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Originally Posted by Ustwo
So you don't agree with the death penalty.
I ask you this, because so far no one else is answering.
Hypothetically someones guilt was 100% in a horrible murder. Why do you feel the death penalty is not appropriate?
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Perhaps for the same reason you support it? What is the basis of your preference for the death penalty?
It conforms with my general world view that we (Western societies at any rate) are evolved cultures and we view the taking of a life as little more than revenge and not either an effective deterrant nor a way to improve society as a whole.
It is the action, the concept, of state-sanctioned murder that offends me and, I think, many others, not the virtues or lack thereof of the convicted party nor of the individual crime.
Do I think the system we have in Canada is perfect? Of course not. I'd like to see hard-labour introduced.
But we've also had Donald Marshall, Steve Truscott, and dozens of others - cases of men convicted of crimes they did not commit and who would be dead in Texas or Florida.
So, for both the concept of state-sanctioned taking of life and the fact that even one innocent death is too much, I do not support the death penalty.
I think of note, when it comes to the nations that support the death penalty, we often equate the US to Iraq or Sudan or some third world hell hole, but perhaps it is also due to the impersonal aspect of crimes in the US due to the A) the amount of crime, and B) the size of the population. Many of the nations with the largest populations support the death penalty and people look upon the death of "just another criminal" a bit more remotely and with detachment.