A major topic, the death penalty. Is it cruel and unusual punishment? ...
... the death penalty. Is it cruel and unusual punishment?
I read
Figures of Speech: Sixty Ways to Turn a Phrase;
I now believe that "cruel and unusual" means "unusually
cruel." So, where the death penalty is common, it is not,
by definition, unusually cruel.
I doubt the founders would have thought so.
Right. They did executions back then, so executions weren't weird, weren't unusual.
Here in Washington in 1980. [details of a case] Should such a person forfeit his life for having taken three lives?
Should he? I may not understand the question.
The motives for punishment are rehabilitation, deterrence, isolation, and vengeance.
1. Rehabilitation: This generally doesn't work. People tend get harder in prison, worse, more damaged, more dangerous. In this particular case, the authorities say the perp is reformed, but you are skeptical. Maybe this has to do with a mistrust of psychiatrists? We know what the person did, but we don't know whether he'll do it again. And because we don't know, we want him in custody.
Squeaky Fromme tried to murder President Ford, and then, according to her lawyers, she reformed. I don't care whether she thinks she is reformed, whether experts think she is reformed, whether she is actually reformed. You shouldn't get to walk around free after trying to kill a president. Maybe this is a deterrence trumping rehabilitation: I want it seen that bad things happen to those who try to overthrow the government.
In any case, rehabilitation is a weak reed. We warehouse criminals; we don't cure them.
2. Deterrence: Experts --
them again -- say the death penalty causes more killing, not less. The death penalty, like a violent video game, stimulates people to go out and kill.
If so, then I'm against executing this perp and all others. It's not that I care about him. It might be cool if a cellmate stabbed him. But the government shouldn't have a policy that gets
more people murdered.
And anyway, even if the experts are right, if we wanted the death penalty to provide significant deterrence, we wouldn't need an electric chair; we'd need electric bleachers. Executions would have to be quick, and they'd have to happen wholesale.
I've known too many bad judges to think that's a good idea.
3. Isolation has some promise. Typhoid Mary was locked up for life. It wasn't even a criminal case. She was infected, and she insisted in working in kitchens, so County Health put her in storage permanently. Isolated her so she couldn't repeat her crime.
I think a big part of demand for the death penalty is the fear that bad people will be parolled. Secure isolation, an actual never-to-be-parolled life sentence, would lessen our desire for a death penalty.
4. Vengeance isn't a proper function of government. Killing for the gratification of the people may be understandable in circumstances, but -- if it is to be done at all -- you should do it yourself, not ask your government to do it.
Conclusion: In individual cases, the death sentence may seem like fun, but I suspect it's not good policy to have a governmental execution system in place.