Well,
It could always be worse. Lacy Peterson’s husband is going to spending the rest of his life on death row and the entire population of San Quentin is going to be vying for the title of Scott Peterson’s slayer.I won’t lose any sleep over Scott but I was wondering what you all think of the death penalty.
I’ve heard a saying that goes something like this, “If you aren’t a liberal as a teenager you have no heart and if you aren’t conservative as an adult, you have no brain." I have debated both sides of that issue and my mind changes the longer I hang around. My current thinking is that we don’t really accomplish enough to make it worth it. Even when I was very pro death penalty, I thought it should be saved for the most heinous of crimes. But I’ve noticed that those are exactly the crimes you really don’t deter.
Of course there is always the possibility of killing the wrong person as the Governor of Illinois found. That alone makes the death penalty pretty tenuous. I won’t lose any sleep over Scott Peterson and I am pretty sure that he did it. Sure enough to categorically convict. And I was JUST as sure of OJ Simpson’s guilt although I do remember a day that I did think that the defense brought up a good reasonable doubt. The prosecution explained it to my satisfaction but I could easily see someone else finding the doubt reasonable. There are crimes that are caught on tape. We certainly have the right person but is it worth being known as one of the few civilized states that still takes the lives of it’s citizens?
I guess I just think that we lose more as a society by having capital punishment than we gain. That’s really it. I don’t care what happens to Scott and I assume that he will be paying for his crime in ways that we can only imagine. I have no problem with the man who killed Jeffrey Dahmer but I do have a problem with a society that insists on the death penalty. How’s that for a dichotomy?
I like to choose my battles carefully and child killers are not high on my list of priorities. I just think that we can speak with more authority when we practice the things that we preach. When we dictate morals to any given nation, we could do so with a little more credibility if we didn’t have the death penalty. It’s just a matter of practicalities and the observation that these types of crimes are going to happen with or without the death penalty.
So, thoughtful readers....what do you think? And Scott, see ya, wouldn't want to be ya.
Meg
It could always be worse. Lacy Peterson’s husband is going to spending the rest of his life on death row and the entire population of San Quentin is going to be vying for the title of Scott Peterson’s slayer.I won’t lose any sleep over Scott but I was wondering what you all think of the death penalty.
I’ve heard a saying that goes something like this, “If you aren’t a liberal as a teenager you have no heart and if you aren’t conservative as an adult, you have no brain." I have debated both sides of that issue and my mind changes the longer I hang around. My current thinking is that we don’t really accomplish enough to make it worth it. Even when I was very pro death penalty, I thought it should be saved for the most heinous of crimes. But I’ve noticed that those are exactly the crimes you really don’t deter.
Of course there is always the possibility of killing the wrong person as the Governor of Illinois found. That alone makes the death penalty pretty tenuous. I won’t lose any sleep over Scott Peterson and I am pretty sure that he did it. Sure enough to categorically convict. And I was JUST as sure of OJ Simpson’s guilt although I do remember a day that I did think that the defense brought up a good reasonable doubt. The prosecution explained it to my satisfaction but I could easily see someone else finding the doubt reasonable. There are crimes that are caught on tape. We certainly have the right person but is it worth being known as one of the few civilized states that still takes the lives of it’s citizens?
I guess I just think that we lose more as a society by having capital punishment than we gain. That’s really it. I don’t care what happens to Scott and I assume that he will be paying for his crime in ways that we can only imagine. I have no problem with the man who killed Jeffrey Dahmer but I do have a problem with a society that insists on the death penalty. How’s that for a dichotomy?
I like to choose my battles carefully and child killers are not high on my list of priorities. I just think that we can speak with more authority when we practice the things that we preach. When we dictate morals to any given nation, we could do so with a little more credibility if we didn’t have the death penalty. It’s just a matter of practicalities and the observation that these types of crimes are going to happen with or without the death penalty.
So, thoughtful readers....what do you think? And Scott, see ya, wouldn't want to be ya.
Meg
posted by Meg Kelso | 10:47 AM
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