Scwartzehoozitz is f***ing political opportunist murderer
First off, let's get the background issue out of the way:
Summary of the Anti-death-penalty viewpoint:
blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah
Summary of the Pro-death-penalty viewpoint:
blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah
OK, not that we've gotten that out of the way, we'll continue.
The arguments against capital punishment are well known, but one of them that bears repeating is that a large number of people on death row (and some who have been executed) have been cleared in recent years by genetic evidence. This means that some significant percentage of the people currently on death row MUST logically be innocent. Which ones are innocent? I don't know, and neither do you. Is it worth it to you to kill some innocent people, in order to kill some guilty ones? Yes? Well, what if it was your son or daughter on death row? Or what if the innocent person had been convicted of killing your loved one? Wouldn't you prefer that the guilty person were found?
So this reality was the basis for Illinois Governor Ryan setting aside or commuting all the death sentences in his state as he was leaving office--too many innocent people will die to make it morally supportable, and furthermore, for equivalent crimes, African Americans get the death penalty disproportionally.
He did this as he was leaving office. He didn't do it while he was still in office, because it would have cost him too much, politically. He didn't have the cojones to do it while he still had a political future to protect. This is why a lot of politicians let death sentnces be carried out: they don't have the moral courage to do what's right. They'd rather protect their own political butts.
S'wartsinknickers is no exception--and we know very well he has future political aspirations.
Summary of the Anti-death-penalty viewpoint:
blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah
Summary of the Pro-death-penalty viewpoint:
blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah
OK, not that we've gotten that out of the way, we'll continue.
The arguments against capital punishment are well known, but one of them that bears repeating is that a large number of people on death row (and some who have been executed) have been cleared in recent years by genetic evidence. This means that some significant percentage of the people currently on death row MUST logically be innocent. Which ones are innocent? I don't know, and neither do you. Is it worth it to you to kill some innocent people, in order to kill some guilty ones? Yes? Well, what if it was your son or daughter on death row? Or what if the innocent person had been convicted of killing your loved one? Wouldn't you prefer that the guilty person were found?
So this reality was the basis for Illinois Governor Ryan setting aside or commuting all the death sentences in his state as he was leaving office--too many innocent people will die to make it morally supportable, and furthermore, for equivalent crimes, African Americans get the death penalty disproportionally.
He did this as he was leaving office. He didn't do it while he was still in office, because it would have cost him too much, politically. He didn't have the cojones to do it while he still had a political future to protect. This is why a lot of politicians let death sentnces be carried out: they don't have the moral courage to do what's right. They'd rather protect their own political butts.
S'wartsinknickers is no exception--and we know very well he has future political aspirations.
posted by John McGreivey at 9:31 AM
1 Comments:
I second your thoughts regarding the guilt/innocence question as it applies to the death penalty. Over this year I've read several articles of convicted criminals who are found to be truly innocent based on new DNA evidence. These unfortunates are released from jail, everyone says "Woops, our mistake, sorry 'bout that," or some other lame apologetic words. But how can society pay back that person wrongly convicted or wrongly executed?
Justice is not blind, juries are not infallable.
Watching the predictibly skewed media coverage of Tookie's execution reminded me of the Elvis Costello song, "I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused." Or simply turn off the TV set, or switch to Comedy Central.
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