"Many of us do not believe in capital punishment, because thus society takes from a man what society cannot give." - Katharine Fullerton Gerould
I'm a firm believer in everyone being entitled to their own opinions, but the other day when the death penalty came up in a conversation between a good friend of mine and myself, I couldn't help but to be appauled, or rather, repulsed by his pro-capital punishment stance.
For extremely personal reasons, which I don't want to get into on this blog, I'm against the idea of capital punishment. When I think of all of the hundreds of innocent men who were, first, jailed for crimes that weren't their own, and then secondly, were executed and posthumousley aquitted of the crimes the didn't even commit, I can't even explain how low my heart sinks.
It's inexplainable to even attempt at putting my sorrow into words for those who were caught wrongly in the mess that has become of the nation's so-called "system". I'm a bit sad to admit it, but I'm quite appauled by those who still, even in the twenty-first century, believe in the old testament "eye for an eye" philosophy of the death penalty. But like I said, I'm a firm believer of everyone being entitled to their own opinions.
To me, the "system" doesn't work on so many levels that it's truly, in my mind, an obsolete form of any active maintaining government.
In terms of the death penalty, I believe of it the same way I do about torture: It's unaffective. (Take a look: HERE)
Torture-wise, I don't believe in the method because all in all, the person being tortured will reveal any type of information, false or not, just to make the torture stop. And I think that it's a major point for my score sheet when even the United States has officially put a ban on torture.
Death penalty-wise, I don't believe in it because obviously, it doesn't strike any type of fear into the hearts of those who are willing to murder anyway. And the penalty's major flaw is that it has an unfixable habit of killing people who didn't even commit the crimes that they were accused of commiting. And as long as the death penalty has even a one percent chance of killing an innocent man or woman, I will always find that to be unacceptable. It simply doesn't work.
How many times must we open the newspaper and find that DNA has cleared a man or woman of a crime they didn't commit after they've served half of their lives in prison, or have already been executed for crimes that weren't their own?
It's sad, because once a person is dead, there's no bringing them back. Myself, personally, I don't feel that it's right for anyone to kill another human being unless it's in self defense, on the battlefield, or in the defense of someone else with extremely good reason. Let alone, have an unfair and biased society hold the keys to lives of those which they had no stake in creating.
My pro-execution friend, who I won't name, brought up the fact that he believes that it would be alright, especially, to execute someone only if there was extremely overwhelming evidence to put the said person to death. Contrary to that belief of my friend, I found two MAJOR flaws with his statement:
1. EVIDENCE can be tampered with. It can be fabricated. And it can be corrupted to such levels that it can go unnoticed without anyone ever even knowing it.
2. The system in which the evidence is obtained is the same system that tries it's people in court, and subsequently puts it's people to death. That's in any way, shape, or form that you view it from, biased and unfair.
My biggest problem with people who thinks that it's "badass" to support such a penalty because they believe that they so arrogantly know what's in the best interest of the entire human race, without even thinking things through, is that it's easy to sit back and condone the death of another person, but yet they wouldn't execute anybody themselves.
If you put these pro-death penalty people's hands on the switch to take another's life, they couldn't even do it themselves. Most people are cowards, and that is a fact.
I think that our society should be more focused on the rehabilitation of some of it's people who've commited such haneous acts, than only in the punishment side of things. But overall, I'll be the first to admit that there are some disgusting excuses for human beings on death row who actually do deserve to die like the bastards they are, but I'm not writing this entry to defend those people in any way; this writing piece is for those who've wrongfully been caught in the system.
And at the end of the day, after hundreds have been killed under such flawed laws, and have subsequently been posthumousley aquitted of their crimes, the system that wrongfully killed so many people, isn't even held accountable for it's actions and deep, deep flaws.
All they can do after hypocritically murdering so many others (in a form of institutionalized genocide) is apologize, coldly, for lives which they took and cannot possibly bring back. Unfortunatley, in this country, apology has become policy.
And needless to say, I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I truly do feel - beyond my own control - ashamed of my friend.
That's all that I have to say....
I'm a firm believer in everyone being entitled to their own opinions, but the other day when the death penalty came up in a conversation between a good friend of mine and myself, I couldn't help but to be appauled, or rather, repulsed by his pro-capital punishment stance.
For extremely personal reasons, which I don't want to get into on this blog, I'm against the idea of capital punishment. When I think of all of the hundreds of innocent men who were, first, jailed for crimes that weren't their own, and then secondly, were executed and posthumousley aquitted of the crimes the didn't even commit, I can't even explain how low my heart sinks.
It's inexplainable to even attempt at putting my sorrow into words for those who were caught wrongly in the mess that has become of the nation's so-called "system". I'm a bit sad to admit it, but I'm quite appauled by those who still, even in the twenty-first century, believe in the old testament "eye for an eye" philosophy of the death penalty. But like I said, I'm a firm believer of everyone being entitled to their own opinions.
To me, the "system" doesn't work on so many levels that it's truly, in my mind, an obsolete form of any active maintaining government.
In terms of the death penalty, I believe of it the same way I do about torture: It's unaffective. (Take a look: HERE)
Torture-wise, I don't believe in the method because all in all, the person being tortured will reveal any type of information, false or not, just to make the torture stop. And I think that it's a major point for my score sheet when even the United States has officially put a ban on torture.
Death penalty-wise, I don't believe in it because obviously, it doesn't strike any type of fear into the hearts of those who are willing to murder anyway. And the penalty's major flaw is that it has an unfixable habit of killing people who didn't even commit the crimes that they were accused of commiting. And as long as the death penalty has even a one percent chance of killing an innocent man or woman, I will always find that to be unacceptable. It simply doesn't work.
How many times must we open the newspaper and find that DNA has cleared a man or woman of a crime they didn't commit after they've served half of their lives in prison, or have already been executed for crimes that weren't their own?
It's sad, because once a person is dead, there's no bringing them back. Myself, personally, I don't feel that it's right for anyone to kill another human being unless it's in self defense, on the battlefield, or in the defense of someone else with extremely good reason. Let alone, have an unfair and biased society hold the keys to lives of those which they had no stake in creating.
My pro-execution friend, who I won't name, brought up the fact that he believes that it would be alright, especially, to execute someone only if there was extremely overwhelming evidence to put the said person to death. Contrary to that belief of my friend, I found two MAJOR flaws with his statement:
1. EVIDENCE can be tampered with. It can be fabricated. And it can be corrupted to such levels that it can go unnoticed without anyone ever even knowing it.
2. The system in which the evidence is obtained is the same system that tries it's people in court, and subsequently puts it's people to death. That's in any way, shape, or form that you view it from, biased and unfair.
My biggest problem with people who thinks that it's "badass" to support such a penalty because they believe that they so arrogantly know what's in the best interest of the entire human race, without even thinking things through, is that it's easy to sit back and condone the death of another person, but yet they wouldn't execute anybody themselves.
If you put these pro-death penalty people's hands on the switch to take another's life, they couldn't even do it themselves. Most people are cowards, and that is a fact.
I think that our society should be more focused on the rehabilitation of some of it's people who've commited such haneous acts, than only in the punishment side of things. But overall, I'll be the first to admit that there are some disgusting excuses for human beings on death row who actually do deserve to die like the bastards they are, but I'm not writing this entry to defend those people in any way; this writing piece is for those who've wrongfully been caught in the system.
And at the end of the day, after hundreds have been killed under such flawed laws, and have subsequently been posthumousley aquitted of their crimes, the system that wrongfully killed so many people, isn't even held accountable for it's actions and deep, deep flaws.
All they can do after hypocritically murdering so many others (in a form of institutionalized genocide) is apologize, coldly, for lives which they took and cannot possibly bring back. Unfortunatley, in this country, apology has become policy.
And needless to say, I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I truly do feel - beyond my own control - ashamed of my friend.
That's all that I have to say....
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