My two cents. Just to be argumentative.
<cf_twoCents>
I'm mostly against the death penalty myself, for many of the reason's
already brought up.
Yes, you can cite example after example of people who probably deserve to
die for their crimes, but in practicality it is very hard to tell who these
people are before the fact. You can very seldom be sure "beyond all doubt".
Especially with the way the courts work with emotion being used to sway
juries more often then facts. At least it seams that way sometimes.
I remember a case of man who was recently released from death row, after
modern forensics showed him to be not guilty. He had originally been
convicted two decades ago, basically because he was a down on his luck,
Vietnam vet, drifter who had been picked up near the scene of the crime.
But because the main circumstantial evidence of the case was how badly the
preteen age girl had been mutilated by her murder, the jury was convinced
that "somebody must PAY for this crime" and the person in this court will
do. The trouble I have with this is that not only was an innocent man put
on death row (and if we didn't have our nearly endless appeals, would be in
fact dead), but somebody who is in fact guilt of this crime got away with
it, because the easy comfortable conclusion/prosecution ("this crime was so
horrible, it must have been the stranger we don't know/understand who did
it") was pursued.
A second problem I have with death penalties I have, is a case from Florida,
where the convictions for robbing convenience stores, liquor stores, gas
stations, excreta was made so stiff, that it was little different then the
penalty for murder. This actual caused an increase in the number of clerks
in these establishments being shot, because the criminals where thinking, if
I get caught, I'm going to be punished just as badly for robbing this place
as if I kill somebody, and it's harder to catch me/convict me, if the
witness is dead. So far from being a determent, the stiffer penalties
increased the incidents of violent crime.
Now I can agree, that if somebody tried to hurt one of my family, I am not
going to hold anything back in trying to stop him, including beating him
savagely with any hand heavy object. But, after the fact killing him is not
going to bring anything I lost back. Even if you say that death is a
punishment, I think it maybe a too easy of one. I think a live person
generally suffers more then a dead person anyway (of course there are
exception's, but aren't there always).
</cf_twoCents>
--------------
Ian Skinner
Web Programmer
BloodSource
Sacramento, CA
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