The Imperfect System
The US is one of the few "civilized" countries to still institute the death penalty. My entire life I have supported Capital Punishment. I have seen very deserving individuals put to death - Ted Bundy and Timothy Nichols to name a few. As I age and mature, I begin to see the ethical problems surrounding the death penalty. From the Innocence Project I have seen that hundreds of individuals who truly are innocent are being sentenced to time in prison. The death penalty is final - there's no going back when a mistake is made. The justice system in this country is far from perfect. Anyone that has had jury duty can attest to this. I don't know about you, but I hope I never have to go before a jury of my peers to prove my innocence. Innocence, in this case, truly is in the eye of the beholder. People's perception of what "normal" people do and how they act blind justice. I watched a special on Court TV Saturday night about a man who served 10 years in prison for a murder he never committed. The man was a bit of a hermit and kept to himself. He married his wife when she was 14 and he was 20 something. The woman was as much of a hermit as him. When she was brutally murdered, the judgmental police force automatically assumed that this "odd" man had killed his wife. A jury readily convicted him - not due to a proponderance of evidence, but because the man was "different." Ten years later the man was released from prison with an apology. A simple "I'm sorry" does NOT bring back ten years of someone's life. What if this man had got the death penalty? Granted he would have had years of appeals coming to him, but would it have done any good? A scary thought. I watched "Runaway Jury" last night. A fictional movie...I know. The concept isn't fictional though - jury for sale. How often do you think this happens? The man on the jury offering to sell a verdict wasn't nearly as bad as the defense lawyer who was intimidating the jurors to rule in his favor. I'm still pro-death penalty. I just think that it should be applied with more discretion.
posted by ahsirt at 1:49 PM
6 Comments:
What gives anyone the right to kill another human being? I just do not get it. I just do not see another person being killed as any kind of solution. I think the premise comes from the religous rights view of God. I know you are going to disagree but the whole concept of judging what we do and if you do not act right then you will be put to death or hell or the fire. I guess at least you are consistent in your pro-death views on abortion and the death penalty. You and I both know that the last sentence is full of bad rhetoric that divides this country and the argument does not really hold water since abortion has nothing to do with death in our opinion, but that is the way the issues are looked at and your view on the death penalty needs to be changed even if I have to use a bad arguement.
Death can only come if life is viable - which before 24 weeks is totally impossible. You totally know that's the wrong argument to make. Equating abortion with death only strengthens pro-life supporters. I do not believe life begins at conception. Life begins when the child is viable - that is able to live on its own outside the mother's womb. That is life.
As far as my views on the death penalty...Roma, you have been around me long enough to know that I am set in my convictions. My justification for the death penalty has nothing to do with my religious views. Babalonian justice is ancient and we live in a modern world. Babalonians weren't exposed to the likes of sociopaths that roam the streets today. Rehabilitation is a great thing; however you and I both know that rehabilitation is not possible for everyone. Case in point - sex offenders. The majority of these individuals are never rehabilitated. We lock them up for 3 years and then set them free to prey upon innocence once again. No amount of counseling or incarceration will fix these people. Just look at the poor girls from Florida - both victims of sex offenders that were supposedly "rehabilitated." I can think of plenty of punishments for these individuals that don't include death - however you may agree that death is more humane.
You really think sociopaths have not been around since the beginning of time? You have got to be kidding. Disturbed people have been around and will continue to be around. I will admit that I think some criminals need to be put to death, but I do not think that I or anyone else should be allowed to meter out that type of punishment. It as you stated is to final. I am all for life without the possibility of parole. People see this as a coddled life, yeah right; I would like those that see spending the rest of your life in a 12 x 12 cell coddled to try it. Statistics show that it is actually cheaper to house an inmate for the rest of his life than it is to put them to death.
As for the sex offenders that you are referring to that has nothing to do with the death penalty. That has to do with stricter sex crimes punishment. I would agree that rehab is hard especially in the environment we are expecting it to happen. Let’s look at the rehab. We want you to stop committing sex crimes and to teach you a lesson we are going to look the other way while your fellow inmates rape you regularly. Mental illness can not be rehabbed. I do not believe that the mentally ill need to be walking around on our streets like walking time bombs. I digress.
The death penalty is wrong!
Roma - here are some real statistics regarding the true cost of housing an inmate. These numbers are from the state of Maryland. In 2002, it cost the state Maryland $2.11 to provide one inmate 3 meals per day. When you figure in the money required to furnish electricity, heat, running water, and other amenities, the actual cost to the state of Maryland per inmate EACH day is $43. This equates to $15,709 per inmate per year. I know there's a huge mark up in retail pharmacy; but IV sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride do not cost $15,000. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the cost for the drugs used in lethal injection is actually $86.08. In case you are wondering how valid these statistics are, they were provided to me by a state prison in Maryland when I visited there last spring. The data on the sheets is referenced from the Division of Correction Pulbic Information Office.
PS - you can talk until you are blue in the face and I won't change my stance on this. This is something I feel very strongly about.
As a side note - just because you believe the death penalty is wrong and I don't doesn't mean either of us is wrong. I respect your opinion, and I have never tried to sway you to my side. Please respect mine as well. (This is another item I feel passionately about - tolerance for others views. You don't have to agree with them, just accept that's their opinion and move on. As long as they don't try to force their beliefs on me, they can feel however they want.)
If the only cost was to stick the needle in the arm your statistics might actually mean something, but you know that is not the only cost. As far as trying to change your mind, believe me I am well aware that your mind can not be changed once you have set it.
TO AHSIRT:
Any accurate cost of the Dealth Penalty must include the court costs. This drastically escaltes the true cost of the death penalty in actual practice. However, I'm sure if you would look at actuarial tables for most younger offenders, the death penalty would remain cheaper. The true question is this: What is the true motivation behind the Death Penalty. Does it truly reduce crime? I think the answer is no. If criminals really considered the final outcomes of their actions, whould there still be criminals? And do the truly violent amongst us(Al Queda, Timothy McVeigh, hardcore gang members) really care about dying anyway? Is it just vengence and retribution? If so, how long until society as a whole is dragged down to the level of the criminal. And finally, should the fate of a man or woman be judged by how much it costs?
TO ROMA:
Ahsirt is right to reject the abortion comparison. To even begin to equate an embryo or fetus with a human being is a trip too far down the slippery slope. And while I agree that life with no parole can be a horrid existence, that's not always the case. The prison system is rife with drugs, and some of the most violent offenders become the de facto rulers of the cell block. Not quite the lifetime of hell that it should be. Plus, should a Timothy McVeigh or Osama bin LAden be permitted by any civilized society to continue to waste oxygen that the rest of us could use. Is there no crime so heinous that death would not be a suitable punishment?
I'm on both sides of this issue. I know that the death penalty is often arbitraily administered and much more likely to be used against poor and minority offenders. However, it can be an effective tool for prosecutors to secure incarceration of dangerous individuals (of all races and status) who will often choose life in prison over the prospect of the death penalty. And at the end of the day, there are some people who just deserve to die for their crimes. I don't believe that killing a pedophile murderer will stop another pedophile from killing a child. I just don't think pedophiles belong on this planet and deserve to die for their actions, regardless of what tragedy may have befallen them in their own lives.
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