous unless you let him have bomb-making materials.)
