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Originally Posted by slayda
And the death penalty is a deterant - putting a criminal to death will indead deter him (or her) from commiting another such act (at least in this life time). Perhaps if we chose one of the bleeding hearts at random, gave them & the convicted criminal a knife and put them in a dark room and turned loose the survivor (if there was one) we could eventually either have fewer criminals or fewer bleeding hearts so we could better punish the criminals.
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Except that it's not a deterrent. And, I'm not against the death penalty. I think it serves a valuable purpose as societal vengeance. It's just not a deterrent.
Here's why. You have three basic types of people who commit murder (as that term is defined by most laws in the United States anyway). The first is the person who is convinced that they are smarter than everyone else, and that they are not going to be caught. The death penalty is not a deterrent to them because they have no intention of having it applied to them. Those types include not only your basic serial killers, but a lot of people who commit murder. Really, they are certain that they are going to get away with it ... and a fair amount do. Or, they get away with it for one hell of a long time before anybody finally figures it out ..... a la John Wayne Gacy.
Then, you've got people like this nut job in New York or those asswipes at Columbine. They have no intention of coming out alive. Their plan is to take as many people as they can along for their little suicidal rampage. It's mass murder followed by suicide by your own hand or by cop. The death penalty certainly isn't a deterrent there .... those people aren't planning to stick around for a trial and execution.
Then, you've got those idiots who commit murder, but didn't really intend to kill anyone. It just happened. Yes, what they did was really stupid, and yes, someone died as a result .... but, those types are not eligible for the death penalty anyway ... even in states that have the death penalty.
It might .... I repeat might .... make someone think twice before killing someone in a bank robbery ... maybe, but then again, maybe not ... because, again, career criminals who have been in and out of jail their whole damn lives, know the system. And, even they commit their crimes thinking they won't get caught.
No one plans or carries out a crime with the deterrent in mind. The idea is to get away with it, or get killed .... or the crime had an unintended consequence.
The death penalty makes the survivors and society (or at least some people in society) feel better .... like they are doing something proactive to prevent future crime. They aren't actually, but it's one of those lovely societal delusions that we all fall into because .... well, just because.
I sometimes think that what sets man apart from the animals is, we're the only species that can come up with a totally bad and unworkable idea, and when the idea proves itself to be just as bad as you would expect, we decide that what will work is to do more of the same. Sure ... bound to get you a different outcome eventually.
Quote:
Originally Posted by slayda
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Or set up term limits with the death penalty when they leave office. It would be really interesting to see who would run under those circumstances.