The insanity must stop. The myths are more ridiculous than fairly tails, Fed prison is a country club and all of that.

J. Diaz is courageous.

I agree, the biggest problem with the death penalty is that it’s all too often misapplied. The large number of potential innocents were why some states stopped it, as there are no ways to recompense for executing the wrong person.

The justice system in the USA has been stuck on a course of one-upmanship, driven by conservative politicians and advocates all trying to prove how tough they are on crime. Lettings prisons be run by private companies actually caused the prisoner population to jump, as those companies lobby for more “clients”.

I think the concept of protection and rehabilitation need to be restated in the guiding principles of justice. Punishment really doesn’t help to lower crime, and never did. England used to hang pickpockets, yet even at the public hangings, other pickpockets would be at work stealing from the onlookers whilst their “colleagues” were strung up. I think instead of just adding years on to drug sentences and other minor crimes, sentencing and penalties should be geared more towards treatment. This is cheaper in the long run for both society and for the government budget.

A full 1% of the US population is now in prison. Can we really afford to maintain this?

Er…

Sorry for drifting off topic. Ahem.

I wish him well and would vote for him for PREZ if he ever ran!

The death penalty is arbitrarily dealt out. Therefore it should not exist. It does not ensure justice since the wrong person may be executed, it does not give closure to anyone, it’s just another dead body and it certainly will not bring the victim back from the dead.

The death penalty is the victim’s family or friend’s way of MURDERING vicariously through the STATE. End of story.

That ‘eye for an eye’ quote doesn’t justify a thing. God also says THOU SHALT NOT KILL. Execution IS KILLING no matter how you decorate, fluff it up or cut it.

As Mahatma Ghandi once said, “An eye for an eye makes the WHOLE world go BLIND!”

Simple logic…

A perfectly sensible approach. I feel the same way. One need not attend candle light vigils on behalf of condemned prisoners in order to drive home this point. I don’t feel much pity for a truly guilty murderer, terrorist, etc.. I just don’t feel comfortable giving this power to the state. Besides, it would be different if the criminal was taken out while on the run. To wait for years and then administer an injection just isn’t the same.

I’m opposed to the death penalty because it is murder. Selective opposition to the death penalty is tacit approval of murder.

Is murder permissible in self-defense? Perhaps.

As for crimes so heinous that murder is justified, I believe that abuse of State power is one of those. How so?

Self-defense? I wonder….

Regards, Don

But I have spent more than 15 years in the trenches, fighting against prosecutors, law enforcement, judges and juries. After such experience, I can understand why some still argue for death. Some crimes are so heinous, so godawful, so gut-wrenching that we instinctively want blood. But that experience has shown time and again that emotional reaction can blind us. It can blind us to innocence. It can blind us to mitigation. It can blind us to everything except our blood thirsty demand for revenge.

The death penalty is not administered fairly or properly in this country. I sympathize and weep for those whose loved ones have been the victims of violent crime, but death is not the answer. It does not provide what we seek – solace, justice, or finality. I join Justice Diaz in looking forward to the day when we no longer are blinded by our hate and the death penalty is abolished in this country.