Death Penalty
I read on the internet not long ago, that many so called experts now believe that the death penalty does in fact deter crime. Personally I do not agree with this assertion, because most of the criminals who commit the crimes, that may warrant the death penalty, do not believe they are going to get caught. They believe they'll get away with it, if they believed they were going to get caught then obviously they would not commit the crime in the first place. Most criminals who commit the type of crime that may warrant the death penalty are sociopathic and they believe that they are smarter than the police, the prosecutors and the jurors who may try their case. They are arrogant and manipulative and believe they can convince the jury of their innocence.
Many of the other persons who are convicted of crimes that demand the death penalty are either too mentally incompetent to understand the severity of their crimes, or they are mentally ill and or delusional. The death penalty in my view is nothing more than revenge, plain and simple. It does not punish the criminal, because after the death penalty is administered and the convict is dead, the punishment is over. It does not bring back the victims of the offender, the only thing it does is create more victims of the offenders' family, who themselves are totally innocent. I sincerely believe that a life in prison without the possibility of parole is much more punishment than death.
Morality
We preach to our children that violence is immoral, but yet our society, in its passion for revenge, will commit the ultimate act of violence upon another human being, by killing them in the name of the state. But yet our society will not allow assisted suicide by a physician, of a patient who may be in horrific pain and on the verge of death anyway. Our society will allow such a patient to suffer a cruel and painful death.
The innocent and the death penalty.
Since the advent of DNA testing by medical scientists, many death row inmates have been proven to be innocent of the crimes that they were accused and convicted of, and totally exonerated. If it hadn't been for that DNA testing, how many of these innocent persons would now be dead? Murdered by the state! I once heard a republican politician say, when confronted with a question about the possibility of an innocent person being executed, say, " Well this may just be the price we have to pay for a safer society". The way I feel about this is, I don't want to live in a society that is safe to the point of murdering innocent people. What comes next? Executing someone because they might commit a crime. I also wonder, before the advent of DNA testing came along, how many innocent persons were murdered by the state in a rush to judgment.
Death and race
It also seems to me, that some states are even more blood thirsty than others. Texas and Florida are the two most blood thirsty. It almost seems to me that these two states almost enjoy killing people. Most of the civilized world have eliminated the death penalty. What is wrong with this country? Are our politicians just plain stubborn? Or is it perhaps something even more sinister? After all, most prisoners on death row are black. I would urge anyone who feels that the death penalty is a barbaric and inhumane form of punishment, write to their politicians, and demand an end to this cruel, brutal and unnecessary form of punishment. The death penalty should be abolished as cruel and unusual punishment. There is no place in a civilized society for this type of punishment.
