nose@nbires.UUCP (Steve Dunn) (09/12/86)
I am well aware that a substantial majority of people support capital
punishment. I can well unerstand this. I wouldn't exactly be heartbroken
if the Ted Bundy's, and Elmer Wayne Gacy's of this world were to get the chop.
Still, I oppose capital punishment. My main reason is not that I
think nobody could commit a crime for which they would deserve such
punishment. Rather, I think that we humans simply aren't capable of
administering capital punishment in a fair and restrictive way. Executions
are a bit like potato chips - once you start you just can't seem to stop.
I advise the supporter of capital punishment to take a look around the
world and see which countries practice it. You should make a list of countries
where those convicted of capital crimes (I don't think any crime but murder
could justify capital punishment) face a substantial chance of getting the
chop. Then look at how many of these countries don't execute people for
political reasons and don't execute people for crimes that are not serious
enough to warrant the ultimate penalty. I suggest that your list at this point
will be rather short. Look at this list and see how many of the remaining
countries actually grant some sort of due process of law to persons accused
of crimes. I suggest your list will now be exceedingly short, possibly even
non-existant. Countries with the death penalty tend to be woonderful places
like Iran, South Africa and the USSR. Countries with out it are usually
democracys like England, Sweden and Italy.
The fact that most countries that execute people regularly are brutal
dictatorships is no coincidence. The danger of state power is far greater
than the danger from criminals. I point to the excellent article entitled
"War isn't this century's greatest killer" which was posted to this
newsgroup not long ago. The article shows that several times as many people
die at the hands of their own government than in wars. Historically, a
person is much more likely to be murdered by his own government then to be
murdered by a criminal acting alone. This might lead a sensible person to
the conclusion that giving a government the power to kill its own citizens
would be exceedingly imprudent since this power is far too easily abused.
Virtually all tyrannies of the right and left use the death penalty since it
is one of the essential instruments of state repression. Most democratic
countries do not have the death penalty. I think that if any society could
handle it it would be a democracy, but I also think that given the natural
tendency of governments to be repressive, it would be ill advised to give
even a democratic government such a powerful potential weapon of repression.
Never take democracy for granted, it can be lost at any time!
In the case of the United States, we have a death penalty but it is not
applied in any regular or systematic way. I find though that there are signs
that it might be abused even here if it were widespread.
- Georgia recently excecuted a Retarded man and Illnois has on death row
some 15 or 16 year old girls. In both of these cases the people involved
did commit murder, however I think age or mental competance should be
considered extennuating circumstances.
- I can remember the day when some states including North Carolina had
the death penalty for breaking into a house if somebody is home. To me,
this is obviously abusive and excessive.
- We have executed people for political reasons, although not many.
Remember Saco and Vanzetti.
- I'm pretty sure that a black man convicted of murder stands a
substantially greater chance of being executed than a white man
convicted of the same crime.
- The following is from a N.Y. Times article of 9th sept 1986 titled "War on
narcotics emerging as issue on fall campaigns".
"Roger Ailes, a Republican television consultant in New York said
'I think there is a growing feeling that you cannot be too tough on drug
pushers. The death penalty for drug pushers is going to be a popular issue
in three months, and its going to hurt politicians who oppose the death
penalty'"
Of course, it hasn't happened yet, but this kind of sentiment is the
start of just the sort of thing I'm worried about. To me, executing
someone for selling drugs is obviously abusive and excessive.
-Steve "Two's company, Three's a totalitarian dictatorship" Dunn
-The first duty of a citizen is to mistrust his government