Virginia executed another human being tonight. As folks here’bouts say: “That sumbitch needed killin.’” We don’t get too tangled up in the philosophical aspects of such a thing. You know, that moral stuff. Ditto “punishment” v. “rehabilitation.” We don’t even get too whop-sided on the Biblical dichotomy-eye-for-eye (Old Testament) or turn-the-other-cheek (New). Down here we’re mostly Old-”That sumbitch had it comin’!” One thing that does puzzle me, though: how is it that pro-lifers in the abortion debate are generally the strongest supporters of the death penalty? What’s with that? An’ a nother thang-it seems the reverse holds: how is it that the pro-choicers generally are the more squeamish about the death penalty? Can somebody ’splain these things to me?
Barnie, I am pro-choice & a death penalty advocate. But I find that you are correct in most instances (about this).
For the first time in recorded history I agree with Barnie Day. I am opposed to abortion and opposed to the death penalty. I’ll leave the abortion stance to another day. I am opposed to the death penalty because I watched OJ Simpson’s first trial on TV. It was an absolute sham that proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we have allowed our legions of lawyers to remove any trace of justice from the American justice system. I guessed that he horror of a clown show I had just witnessed on TV was not an isolated event. Since the day of that verdict I have tried to pay more attention to what’s going on in our injustice system.
There is no doubt that we have executed innocent people. Just look at the cases that have been reversed since DNA testing.
Here’s one from Virginia (there are plenty more):
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/282.php
This guy was going to be killed for a rape murder he didn’t commit. Period. The deathies were going talk about about he got what he deserved. Period. The DNA evidence excluded him from the rape.
How can any right minded person support a system where there are many, many documented cases of the state preparing to execute an innocent man or woman.
The real conservative argument against the death penalty is not symmetry with abortion (although I accept that argument), it is that the useless, good for nothing, mealy mouthed liberals in this country have so hosed up the judicial system that it cannot be relied upon for justice anymore. We should not condone executions dispensed based on the findings of THE LIBERALS’ failed court system.
You want to convince conservatives of something? Blame the liberals.
Mr. Day, the pro-death penalty / anti-abortion mindset is NOT that difficult to figure out. In fact, it requires willful ignorance not to understand this.
There is a clear and easy distinction between the life of an innocent person and the life of a murderer. The life of the innocent is precious. The muderer forfeits his own right to life by taking the life of an innocent person.
So the more we esteem innocent life, the more important it is to enforce the murderer’s forfetiure of his right to life.
Now was that so hard?
“Vengeance is mine!” sayeth Alexandria!
Not vengence, Mr. Day, but justice. That’s why it’s in the hands of jurors, and not the aggrieved family.
“An eye for an eye and soon the world will be blind.”
–Gandhi
Gee whiz, Groveton, I never thought I’d see the day we’d agree! Over several years, I’ve changed my mind on the death penalty. Statistically, and with certainty, I feel, we have executed—and will continue to execute—innocent people. There are just too many variables and inconsistencies—jury-to-jury, court-to-court, prosecution-to-prosecution, defense-to-defense, judge-to-judge, charge-to-charge, state-to-state, arbitrary state rules-to-arbitrary state rules, investigation-to-investigation, evidence-to-evidence, race-to-race, sentence-to-sentence, appeal-to-appeal—to believe that impartial justice bats a thousand on this one. Of course, these inconsistencies have always overlain our system of justice, but there are some remedies to lesser swings and misses—apologies, restitutions, settlements, civil recourses, and so on. There is no do-over to an execution. And besides, for the more practical, budget-minded, bargain shoppers among us, there is this: it is cheaper to imprison a criminal for life than it is to kill one!
Mr. Day, just because it sounds pithy and a great man said it, doesn’t make it true. I don’t recall having read about any pandemics of blindness in ancient Israel.
At any rate, we are not talking about mere assaults. We are talking about murders, which are both relatively rare and uniquely far more heinous than any other crime.
Just as there is no remedy for a botched execution (and yes, those statistics do give one pause), there is also no recompense for a murder victim.
Mr. Day:
Your 8:44 am comment is almost exactly how I see the matter.