A Capitol Idea
Hey, Asa, I don't think we've ever talked about this, but what is your position on capital punishment?
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January 2007: Sweet fancy Moses, Alex got engaged! Also, alphabet.
4 Comments:
I am, as you might have guessed, against it.
Here is my general position on all things in this general category: Killing is wrong, it just is.
A living and thinking human being should be kept alive whenever possible. A non-living and thinking human being, be they embryonic or vegetative, does not enjoy this right and their fate is up to their chosen guardians, I don't much care because they aren't actually people yet/anymore.
Of course there are exceptions. Killing in self-defense, or killing in a necessary war (effectively self-defense), are both highly regrettable but unavoidable. This is why I generally oppose war of choice as a means of spreading Democracy. It may end up working, but that doesn't make it right. Shoplifting will get me bread faster than earning the money and buying it, but that doesn't make it right.
Specifically in the case of Capital punishment and the US Penal system: I don't agree with the Death Penalty. Most studies show that it has no deterrent effect, so it's only use is as a mechanism for revenge. The purpose of the Justice system is not to exact revenge. An argument could be made against the cost of keeping a prisoner for life. Executions, however, tend to be rather expensive themselves, and I would rather make up the costs in other ways. What ways you ask? Legalizing Marijuana would be a good start. Jail time for dope is mostly ridiculous, and legalizing it would end up providing a lot of revenue for the government. Beyond that I see no reason why we provide cable TV or particularly good meals to our inmates. I don't want to be cruel to them, but they shouldn't be living better than a single mother who works at McDonalds and I think for the most part they do. Then we could have fewer prisons and afford to not be killing people.
Obviously, killing is wrong, but I don't subscribe to absolutes (ala religious folk) with regard to the sanctity of life; I don't believe that human life is especially sacred or special in a religious, moral sense. It just is. Life is sloppy, messy, inexact, and analog.
It's always struck me as splitting hairs with regard to criminal punishments. "Oh, killing you is inhumane. So, here's 100-year life sentence in a 10 X 10 cell." If you're going to subscribe to the belief (as we all do) that society can take it upon itself to determine absolutes like right and wrong, you've already crossed a moral Rubicon. The difference between the chair and a labor camp, or life without parole, ain't all that much in my mind.
Therefore, just as I believe the value of life is in the eye of the beholder, I believe justice is in the eye of the beholder.
I, personally, don't think I could ever really kill somebody, but I have no problem with a jury of a convicted man's peers believing that he should suffer the "ultimate punishment."
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I agree with you on drugs. I personally think we should legalize them all.
Well, I think the difference between the Chair and that labor camp is pretty important. I'm about to butcher something I just read, or heard in a movie or something in the last few months, but it went along the lines of "The only person who understands the value of a man's life is him." Or something. It was a short story about guys on death row I think. I forget. Anyway, the point was that when you're about to die, no matter how shitty your life might seem to everyone else around you, it's YOUR life goddammit and it's important to YOU.
So I do think that life in prison is better than the Death penalty. I mean unless they're being tortured or kept in truly inhumane conditions I doubt you'd hear a lot of Lifers meekly whispering "let me die..."
There's also the whole issue of whether American prisons are themselves "cruel and unusual," what with the ritualized sodomy and all that. I mean, if I was ever sent to prison, I would be pleading with the court not to send me because it would essentially be a death sentence.
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