Creative Ideas

Capital Punishment Death Penalty, No Justice!

..... This is a letter written to express something of what I'd like to see, instead of what is done.,

.....My thoughts are that Capital Punishment is a disservice to justice. It is a disservice because it does not serve justice. The family of the murderer's victim is never recompensed for their loss, given what they need to heal themselves, and feel whole by the efforts of the criminal and in this sense the criminal never pays for his/her crime. On top of that the guilty party consumes some millions of dollars in the course of his/her prosecution and execution, and then the victims are made victims again when they watch an execution, or participate in the court process. Last the guilty party, who also has a family, often times harmed by the horrible act, and they are rarely considered as injured parties, when they may in fact suffer to some degree as well. Therefore, it is my opinion that simply killing the criminal lets them off far to easily. I feel that those who murder must needs work to pay for the expenses the society has to bear in repairing the damages that he or she has done.

..... I feel that the death penalty is unfairly meted out. Poor, persons of color, the mentally disabled are all disproportionately represented in the execution chambers.

..... The chief arguments of the death penalty proponents are that it is a deterrent to crime, however, there is no evidence to support the idea that capital punishment deters crime, no creditable research into the question has returned support for the idea. The second argument is that if someone kills they too deserve to die, this is viewed as fair. To those who forward that argument I always ask fair to whom? The family of the person executed? The family of the victims who have to suffer through trials, and, perhaps to watch the execution or suffer economic loss, emotional distress, and grief and all the while the person who did the killing does absolutely nothing to redress any of the problems he/she has caused. What is fair is the convicted person being expected, forced, to produce wealth, work in other words, and pay back the state or society for the financial and personal support it tenders to their victims.

..... That said I know that this will be an unpopular stance to take, but the morality of my stand is that capital punishment does not work, it does not work in the way it is applied here in the United States and it does not work in the places that apply it more forcefully. The reason for this is that murder is either passionate, in the heat of a moment, or dispassionate, planned and deliberate. In the former cases rational thinking is not a part of the persons decision making at the time the murder is done, in the latter rationality is present but it is being used to achieve the horrible ends desired as well as escape any theoretical consequence. There is one last kind, that of the insane who may not fully understand what it is they are doing, and of course, these individuals are also not swayed by the severity of the law.

..... What about the terrorists of 9/11?

..... I was recently asked for my thoughts about the death penalty as related to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the war which has followed.

..... Terrorism and warfare involve persons killing other persons, neither of these circumstances are what my arguments concern themselves with overall since such acts are not morally the same as simple executions used by a society in its attempt to modify the behavior of its members. Warfare, in essence has no rules, really. All the participants understand they are risking their lives to take the lives of others, for whatever cause and in this sense there is a "balance". Terrorism also "has no rules". But does differ from warfare in that the "sides" involved, terrorist and the persons targeted, do not have that "balance" morally or physically.

..... Therefore, my argumentation does not apply to warfare. The person from Marin California, who was a member of the Taliban, was, seemingly, involved with the civil war in Afghanistan. He chose his side in that conflict and later on America joined the parties opposing his. I do not feel that, if these were the true circumstances, that he is a traitor as he may be called by some, rather he is an unfortunate who had the bad luck to fight in a civil war on the side that America belatedly chose to oppose.

.....HHowever, as far as terrorism is concerned, I believe my argument does apply, even more so for the egregious and horrible nature of the acts. The deaths of 9/11 were murders done for a "greater" cause and with "a holy purpose" and in this they are unlike the common "run of the mill" murders.

..... 9/11 differs radically from the "ordinary murder" in its scale, so many died, and in its context, it is part of a war with cultural and historical components. From this you can see that the one argument often used for capital punishment falls rather flat, that being that it is OK to kill some one because doing so will make them unlikely to repeat the crime, while that might be true for individuals, we are not dealing with individuals, but rather an organization with a cause. Martyrdom only serves to whet the appetite for more actions, provides justification in the minds of the terrorists, and motivation for their new recruits.

..... And so I maintain, Capital Punishment for these persons will not work for it will not achieve the ends those who forward its arguments claim it will. This is certainly true for those responsible for 9/11 just as its true for those who "murder in the moment" or those who deliberately plan their horror.