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In following a few major cases, especially the Boston Marathon bombing and the SC Church shooting, I noticed that both of the attorneys representing the perpetrators were trying to spare their client the death penalty.
WHY would one presume automatically that being executed by lethal injection is a harsher punishment than life in prison with no possibility of parole?
I certainly would rather have a needle stuck in my arm and fall asleep painlessly 5 min later, than wake up every single day for the next 50 years, staring at 4 concrete walls in an 8 by 10 cell.
I just can't seem to grasp why so many prosecutors, and defense attorneys alike, seem to think the DP is worse than life without parole.
My understanding is that it costs a lot more to administer the death penalty than life in prison. However, it's not the actual execution that's expensive, it's all of the appeals and other legal proceedings that someone is entitled to before the execution. In other words, lawyers make lots of money by trying to get people the death penalty, and trying to defend them against it.
I don't care which is worse. To me, if you feel punishment should be administered to be the "worst" punishment, there's something wrong with you. Punishment should be about what is fair. Punishment should be whatever is right to prevent an individual from committing a crime again. As a whole, I think prisoners in American are jailed for too long for too many different things. Prison should consist only of people who represented a reasonable threat. I'd also say we should have to classes of prison; one for violent criminals and one for non-violent criminals. Both should seek to rehabilitate and the former should not release potentially dangerous people back into the world without proper rehabilitation.
But that's not the subject here. Is death worse than life without parole? Both are unjust, but life without parole is worse. Death is merciful, and while I believe the state should not have the right to end a captive persons life (unless, I suppose, it's with the consent of the prisoner), that's still more humane that letting a person rot in prison with no real reason to improve their behavior, meaning other prisoners and guards could be at risk of an individual who no longer has a reason to care.
Furthermore, it's obvious that which is worse depends on the person. Beyond that, I don't care which is worse. Regarding the criminal justice system, I am concerned with only three things: deterrence, prevention, rehabilitation. I want lower crime rates.
As it happens, I live in a state with a below-average violent crime rate (despite having a larger metropolitan area than over 35 other states) and the second-lowest incarceration rate in the country. And no capital punishment.
See, results matter. Period. Lower violent crime rates mean that the people I care about are less likely to get assaulted/raped/murdered. Isn't that the most important thing? Amazingly, to some people it isn't - some people are so obsessed with 'revenge' that they'll happily support policies that slake their desire for vengeance at the expense of more innocent people being assaulted/raped/murdered. How profoundly screwed up is that?
Oh - and the fact that fewer of my taxes go to stockpiling the incarcerated (as well as to capital murder trials, which as others have pointed out are significantly more expense through the end of the sentence than life sentences) is just the cherry on top.
To me, NOTHING could be worse than life without parole but some folks just cannot wait to return to prison time and time again.
Returning to prison isn't something people enjoy. It's just sometimes easier. Many places won't hire ex-felons and restrictions placed on what felons can do post release often make life needless complicated. Now, I'm of the thought that this isn't the result of incompetence and that the results we have are what lobbyists wanted. Regardless, it's unwise to reduce the revolving door of prison to what ex-cons want.
Criminologist's input: It has to do with the powers of the state (read: government) and goes back to the founding fathers.
The state's authority is limited by the constitution. Citizens are free, and for the state to deny that liberty (incarceration) was considered a very significant act. It required all kinds of protections, such as findings of probable cause and then guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and so the law was originally written that way.
For the state to one's deny life was thought to be even more significant, and was thus more stringently controlled with all kinds of automatic appeals and methodologies to make it (presumably) painless. Hence, the law was written that way.
As law was handed down from generation to generation, what laws had previously been upheld (known as 'precedent') were used as the basis for modern day rulings. Hence, to this day, the state's authority to take a life is considered more dire than the state's authority to suspend one's liberty.
Flash forward 240 years. Were I sentenced to life without parole at any of the prisons I've been to, I'd probably beg to be executed.
It's not a matter of philosophy, and espousing that the death penalty is "worse". I've never seen the "system" branch out into deep thinking or religion. It's more of a practical means to lower the costs of maintaining someone behind bars. They're going to die at some point. One way increases time and costs, the other reduces it (plus makes more room for others too). If someone has been found guilty of heinous crimes, it's a bit late to start getting philosophical. Who says convicted criminals have as much say and rights as the rest of us?
To me life without parole would be the worst. I would love to see these people offered the chance to end their lives. Maybe give them a rope if they requested it .For those ready to come after me for that thought I am saying offer them the opportunity not force them.
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.For those ready to come after me for that thought I am saying offer them the opportunity not force them.
