Tell me that Calvin Tillie deserves to live

Does anyone actually claim that the death penalty, as currently practiced in the US, is a deterrent?

 

Having been a part of death penalty cases and with families that have had to render an opinion on whether the killer of their loved one should face the death penalty I'll share this.
Some families do not want the death penalty because they do not wish to add any more death in the name of their murdered family member. Others though, in about equal amounts, when told the length of appeals in DP cases and the endless hearings and ongoing uncertainty chose against the DP as a result of attrition rather than a moral or philosophical decision.

 

As currently practiced, the only crimes that the DP deters are the ones the executed would have committed, but for his execution.

 

The effect of which is the same as a life sentence without the possibility of parole. And, counter-intuitively, that life sentence is much less expensive for taxpayers.

I haven't found a good single study on violent crime rates in countries that have abandoned the death penalty. Suffice to say that most of what we consider the developed, democratized west has given up capital punishment. (Of course feeding into any discussion of violent crime abroad is going to be the issue of handgun use and accessibility in those countries, too.)

Ask yourself this, viz capital punishment - do we really want to align ourselves with the Taliban on matters of crime and punishment?

 

Calvin Tillie deserves to live.

 

Nope, sorry. You're wrong.

 

Keep believing that. Something has to help you sleep at night.

 

It isn't up to me -- or anyone else, for that matter -- to decide if Calvin Tillie deserves to live. It certainly isn't up to an obviously flawed justice system.

I don't believe in God, but I believe that. Curious to me that so many who purport to believe in a deity would wish to usurp his authority.

Vengeance is mine, and all that.

 

Sorry, SC. As much as I like you I must point out that capital punishment is not murder. It's not even manslaughter.

 

Well, it's not like the death penalty is the only instance when they do that.

 

How about Fenian learn that there's a difference between vengeance and punishment? Otherwise, life without parole is also just "vengeance." In fact, wouldn't 30 days in the local House of Correction also be "vengeance."

 

this man gave up his right to live a life of freedom.