From: "Emlyn" <emlyn@one.net.au>
>A couple of quick points...
>- No one is talking about letting people go free, as you have
>mentioned above... a life sentence is a bloody awful prospect.
>- There is no reason in my mind to trust the justice system (in
>your country or mine) to decide when a person should be killed..
>there seem to be too many cockups. Life imprisonment is a fair
>compromise, because when it turns out that a person was innocent
>after all, they are (usually) not already dead.
I for one do not find life imprisionment to be a fair compromise,
however we agree on the second point, the death penalty should only
be applied where we are sure "beyond a reasonable doubt".
>- Also, disturbingly, there seem to be a lot of political
>machinations around whether people are executed or not, in the US;
>thumbs up or thumbs down seems to be related to the predicted
>effect on the governors PR, and subsequent likelihood of being
>reelected. If you are going to do that, then make the convicted
>fight savage beasts in an arena for the pleasure of the
>crowds... be honest about what the real purpose of the sentence
>is.
The upcoming Tim McVeigh execution a case in point. (not that he
doesn't deserve it)
I agree that we should be honest about it, "you have deprived
someone of their life without just cause, and now we are going to
deprive you of yours as punishment". Period.
The death penalty has an unexpected plus here in the U.S. as well,
criminals often sign confessions in plea bargainings to avoid the
death penalty.
Obviously they consider life imprisionment not such a bad
alternative.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Adler Planetarium www.adlerplanetarium.org
Life Extension Foundation, www.lef.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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