“I think people would be alive today if there were a death penalty.” (Nancy Reagan)
Recent news has me pondering the whole “eye for an eye” concept again.
Of the 2,331 human beings currently languishing on death row all across the Land of the Free™, some are guilty, some innocent — but all await a grisly, taxpayer-subsidized demise.
Welcome to the Prison-Industrial Complex where capital punishment is legal in 27 states (and American Samoa).
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why?
Here’s Ralph Nader, dismantling many of the long-standing reasons we’re given by The Powers That Shouldn’t Be™:
“Since I was a law student, I have been against the death penalty. It does not deter. It is severely discriminatory against minorities, especially since they’re given no competent legal counsel defense in many cases. It’s a system that has to be perfect. You cannot execute one innocent person. No system is perfect. And to top it off, for those of you who are interested in the economics, it costs more to pursue a capital case toward execution than it does to have full life imprisonment without parole.”
Reminders:
There is no consistent evidence that the fear of being executed will dissuade most humans from taking another's life. So much for deterrence.
It costs more to execute than to imprison a convicted murderer. So much for the craven financial angle.
Too many of the prisoners on Death Row are later found to be innocent — with an exoneration rate of at least four per year. So much for justice.
Since the state does not rape the rapist or burn down the house of the arsonist, why is retribution considered acceptable in the case of murder? (Jesus didn’t stutter when he said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.”) So much for morality.
Going bigger picture, do we really wanna live in a society that is not held to a higher standard than that of its “worst” criminals* — a state that is no better than the murderers it chooses to punish?
Why is anyone comfortable with giving a corrupt and deceitful state — bought and sold by corporations and bankers — the legal right to kill its own citizens?
*The worst criminals are those who make up the corporate-state apparatus.
********************************************************************
It would be deeply appreciated if you’d sign up to become a paid subscriber for as little as $5 per month. It directly enables this blog/podcast to keep going and growing. You can find the link at the bottom of the post.
If you prefer, you can make a one-time donation whenever you’d like by clicking here. Thank you in advance, it really helps!
All compelling reasons to be opposed to the death penalty, although there are some crimes SO atrocious, that it is hard not to want that person executed. The most compelling reason to be against the death penalty, in my opinion, is that not one innocent person should ever meet the death penalty and as Ralph Nader said, no system is perfect. But that would mean ideally not one innocent person should be found guilty of any crime. And despite all of our safeguards for an accused in our criminal justice system, the government is so big AND has unlimited (thanks to us taxpayers) resources AND has pushed the envelope with interpretation of statutes AND the general public has been conditioned to BELIEVE the government AND there are so many laws on the books that’s it difficult for ANY person not to be breaking some law at any given time AND the government (particularly the federal government) has a figurative ARMY of federal agents whose job security depends on the number of investigations AND convictions they can secure every year for their job evaluations AND for so many other reasons, tragically, the innocent are found guilty of crimes. How often, who knows. But ONE is too many. In my opinion.
a lethal injection for a dying animal kills it in a second. if that can be done, I wonder why it cannot be done for humans. There is also the burden of proving that someone is guilty. what if an innocent is being executed? And if someone kills his wife when he finds her with a lover, in a rage, isn't that totally different from a Bundy who killed more than hundred young people? And what about the fauxis of this world who killed millions, and the gates, who injected young girls and boys with unproven meds and infertility drugs? And all the thieves in govt??? LOL