Robert Roberson Is on Texas Death Row for a Crime That Never Occurred
innocenceproject.org
innocenceproject.org
Forget about the fact that sometimes innocent people get executed. Forget about how expensive it is to execute someone. Forget about the idea that the state shouldn't have the power to kill its own citizens.
Even forgetting all of that, I still can't see why you'd want to execute someone.
Is it that people want justice? Revenge? (What's the difference, here?) If so, fine. Is killing somebody really justice? Would it not be more just for someone to rot in a cage for all their years, instead of receiving the mercy of death? You can't teach a lesson to a dead man.
What's the point?
Also, putting remorseless killers in prison also represents a threat to other prisoners. We haven't figured out how to prevent that yet.
Should capital punishment be more strictly controlled with a massively high barrier to use, yes, but there are solid reasons to use it.
As for prisons, solitary is an option, however one could argue that it's even more inhumane then capital punishment.
The prison one is one that never gets enough focus, mainly because we have an attitude of writing off people that go to jail and that whatever happens to them there a rough form of justice. But then it's not really great to have people sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole now performing this kind of "justice" to other people that might have a chance to reform and go back into society.
Just as a single example, Freddy Geas was a mafia hitman who was sentenced to life in prison. He killed Whitey Bulger, another murderer. Sure, Whitey wasn't innocent, but did he deserve to be beat to death by another murderer under state care?
Life without parole exists
> Also, putting remorseless killers in prison also represents a threat to other prisoners. We haven't figured out how to prevent that yet.
Solitary confinement exists
> Should capital punishment be more strictly controlled with a massively high barrier to use, yes, but there are solid reasons to use it.
What are the solid reasons to kill somebody in prison ?
- Texas man sent to death row over junk science denied US Supreme Court appeal https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37748408
- A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37650402