'The Death Penalty, Nearing Its End'

It's 50-50 that her opponent even knows how to spell "capital punishment."

 

I would just like him to explain to me how this system will be set up to make sure we only execute people who we really think did it.

 

But who gets to have the authority to say that someone's value to society is nil, that they are better off dead and totally irredeemable? Even a lifer can make license plates or dish up mashed potatoes in the kitchen. From a spiritual standpoint, I believe that judgement is reserved to God (not to mention the prospect of religious conversion, which is another vein entirely). From a sociological standpoint, I think it violates those inalienable rights on which the country was founded. Obviously, one can forfeit one's liberty in various degrees and for various periods of time, and "pursuit of happiness" is relative, but there's no undoing it when you kill someone.

 

What if someone does not believe in God? Do you have to believe in God to be an American?

 

No, which is why I'm arguing this both from a religious and a sociology/political theory angle.

EDIT tack on: I'm trying to make both religious and non-religious arguments here. Trust me, I'm not trying to Bible-thump.

 

I hear ya, but bringing up 'that judgement is reserved to God,' is similar to those who use the argument against same sex marriage. Not a great analogy or comparison, but there is a similarity.

 

Glad we're understanding each other. I'm a Christian, but I'm not anti-gay at all (progressive United Methodist), actually. I think I see the point of divergence here: When I said "that judgement is reserved..." I was referring to one in particular, death. Not speaking to all judgement in general.

 

It costs more to execute a prisoner than it does to feed, clothe and house him or her. And it's equally asinine to weigh the decision to kill a human being against the relative cost to taxpayers.

It's right there in the Commandments. Thou Shalt Not Kill. It's certainly a defensible position to say that no Christian should support the death penalty.

You say this as if a board full of journalists has no one who has spent time significant time with cops, criminals, courts, etc. ... I'm at least one person on this board who has, and I'm sure I'm not alone. A decent-sized bloc of my friends are cops and there's maybe one among them who agrees with you.

Seriously? "Did they do it?" That's all that should matter, but evidence proves that's not how the death penalty is applied. There's a mountain of data showing that blacks are more likely to sentenced to death than whites for similar crimes, and that those who kill whites are four times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill blacks. You're being willfully ignorant if you simply dismiss the racial component to death sentences.

 

So you have several friends who are cops and only one is in favor of the death penalty?

 

You're burying the lede. "Not insanity. Not IQ."

 

Yes, six.

EDIT: It's probably worth noting that my buddy who is in favor of the death penalty (who I've known since we were 15) twice failed his psych test for entry to the academy because he had sociopathic tendencies, a fact he has touted on more than one occasion over the years.

 

So only the mentally ill are in favor of the death penalty, got it.