Death To Democracy
Lethal injection is cruel and unusual because it can cause "excruciating pain". Well, having a baby DOES cause excruciating pain...when is someone going to ban that?
The reality here is that all capital punishment is cruel and unusual to those who oppose it. They see the cruel and unusual protection as the poison pill that can kill a policy that is supported by the people. So the definition only needs to get so broad that all capital punishment fits inside and then, just like that, the people will have been beaten by semantics. It sure beats having to change people's minds in a free democracy. Who has time for that?
There's another way to stick it to the rabble. You can have your local professional group force its members to boycott a legal and democratically approved execution. The argument here (if you can believe the story...it is from CBS) being doctors shouldn't kill patients...unless they ask for it...or their mother's do. More meds for me please...I can still see the truth.
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2 comments:
Hold those meds! What you need is a dose of hard truth and cold facts to chew on.
The forcible killing of well-secured, captive prisoners by a state agency is inhumane, however it is carried out. As you point out, "cruel and unusual" is subjective and a matter of opinion, and opinions change, i.e., "The evolving standards of a maturing society." Truth is, executions are ignorant and unnecessary...and a cruel hoax.
Instead of being "tough on crime" these killings of a few already locked up prisoners are "soft-headed on crime." The U.S. Bureau of Justice reports over 150,000 unsolved murders in the U.S. over the last 30 years. Most of these crimes will never be solved because law enforcement does not have the resources to open most of these cold cases.
The Death Penalty costs many, many millions more to administer than life in prison w/o the possiblity of parole (see www.deathpenaltyinfo.org). The lawyers are the ones making a killing along with posturing politicians who try to numb our critical thinking by appealing to our worst instincts).
If we simply re-direct all the time, talent and treasure spent pursuing the killing of a few doomed-anyway, already locked up prisoners and use it to go after active, violent criminals, we would all be safer and justice would be much better served. After all, which ones are the real threat to us and our families?
What about the families of the 150,000 victims whose killer is still at large...unknown and unpursued? As for punishment, being locked in a cage forever with other violent criminals has got to be a fate worse than death. Some call it the "slow death penalty."
As for public opinion, the public is statistically split almost evenly between the Death Penalty and Life w/o Parole. This may be due to so many people being freed from Death Row (124 and counting)and many more from prison due to evidence of wrongful convictions. Is any such expensive state or federal program (FEMA, IRS, schools, NASA, etc.) incapable of error?
As for it being legal, just because something is legal, doesn't make it right. MLK Jr. said, "Remember, everything that was done in Hitler's Germany was legal."
I have to say that Surfswami is not all wet on this one! (rim shot!)
I agree that the death penalty has many more cons than pros. I don't think the state should have the right to take our property let alone our lives. However, I maintain that it should be decided by the people and not the creativity of the activists.
I would absolutely welcome the evolving of standards that Sufswami mentions. The proper way to resolve this issue is by bringing democratic pressure to bear on our represntatives, not by bullying by the NC medical board.
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