Weblog
06/08/01 03:44 PM: Death Penalty
Late last night, I was watching television, and I saw about the last 90 minutes of The Green Mile on HBO. It was a pretty good movie, very different from the “typical” Steven King story. Although, one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption was also written by King. Interesting.
So Monday will be the execution of Timothy McVeigh. Could we make it any more of a national spectacle? I certainly don’t think so. It should be noted for the record that I really don’t like the death penalty. It should also be noted that we (USA) are one of the last “civilized” nations in the world to still use capital punishment. I think its so stupid, for several reasons, to be enumerated below.
First of all, the ticking clock that counts down to the execution date make appeals very difficult. Dozens, or perhaps even hundreds (I don’t have numbers), of innocent people have been executed due to the flawed “justice” system in the US. Innocent people being sent to prison is bad enough, but at least you would have the chance to appeal or have new evidence/witnesses come forward if you were only sentenced to jail time, not death. Is it worth the blood of more innocent people to make an example out of the hopefully guilty? I think not.
But, consider, what if everyone who was executed was guilty. This is of course hypothetical, because this is an unattainable goal. However, it is useful for philosophical debate. What it comes down to is, there are two fundamental questions when dealing with capital punishment.
Do we have the right to determine if the criminal should live or die?
What does it accomplish?
The first question is difficult. We have determined that people do not generally have to right to determine if others should live or die; if you chose to cause someone else to die you are now a criminal. How is not an act of hypocrisy to then turn around and kill that person. Most people in the United States, the President included believe there is a higher power in the universe. (I will keep my religious views out of this for now). Bush is always talking about the “power of faith.” Does his faith not tell him: “Thou shalt not kill,” “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” “Let he who is without Sin cast the first stone,” the list goes on. If President Bush, Attorney General Ashcroft, and the rest really do believe there is a God, why cannot let Timothy McVeigh and the other people sentenced to death receive their final judgment at the hands of God, not the at the hands of the State.
Does capital punishment really accomplish anything? The statistics show it does not serve as an effective deterrent. Most crimes are committed in the “heat of the moment.” How many people, when committing a “crime of passion” stop and think, “boy, I might get the death penalty if I do this.” Not many, and the studies back that up. So if it isn’t working to stop crime from happening, then what possible good can come out of this. Executing, for example, Timothy McVeigh, will not magically bring back the 168 people killed that day in Oklahoma. Well, it will bring “closure” to the victims of McVeigh, right? I’m not so sure about that. Does revenge really help you get over losing a loved one? What if, for example, Person A’s child is kidnapped and killed by Person X. If person A goes and murders Person X, should that be allowed? Should that be perfectly legal? Person A, and his family have gotten this elusive “Closure” that everyone talks about. Does more murder help the pain caused by it in the first place? Also, the myth that executions are cheaper than life in prison doesn’t always hold true. Often millions are spent in trial costs for the many appeals that happen in most capital cases. So that reason isn’t a good one to back up capital punishment. Besides that, cost-cutting should never be a reason to justify killing. Even though the criminals did commit a horrible crime, they are still human beings. Like it or not, they are. I’m not surprised that the US got kicked off of the human rights panel, our flawed justice system and our capital punishment system do not guarantee the basic human rights.
We despise the criminals we execute for murdering other people, yet we somehow feel by killing them it will make everything right?
It only leads to more hate, more violence, and more bloodshed. God knows there is far too much of that in the world already.
