7th February 2004, 3:56 PM
My opinion is that it's not the best method to punish crime, but my idea of harsh, forced labor will never be adopted.
So, it's the best method that's practical. The process needs to happen a lot faster though. My reservations about the death penalty aren't about life and death; I think anyone who willfully takes a life no longer deserves the right to live. I merely think that society can get more use out of forcing extremely harsh and undesirable labor on capital criminals than merely killing them. It would serve as a better deterrent (and a worse fate) than death, with the added bonus of the criminals actually repaying their infinite debt to society.
I think the current alternative, 'life sentence' (which is so often reduced to lesser sentences) is extraordinarily wrong. Not only are we wasting tax money supporting a scumbag who doesn't deserve to breathe the same air us real human beings breathe, but they often serve this sentence in the presence of such luxuries as cable TV, weight rooms and basketball courts. Prison should be a punishment, not a rent-free hotel. Prison should be where capital inmates sleep and eat for the six hours they aren't spending reflecting on their evil while performing the most exhausting physical labor the men in charge can come up with.
So, it's the best method that's practical. The process needs to happen a lot faster though. My reservations about the death penalty aren't about life and death; I think anyone who willfully takes a life no longer deserves the right to live. I merely think that society can get more use out of forcing extremely harsh and undesirable labor on capital criminals than merely killing them. It would serve as a better deterrent (and a worse fate) than death, with the added bonus of the criminals actually repaying their infinite debt to society.
I think the current alternative, 'life sentence' (which is so often reduced to lesser sentences) is extraordinarily wrong. Not only are we wasting tax money supporting a scumbag who doesn't deserve to breathe the same air us real human beings breathe, but they often serve this sentence in the presence of such luxuries as cable TV, weight rooms and basketball courts. Prison should be a punishment, not a rent-free hotel. Prison should be where capital inmates sleep and eat for the six hours they aren't spending reflecting on their evil while performing the most exhausting physical labor the men in charge can come up with.
YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER
WE STAND AT THE DOOR
WE STAND AT THE DOOR