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The DP is not a deterrent but a statement that says certain behavior will not be tolerated.
There can be no logic behind stating that behavior will not be tolerated except to deter it.
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The Boston or Oklahoma Bombers are great examples.
Brilliant... Islamic martyrs who want to die, and McVeigh, who dropped all his appeals because he wanted to die...
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"I knew I wanted this [to be executed] before it happened. I knew my objective was state-assisted suicide and when it happens, it's in your face.”
--Timothy McVeigh
Personally, it is not the carrying out of capital punishment that offends me - it is the law in the first place. Except in extenuating circumstances (ex: a hostage situation) the state should not have the power to kill its people in a premeditated fashion.
I don't need the criminal justice system to give me warm fuzzy feelings inside. What I need is for it to work. And the reality is that states which spend inordinate amounts of time and money posturing on capital punishment have, on average, higher crime rates than states that actually focus on reducing crime (what a concept!). The poster child is the South - highist violent crime rates in the country (by far) and the most executions (again, by far).
George Will is right (I can't believe I just typed that...):
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Without a definitive judicial ruling or other galvanizing event, a perennial American argument is ending. Capital punishment is withering away.
Did the vote to override the veto? The original vote passed with a high enough vote to be veto-proof (32 votes; need 30 to override), but that's not to say that the governor can't get 3 votes to flip to deny any override attempt, if it hasn't already happened.
In any event, even as a pro-death penalty individual, I'm not too concerned about this as Nebraska really wasn't using the death penalty anyway.
I am not a bleeding heart, and there are certainly many, many cases in which the perps deserve and indeed, have earned, the death penalty.
It is fraught with problems, though, those which have been mentioned, like innocents being put to death for crimes that they didn't commit, or that people of color and poor people are much more likely to receive a death penalty. There is also the issue that Tsarnaev will become a martyr, if he ever is executed, inspiring more young people to commit crimes.
Brilliant... Islamic martyrs who want to die, and McVeigh, who dropped all his appeals because he wanted to die...
And I'm perfectly happy to let them. It sickens me to think that we the taxpayers have to support murderous scumbags like the Boston bomber for the rest of their lives. If they're so all-fired eager to meet Allah face to face, who are we to deny them?
I just don't think a human being should decide whether another human being lives or dies. It's kind of archaic (sp?) to me.
Actually it's quite human to decide others should live or die. Just look at human history.
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