quote:
Originally posted by HEROKILLER:
I'm pro death penalty and pro gun....no wonder Chuck Heston and Ted Nugent keep calling my house.
I actually like Chuck Heston, and think he's a patriot and a principled person. But anyway...

I actually equate the deliberation of a jury as premeditation, except that there is no malice. You are determining whether someone should live or die.

I used to be in favur of the death penalty when I was in my early 20s as a way of appropriately punishing those who confessed to their guilt, and who did not ever retract, and those who were recidivists (can't hep but repeatedly murder). I still have some sympathies with this, I have to admit.

The thing which made me change my mind was the movie Dead Man Walking. It is a torture to make a man sit and wait for his death for months, and then strap him in and have him die. A human rights lawyer called Geoffrey Robertson spends most of his time doing appeals for prisoners in the West Indies, who are on death row. Its been decided that if they sit on death row too long, its inhumane treatment, and they should not be executed.

Its kind of weird logic - they drag it out so long with appeals etc that the process of dragging it out means they get off. But it is not the conduct of a sane, civilised society to keep a man on tenderhooks for years and years, wondering if every day will be his last on this earth, dreading the rattle of keys in the door. Its torture. Governments have no right to do that.

Finally, I think about all the stupid things I've done while I've been drunk - I've done nothing criminal (well, vandalism, assault, and rowdy public behaviour) but I could have, in a drunken rage or as part of a drunken act, killed someone. I hope not, but if I can be stupid enough to drink drive and moon at the same time, then I'm stupid enough to do anything. (I don't drink much anymore). I think if I did kill someone, and did my time, I'd still be worth a second chance to society.