The Sweet Death Penalty

I like the death penalty. Revenge is sweet, and it is the only certain way to prevent future crimes by that person.

However, there are six reasons not to indulge in the death penalty:

First, when facing a death penalty a criminal is more likely to *kill victims and witnesses.

Second, as much as we would like to, we don't want to give wanna-be "martyrs" the "martyrdom" they crave.

Third, too many criminal acts or mistakes are made by stupid, lazy, corrupt cops; corrupt, politically ambitious prosecutors; unreliable witnesses getting stupid or corrupt plea deals on their own crimes; and stupid, ignorant, emotional, corrupt, racist juries.

Fourth, if we kill them we can't study them to be better able to identify others with the same tendencies and learn how to treat and secure them.

Fifth, if we kill them we lose the possibility of benefiting from understanding their abnormal mental processes ("fine line ...").

Sixth, if we kill them we lose the possibility that they might one day connect with their own conscience and suffer the remorse they should feel for the rest of their lives.


*Killing victims and witnesses will be not help criminals escape justice in the future; electronics will advance to the point where the criminal's own memories can be read, providing all the evidence needed for a conviction.


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