7th February 2004, 7:50 PM
A Black Falcon Wrote:Yeah the issue of innocents being punished is a huge issue and execution cannot be recinded once you've done it... that is a very strong arguement against capital punishment if you ignore decency (that everyone has rights, no matter if they acknowledge that in others or not).
You'd probably say that terrorists who ignore our laws should not be given the protection of them when we capture them. I would say the opposite. Same for Milosevich in the court in The Hague -- the fact he mocks the court and draws out proceedings and clearly does not care about them does not mean I think he should not be given his opportunity to defend himself and get a fair trial! Doing that would be doing as the evil ones do and (as cliche as it is) doing as evil does, even to evil, is not good.
Yes, as I said, passions make you want to kill them... you want the people who do evil to die. But evil as they are I would say that killing them is no solution. They're dead. The ultimate punishment yes, but they only suffer for a while... while life means they suffer for a lot longer... oh and you seem to act like prison is some summer camp or something, I'd hardly say that...
As for costs, as I know I've mentioned here before, it is extremely expensive to have people on death row. Far more expensive than your average prison inmate. Death row inmates actually cost a LOT of money... I'm not sure of the exact comparison but it is not a money-saving measure. It might actually be more expensive than a life sentence when you include the many years in high-security prisons while numerous lawsuits are gone through, the costs of endless appeals, and everything else... the arguement for capital punishment as a way to spend less is just wrong.
Bah. I don't want them to 'suffer' in prison. I want them suffering under the hot sun or removed from this world altogether. What punishment is it to sit in a cell all day? If you get bored easily, perhaps.
The reason I support the death penalty is because it removes these people for good, as N-Man said. Not because of passion, not for revenge, and not because it's what they deserve, it's doing the rest of us a favor. It ensures that at least one bit of evil is removed from this world for good. Besides, aren't you a moral relativist? The concept of good and evil is in the eye of the beholder, is it not?
I agree that the death penalty is way too drawn-out and costly, but that's the fault of the liberalization of the justice system, with the endless appeals and such. It needs to be set at one appeal, so the process can be over and done with in a year or two, for good or for bad. If it were done correctly, it would be exponentially less expensive than serving a life term.
The idea of a murdering monster living off my tax money until he finally has the courtesy to die naturally is repugnant to me. Life imprisonment should not be an option at all.
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