Whoo hoo! Those lucky voters in Wisconsin get to decide whether or not to bring back the death penalty! Go Wisconsin!*
If it passes, will they make the condemned watch the Packers lose to the Bears? That would pretty much kill any cheese head I know!
But seriously folks, I must admit I support a death penalty. I do NOT support using it selectively, the way it has been practiced (at least in the state of Illinois – Oh, I’m sure Texas has it right) in the past. Just because someone is too poor to hire a lawyer should not mean they are automatically given no competent council and shipped off to die. Or what of the man convicted of burning his own children to death to collect insurance money? He professed innocence to the end, and not until later did it become obvious that he was convicted on faulty evidence. Arson investigators had been working with ‘conventional wisdom’ that wasn’t so wise. No, I’m talking about solid cases, with solid evidence. Yes, they exist.
I don’t care one bit that the death penalty is not a deterrent. It’s just too expensive to keep people incarcerated ‘for life’. If you should never walk free again, you should never breathe again. Case closed. How does it benefit the offender or society to have no hope of release? Oh, they’ll “think” about their crimes and have to live with it. Nice argument made by very intelligent people, but I disagree. You can’t make someone feel regret.
If we as a society say there is chance for your reform, then let’s give you the tools for that reform and help you along the way. We as a society must also say some things are unforgivable. Unfortunately we are not a tribe of cave dwellers any longer, and ostracization from the clan is not an option.
The argument that two wrongs don’t make a right is quite compelling, but what do we do with these people? Warehouse them at huge cost, that’s what. If you are committed to not having a death penalty, then please commit to creating a way to remove these people from our borders so they may never offend here again. Dropping them off in another country far, far, away sounds fine to me. If we can pre-emptive strike an oil-rich nation, we should be able to drop off a few hundred thousand undesirables in the mountains of Pakistan. There are lots of empty gulags in Siberia for rent, I’ll bet.
Being from Chicago, I’ve got another question for the fine people of the Badger State:
How many dead voters support the death penalty?
* Home of Jeffery Dahmer, Ed Gein, and I’ll bet John Wayne Gacy went to the Dells at least once…
If it passes, will they make the condemned watch the Packers lose to the Bears? That would pretty much kill any cheese head I know!
But seriously folks, I must admit I support a death penalty. I do NOT support using it selectively, the way it has been practiced (at least in the state of Illinois – Oh, I’m sure Texas has it right) in the past. Just because someone is too poor to hire a lawyer should not mean they are automatically given no competent council and shipped off to die. Or what of the man convicted of burning his own children to death to collect insurance money? He professed innocence to the end, and not until later did it become obvious that he was convicted on faulty evidence. Arson investigators had been working with ‘conventional wisdom’ that wasn’t so wise. No, I’m talking about solid cases, with solid evidence. Yes, they exist.
I don’t care one bit that the death penalty is not a deterrent. It’s just too expensive to keep people incarcerated ‘for life’. If you should never walk free again, you should never breathe again. Case closed. How does it benefit the offender or society to have no hope of release? Oh, they’ll “think” about their crimes and have to live with it. Nice argument made by very intelligent people, but I disagree. You can’t make someone feel regret.
If we as a society say there is chance for your reform, then let’s give you the tools for that reform and help you along the way. We as a society must also say some things are unforgivable. Unfortunately we are not a tribe of cave dwellers any longer, and ostracization from the clan is not an option.
The argument that two wrongs don’t make a right is quite compelling, but what do we do with these people? Warehouse them at huge cost, that’s what. If you are committed to not having a death penalty, then please commit to creating a way to remove these people from our borders so they may never offend here again. Dropping them off in another country far, far, away sounds fine to me. If we can pre-emptive strike an oil-rich nation, we should be able to drop off a few hundred thousand undesirables in the mountains of Pakistan. There are lots of empty gulags in Siberia for rent, I’ll bet.
Being from Chicago, I’ve got another question for the fine people of the Badger State:
How many dead voters support the death penalty?
* Home of Jeffery Dahmer, Ed Gein, and I’ll bet John Wayne Gacy went to the Dells at least once…
1 comment:
Actually, it costs more to sentence someone to death, because they are given a gazillion automatic appeals. My ex-husband had an idea...use the death row inmates to donate organs to people that need them. You need a kidney? Call Angola, see what they've got in stock.
(By the way, great blog!)
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