"Inquiring minds want to know . . . .
I argue that we can't know and further that we have demonstrated a decided inability to resolve the question amongst ourselves...
Pro Con Death Penalty: The biggest problem with discussions on this topic come behind that word ‘Penalty’. The fact is ‘death’ is a consequence of life and need not be termed a penalty except when exacted purely as a non-self defense punishment on another person.
If I had my druthers, I’d rather we look at the role of the Justice system in dealing with criminal conduct. That is, to find and implement resolute judgments, which is not necessary always a penalty to the perp as much as it is a societal remedy.
However, we seem to be stuck with the ‘Penalty’ terminology, so that is where we center our discourse on the topic.
Con: Death as a Penalty for one’s conduct carries with it certain connotations: Revenge, Vendetta, pay back, Cruel Unusual, Degrading Punishment, giving up, imperfect trial system carrying the risk of the unjust killing someone wrongfully convicted, lacks the element of mercy that lifts human beings to noble status.
Pro: Whether you give someone a long life sentence which extends to decades of prison life followed by death in prison, or set a specific date for their death, you are determining the nature of their death circumstance. So, in that sense death is an element of the punitive consequence handed to all perpetrators of heinous crime.
There is no way to reconcile heinous criminality for the victims or with society at large. Forgiveness and mercy is a resolute determination that is so entangled with the personal elements of heinous crime that no management of the perpetrator of a heinous crime can satisfy these issues. Therefore, it is no more just to say the death penalty lacks mercy and forgiveness than it is to say that withholding death as a consequence is merciful and forgiving.
There are certain crimes that rise to the heinous category for which we have no just and resolute remedy. For example, lifers have been known to continue heinous conduct even while incarcerated, or to establish some alternative form of unwholesome deviancy within the culture of incarceration. |
