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About Freakin' Time!
Jan. 12th, 2003 02:18 am Outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan commuted all Death Row inmates' sentences to life in prison yesterday.
It's about freakin' time.
The death penalty has no place in a civilized society. It trivializes life while claiming to uphold the sanctity of a murder victim's life. Not to mention the fact that the sentencing, while claiming to be rational, often relies on emotion, prejudice, and results in wildly different sentences for similar crimes - the epitome of an arbitrary and capricious result.
Some of you may think that the death penalty is "justice" for the families of murder victims. Not so. It's vengeance, vengeance wreaked by Big Government to appease bloodthirsty mobs of citizens looking for a good reason to kill someone. Justice does not respond to the cry of the lynch mob or the aggrieved person wanting vengeance. Justice responds to a reprehensible act with holding someone accountable for a murder and isolating that person from free society.
Those who support the death penalty often support stiffer sentences for both major and minor crimes, and reduced rights of the people against an increasingly statist government. They want deprive free citizens of liberty and property, and deprive prisoners of life. They show no respect for these Constitutional rights, whether it's the right to the sanctity of one's home, or the right to have a fair trial and sentence for a serious crime.
It's about freakin' time.
The death penalty has no place in a civilized society. It trivializes life while claiming to uphold the sanctity of a murder victim's life. Not to mention the fact that the sentencing, while claiming to be rational, often relies on emotion, prejudice, and results in wildly different sentences for similar crimes - the epitome of an arbitrary and capricious result.
Some of you may think that the death penalty is "justice" for the families of murder victims. Not so. It's vengeance, vengeance wreaked by Big Government to appease bloodthirsty mobs of citizens looking for a good reason to kill someone. Justice does not respond to the cry of the lynch mob or the aggrieved person wanting vengeance. Justice responds to a reprehensible act with holding someone accountable for a murder and isolating that person from free society.
Those who support the death penalty often support stiffer sentences for both major and minor crimes, and reduced rights of the people against an increasingly statist government. They want deprive free citizens of liberty and property, and deprive prisoners of life. They show no respect for these Constitutional rights, whether it's the right to the sanctity of one's home, or the right to have a fair trial and sentence for a serious crime.
