Death Penalty

It is only a matter of time before somewhere, sometime, a big mistake will be made. A perfectly innocent person will be executed and the public will find out about it. And that will be the end of the death penalty in most of America. That is what happened in France in the Seventies. The guillotine was abolished after it became clear that the wrong guy had been beheaded for a crime he did not commit.

It is kind of surprising that a lot of people who call themselves fervent supporters of the Ten Commandments can be so strongly in favor of the death penalty. Especially keeping in mind that Jesus Himself was killed for crimes he did not commit.

I am actually for the death penalty, but mostly out of compassion. I feel bad for the people who have to spend significant portions of their lives rotting in jail, even if they deserve it.

The trend is definitely against the death penalty.

Death penalty is OK by me in some cases. I am even comfortable with it being administered swiftly. However, It should only be imposed if the guilt is proven in a conclusive and unabiguous way, i.e. using direct DNA evidence.

In an ideal democracy, proving guilt would be of primary importance. It is better to let 10 criminals go free than to wrongly convict one person of a crime he or she did not commit. unfortunately, public sentiment tends to set aside principles, and would be quite confortable convicting innocents for the sake of reducing crime. Especially if these innocents are poor.

The death penalty should also be made optional for anyone convicted of more than 10 years in jail. I know that personally, I would rather die than face the prospect of living a significant portion of my life in captivity.