The death penalty has provoked heated discussion since biblical times, and today the debate remains as controversial as ever. Is such a sentence ever justified? Capital punishment is an intensely emotional topic for everyone involved because it sits at the intersection of life, death and the very definition of the word 'justice.'
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I agree (see my comment above) that the choice of example locations was not ideal. However, I don't think that invalidates the point, and I think your response to Amnesty's objection actually underscores the argument you are trying to disagree with. Surely if some countries with low murder rates have the death penalty and some do not, or if some densely populated cities with high murder rates have the death penalty and some do not, that demonstrates that the existence of the death penalty is not the primary determiner of murder rate.
- thoughtcounts Z
September 8, 2008 8:40AM
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D.A.'s Marquis' argument in favor of capital punishment makes little if any sense.
Deterrence is one of the most fraulent principles in the history of mankind.
A murder is commited for one of 3 following reasons :
1.Profit(hitmen, drug dealers, or killing a spouse for life insurance)
2.Passion(killing a cheating spouse)
3.Compulsion (jeffery dahmer, son of sam, john couey, etc.)
People who kill for profit do it rationally and are convinced they will get away with it.
People who kill in passion cannot weigh risk/reward when they are flipped out.
Finally, and worst, crimes of compulsion are violent acts that you cannot deter because it's a compulsion.
Finally, the notion that a killer's ideas die with them as Marquis points out when he says the executions stop future murders is ridiculous.
You don't believe me? just look at the neo-nazis/fourth reich type stuff.
- zaneman1 June 27, 2009 12:41AM
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The Death Penalty is NOT a Deterrent
- From Amnesty
By Amnesty International - Working to Protect Human Rights
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Poor choice of examples
Your point is a good one, but using Maine and Vermont as examples against a downtown metropolitan area is misleading. Of course Maine and Vermont will seem safer -- their populations are in general less dense than downtown Houston's. If crime rate and the existence of the death penalty are uncorrelated even when we are controlling for population density, we can't say with certainty that the death penalty is pushing crime rates down.
- thoughtcounts Z
September 8, 2008 8:37AM
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