Tag Archives: death penalty

February 9, 2012 · 9:31 pm

In this I Believe

Nowadays, keep their beliefs to themselves among family and friends or risk an argument to which there is no end. Political discussion, is, for the most part, reduced to vitriolic soundbites provided for us by either the media or our favorite politician. If ever we need a retort to someone who holds a different political belief than us then, by golly, it exists. Our leaders don’t debate each other, they trade soundbites so that, in the weeks that follow, people will be able to quote back their favorite.

So, here’s the deal: I’m going to lay out my beliefs in a clear and honest manner. I will do so without denigrating the other side. In the interest of spreading political discussion and not arguments or even debates, here is what I believe:

I believe that women should have the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. As a man, I feel it’s not my place to decide whether or not a woman can terminate a pregnancy.

I believe that religion has no place in government. Now, more than any other point in history, I feel it’s important to not tread on the beliefs of our citizens. One of the most enduring strengths of this country is that we’re not some homogeneous culture, but a blend of a hundred different peoples. Prayer, creationist theories (without scientific evidence) and a Judeo-Christian teaching of history do not belong in our public schools.

I believe that the death sentence is not an effective method of reducing crime. For more on my thoughts about that, check out this earlier entry and this one as well.

I believe that marijuana should be legalized, if only so people will stop talking about it.

I believe that gay men and women should be allowed to marry each other, simply because I do not believe it is the government’s role to legislate whether or not two consenting adults can marry one another.

I believe that everyone should pay taxes based on their income. If you make more money, you pay more taxes. This society, as we have built it, cannot survive without a constant influx of money. We are currently engaged in two wars. We have a huge number of social programs to support. We have an infrastructure to support. Cut the wars, the infrastructure costs, or the social programs and then, and only then, consider reducing taxes.

These are my core political beliefs, for the most part. There are other things, but we’re already at 400 words. So let’s leave it at this for now.

Dylan Charles

 

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July 23, 2010 · 12:01 am

Undeterred

After I wrote my post on the death penalty, I was briskly reminded that I’d left out one of the more major arguments for the death penalty: its function as a deterrent.

There are a few problems with this argument. When someone commits a crime, they are not thinking that they’ll get caught. They’re thinking that they’re going to get away with the crime. This is very much a part of human nature. “Bad things don’t happen to ME, they happen to everyone else.” If they thought they would be caught, they would not commit the crime at all. Their consideration of the consequences goes as far as to plan on how to clean up the mess or keep their crime hidden completely to avoid punishment entirely.

Whether the ultimate punishment is death or life in prison, the criminal will do whatever he can to avoid being put in that position at all.

Further, one of the key indicators of someone who has Antisocial Personality Disorder (a mental illness that most, if not all, serial killers and rapists most assuredly have) is poor impulse control. It does not matter what the consequences of their actions could potentially be, they will still commit that crime. The only thing affected by the consequences is how they commit their crime. Knowing the risk they’re taking (arrest, trial, prison), they will work to avoid capture by covering up what they did after the fact.

Which leads to a key result of the death penalty: if the criminal is aware that he or she will die if caught and convicted, he or she is aware that they have nothing to lose. They will fight that much harder to avoid capture, work that much harder to avoid being executed. If someone is cornered and if they have nothing to lose by resisting arrest, then they will, violently if need be.

The death penalty, once again looking at it as pragmatically as possible, is not a good answer to this pervasive problem.

Dylan Charles

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July 17, 2010 · 2:28 am

To the Death

I have never had a problem with the death penalty, on paper anyway. If our prison system is based on the idea that a prisoner should be reformed and rehabilitated, that they should become model citizens who contribute to the overall well-being of our society, then the death penalty makes sense.

There are some individuals who cannot be rehabilitated. Men and women like Jeffrey Dahmer, Aileen Wuornos, Ted Bundy: they cannot change. They will always want to kill. They will always seek it. They see nothing wrong with their actions. Since there is no chance of rehabilitation, there is no point in trying. Why not put them to death for their crimes?

There is the moral issue, the notion that the State has reduced itself to the level of the killer by executing them. This holds no real rational weight. Unless the State picks an individual at random, tortures them, murders them and then desecrates their remains, the State has not stooped to the level of, say a Jeffrey Dahmer or a John Wayne Gacy.

An execution is a pragmatic solution to a difficult problem: An individual is killing citizens. The individiual will always be a threat to the populace. Therefore, the individual must be removed from the populace permanently. Rather than expend a great deal of resources keeping this individual alive in the prison system, the individual is executed: saving time, money and fixing the problem.

On paper anyway. Several studies show that it’s cheaper to keep a prisoner alive for the duration of their lifetime, than it is to put them to death. So, in actuality, greater resources are expended while sentencing, holding and than executing a prisoner, than while sentencing and imprisoning them for life.  Pragmatically speaking, the death penalty doesn’t make logical sense.

There are further problems with the death penalty in a real world setting (potential for the wrong individual to be put to death, disturbing disparities between the sentencing of criminals of different races), but I’m bored.

Dylan Charles

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