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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CharleyMike who wrote (83156)	6/28/2000 9:38:00 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Life imprisonment at least allows you to release the person if you've made a mistake. If it is torture to imprison people for life, and it may be torture, that's too bad- it's the best we can do I think. I cannot think of another alternative. We cannot have people out in society who have been judged to be dangerous to others. But, on the other hand, I think it is dangerous to give to the collective (our government) the right to kill it's own citizens (namely US, namely MEMEMEME). I simply can't trust the government that much. I liked the death penalty for many, many years(for emotional reasons)- but the more experience I have with the government and with people (and it is people who sit on juries) the less I like the idea of a death penalty. The death penalty now seems to me unnecessarily expensive AND unnecessarily risky. It isn't cost effective; it doesn't seem to be a deterrent; I don't believe the State should be in the vengeance business; and, finally, it is unfair to the maximum- in that the rich do NOT get executed in the same numbers as the poor- because a GOOD lawyer will get you off of the death penalty no matter how much you "deserve" it(and I think we can take OJ as the ultimate example of that). Now the poor always get the shaft- but should they get the shaft in such a public and noteworthy way? Will they not lose respect for a system like this? This seems to me to be a great danger for us- as our society becomes more stratified.

To: CharleyMike who wrote (83156)	6/28/2000 11:01:00 PM
From: Father Terrence	Respond to of 108807

I can only add that an uncle of mine who worked for the Chicago Tribune, saw the photographs taken (never published) of the 8 student nurses that Richard Speck butchered. And I DO mean butchered. My uncle said executing that monster was too good for him and the greatest punishment would be to let him rot in jail the rest of his life. Of course, if I was found guilty of murder and I was truly innocent, I would take life -- hoping at least that some day I could clear my name and get out. I think probably any innocent person would. Curiously, some who admitted they were guilty ASKED for the death penalty!!