exxtramedium replied to your post: exxtramedium replied to your post: Read Up While,…

Prison is not a deterrent to violent crime either. I am NOT saying, by any stretch of the imagination, that our system is flawless. In fact, it’s quite flawed & broken (i’ve seen the flaws 1st hand), but that doesn’t change my feelings on the death penalty. And I really hate that I cannot add text to reblogs via Safari fo the iPad!!!!

You admit the system is broken but you still think the death penalty is A-OK?  I can’t even begin to comprehend the logic behind that way of thinking.  If the death penalty is no more a deterrent to violent crime than the threat of life imprisonment, then why even have it?  “Yeah, it doesn’t really work, and there are fuck-ups and everything, but FRY THE BASTARDS!”

You can lock people up and remove them as a threat to society without killing them.  If you think it’s about some Biblical eye-for-an-eye malarkey, ask anybody who’s spent a long stretch in prison: it’s no fucking picnic.  Being cut off from the world forever for the rest of your damn life is a living hell: killing them is almost doing them a favor.  You think prison is somehow less of a punishment for serial killers or child rapists or whatever your death penalty threshold is?  Ask Jeffrey Dahmer what an easy ride prison was.

I’m sorry, but I find your position morally, logically, and legally indefensible, and I will never understand the mindset that state-sanctioned killing is an awesome idea.  By allowing this brutal practice to occur in our country, we join a proud brotherhood of countries that includes all the state sponsors of terrorism that Dick Cheney wants to nuke.