Posted on 10/19/2022 6:41:59 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The three jurors who voted against the death penalty for Parkland killer Nikolas Cruz did so based on “mitigating circumstances” from Cruz’s life. They made the wrong call, but their rationale is superior to the reason many will agree with the sentence: a blanket opposition to the death penalty.
Public support for capital punishment has slid over the last 30 years, remaining a majority opinion but barely so. Those who oppose death as a punishment often have kind, even noble intentions. Yet their well-meaning beliefs do not translate into justice or the common good. The death penalty is consistent with justice, which is why the U.S. Constitution and America’s religious history both support it.
First, the Constitution assumes death is a legitimate punishment. The Fifth Amendment opens with, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.” While giving the defendant protections, this clause assumes that some crimes are “capital,” meaning those worthy of death.
Both the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments contain a clause stating that no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” These provisions also provide procedural safeguards. But they assume that the government can in some instances take away life so long as it follows those safeguards.
Second, America’s Christian heritage lends support to capital punishment. In Genesis 9:6, God tells Noah that “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” Murderers will be put to death as an act of just punishment.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
There are many out there who simply oppose the death penalty. And, if on a jury, they would start with the pre-determined decision that they would protect the defendant from the death penalty.
And the media would generally portray this as “noble”.
Well, if Donald Trump is on trial, and I’m on the jury, I start with the pre-determined decision that he’s innocent of anything and everything. I don’t care about your evidence. He’s Not Guilty. Not gonna spend a day in jail no matter what.
Would the media portray that as “noble”? Or would the FBI come and get me?
people want to refer to the Holocaust and the death of 6 million Jews to object to death for capital crimes etc
However what would they do about Hitler if he had lived and been arrested and tried in Nuremburg ???
Would they have voted for life in prison ???
or death as fitting those crimes against humanity ???
Meanwhile many of those same people scream for the death of President Trump and Conservatives ....
This is why it’s always better if the perps get taken out at the scene. No long, expensive protracted trial; no boo hoo sob story about their rough childhood, etc.
Hey, he acted retarded.
LWOP is worse anyway, and in the end he still dies.
It is less expensive to warehouse a convicted killer for life than the multiple “re-trials”/reviews for the death penalty.
For full disclosure, I’m pro-life, against the death penalty and a fiscal conservative.
It took almost 15 years of court appeals, hearings, reviews for the state of Illinois to finally shock John Wayne Gacy. The State spent lots of money to fry their pound of flesh.
He committed mass murder at a high school, and now he’ll be fed, clothed, housed, and educated.
Someone on the jury must’ve been anti-death penalty. Because, if any crime warrants the death penalty, this one did.
Why is Life worse than a death sentence, quickly carried out?
The answer is, people get tired of the long and very expensive appeal process. Lawyers force the lengthy process intentionaly. The sole purpose is to wear people out. The punishment is the process, and not punishment of the guilty, but the jurors, the Judge and the system. Face it, they have worn US down, to think a murderer, rapist or chi-mo deserves a life of punishment. THEY NEED TO DIE, and quickly.
The way the system plays out is insane, not ordered and logical. It would be better if there were no jails. That is the goal of the volunteer lawyers, and weak minded people.
Prison is not all that bad, life is still life to people who do not deserve one moment to smile.
Yes Cruz deserves the death penalty, but justice would be served only if that penalty would be quickly carried out. While there is no question of his guilt, our system would create decades of appeals on trivial matters before the sentence would be carried out. That hardly gives justice for those students who were murdered or their families. Life in prison without any chance of parole might be the best option. One could hope that the inmates of the prison make his life a living hell and maybe carry out their own execution.
At the very last they can hope by doing so they get a lighter sentence. It often works in their favor......regardless how vicious their victims are attacked or how many lost life. This guy not only fired at random....he returned to the same people already shot and shot them again.
Hmmmm....might be some safety issue in the prison yard. He might back into a sharp piece of metal...who knows?
JMO: He was a patsy. Just like Lee Harvey Oswald.
I wonder if - when the truth comes out - this will be used as an example to argue against the death penalty.
The cure is to charge the lawyers the cost of the appeals. These pro-bono lawyers are building a reputation that will make them rich someday. Simply make the defendant, his family and the lawyers pay for their upkeep. I don’t mean bill them, make them put the money in an account to be drawn from. There are VERY RARE instances when a arrested perp is innocent. Maybe innocent of the current charge of murder, but they invariably are longtime offenders. If a few are put to death for the wrong reason, it is an acceptable loss.
Barring that, allow the family to choose the penalty, or pay the cost of life in prison if they want to be “the parent” of a madman. Put their personal monies on the line, and watch them scatter.
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