Proponents and opponents of the death penalty all ride their own pet hobby-horses. But there is only one that all can ride to the abolishment finish line and feel justified. It is that the death penalty can, and undoubtedly has, killed totally innocent people in our name. That alone, should trump any proponent argument as well as any other abolishment factors in the discussion.
The cost, the alleged deterrent factor, its arbitrariness, botched executions, being the only Western “democracy” using it, its unequal application re race, gender, ethnicity, etc., and religious and moral stances are all factors in the discussion. In the final analysis, the question to ask is, “Do I want to be governed by a law that will, without fail, kill innocent people?” Especially when an alternative is available to not only protect you (life without out parole) – but that affords the convicted innocent to be freed by new evidence through a legal appeal.
In his Washington Post article of 5-21-15, conservative columnist George Will states in part, “Since 1973, more than 140 people sentenced to death have been acquitted of their crimes (sometimes by DNA evidence), had the charges against them dismissed by prosecutors or been pardoned based on evidence of innocence. . . Administering it behind prison walls indicates a healthy squeamishness that should herald abolition.”
But the proponents say “fix the system”. We have tried since the beginning of our nation. But we are human. Unfortunately the guilty go free via the same judicial system that can kill the innocent. That is just the way it is. But the latter can and should be changed. We owe it to ourselves, those who are and will be in “the system”, and those innocent who have died in vain.
Jack / Shell Lake
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Last Update: Dec 08, 2016 2:11 pm CST
