The Death Penalty Starts to Get Some of Its Own Treatment
skinnydipinacid
9 Comments
The new trend: kill the death penalty!
First it starts with calling a baby raper's execution unjust, then they complain about the overall cost to execute a prisoner (as opposed to overall cost of housing them for the rest of their lives), can I go ahead and assume what's next... our politicians calling for what some hope will be the inevitable end to capital punishment.
Yes, it appears that the death penalty is taking even more heat!
Whatever happened to the good old days!?
Back when we used to KILL murderers, kiddie rapists, and all around scum of the earth?
When did our sensitivity start replacing our common sense?
The reason for death penalty system's flaws seem simple enough... it's a taxpayer-funded, government-run system where millions of dollars are wasted on excess garbage, lawyers (not to be confused with garbage) and political/pandering nonsense... of course it's going to be flawed. It's a technique that's becoming all too familiar, yet completely unacceptable nonetheless. Is there a political solution? I financial solution?? Do we need to start talking about privatizing correctional facilities (which has been tried and proven effective)? It's hard for me to so quickly say no when we're so dependent on a system that is a necessity, yet at the same time sucking money from the public faster than if we put all these criminals up in a five-star hotel for the year, which may even qualify them for a free manicure.
According to the facts, California has executed 13 inmates since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1978 and none since 2005. There are 673 inmates on California's death row and 79 inmates there are still waiting to be appointed attorneys to prepare their automatic appeals to the California Supreme Court. So in 3 years the state has YET to execute a single person on death row, but we are to believe that it's the DEATH PENALTY that's causing a collapse?! Somebody please explain this to me, perhaps it's beyond my years.
There's another thing that I cannot fathom. We're still going to have criminals whether we have capital punishment or not... correct? We're still going to have people (and perhaps more) that will commit crimes, murder, senseless violence and all other things unholy, and SOME of those are certain to be deserving of a death sentence. So then how would discontinuing the death penalty save us as a society? We'll then be paying even more for food, clothing, health care, rehabilitation and every other penny raping item on the long list of prison "necessities". Some even think we need to give criminals nutrient supplements. Can I just shoot myself... or should I finish my thought first?
We will also be paying for it with the decay of our social integrity. We've heard the responses of "it'll just cause rapists to simply rape, but not murder" and the insane notion of "punishments fitting the crime" (which if that were the case, we'd make certain nasty child rapists got raped in prison) ...but in the end, what do we continue to hold as a beacon for what is right and what is wrong when we can't even set an example of the result for one's extreme, one in which we can compare to it's opposite? Do we risk the future of our nation, or of our children's nation by simply denying the potential good capital punishment can accomplish? Or are some of you still left thinking... "what good?"
My personal solution would be a simple process. 1st week the trial, then a 2 week review of the case, 1 week to prep for media, family, witnesses, etc... and after 28 days, dead. We need to limit the food, upkeep, LAWYERS, and tax payer money necessary for housing death row inmates, which we'll still be paying for even if the death penalty were to be abolished completely. If I wanted to be blatantly honest, in extreme cases of child rape, murder and other heinous acts, especially those involving extreme public outcry for justice, why bother hesitating? Shoot them in the back room of the courthouse, hang them in the public square, or pump them full of heroin, morphine and crank and let them run around city hall like a stoned jackrabbit until their hearts explode, I don't care how we do it... but something clearly needs to be done. Yes, of course there needs to be a level of common sense when it comes to our public systems, especially those who's elimination could result in the eminent release of dangerous criminals, some of which don't deserve a second chance.
Remember... housing them costs millions...
whereas bullets would probably be happily donated!
Reader Comments (9)
As an alternative, I'd bring back "at hard labor." Don't give them these country club prisons with exercise machines and cable TV; send 'em all off to (literally) Siberia. THAT will cut down the recidivism rate.
country club prisons should be the first to go...
what lessons do we teach by providing those?
(also brings up the disadvantage to privatization)
There's no doubt that we, as a people, have grown gun-shy of the death penalty. We've seen it sought--and applied--in borderline cases, and we've seen overzealous prosecutors go for the gusto, on flimsy evidence, only to see appeals (and/or new evidence, particularly with the emergence of DNA technology) take innocent men off Death Row.
The real question is whether we can have confidence in the death penalty's application. For me, the (admittedly) small number of exonerations-after-conviction introduce enough doubt that I could never go for your "take 'em out back and shoot 'em" approach.
but with cases in which the evidence is overwhelmingly blatant in proving guilt... why should we let those deserving of the ultimate punishment be exonerated? we can't have this broad spectrum of crime, punishment & the guilty so clearly associated with it be allowed the same speculation of doubt.
for instance... here in Iowa we once had a man kidnap, rape, kill and then stuff a young girl under the kitchen sink of his trailer. yet still we had people protesting in favor of him having a life in prison paid for by those most sickened by his acts... the tax payers... instead of simply killing him
(a punishment he so richly deserved... preferrable by stoning)
with everything... there is a line... be it fine or broad...
but at some point people have to allow a sense of reason to convince them to step over that line
Can we get this guy back?
Good idea on using the Digg option, but I logged in and didn't see the article. To I need to refer it?
Skinny,
Never mind, I found it and added an extra DIGG. You have one
commment too, by the way, agreeing with you. Now, show the other editors how you did it, so they can use it too.
Wes, back to your idea of a hard labor option: Our state brought back the chain-gang type of work detail as a hard-labor type of punishment, but it didn't last long.
Transporting the most dangerous prisoners out of the walls of a prison and dealing with the extreme levels of security needed created a very expensive program. While the idea of work being used as punishment seemed good, the cost was prohibitive. I heard anecdotally that the prisoners also liked the work because they got to be outside of the walls. The "lifer" type prisoner's most effective punishment can be just leaving him in a cell.
If the hard labor could be the old "making big rocks into little rocks" all within the walls of a maximum security prison, maybe it could be effective.
I happen to have some first-hand knowledge of prison, and cable TV and weightlifting equipment does not a country club make. The inmates are being denied their freedom, and they cannot work all that many hours, so the athletic activities and even the TV serve to occupy and therefore pacify the population, helping to keep inmates' energies from troublemaking.
I have the same type of problems with the death penalty as Wes has stated, I have never been in favor of the death penalty. Respectfully, Wes, I have duly marked my calendar that you and I agree on a topic.
However, I think the chances of a piece of trash person, such as the murderer that Skinny described, surviving unpunished within a prison population are slim. The best punishment for this guy might be the constant daily threat to his well-being by the rest of the prison population.I am not saying he should receive jail-house justice, I am saying he should fear jail-house justice, looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.
I think I know the case that Skinny is describing and not only did the guy kill the little girl, he did so as the girl was preparing to testify against the murderer's brother for sexually abusing her earlier. Totally disgusting.
Who has time to kill convicted murderers when there are all these unborn children to murder?