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In terms of a system, stepping outside of the emotional response to an especially sadistic or horrid crime - I agree that there are many arguments against the death penalty.
There will be mistakes, there will be outrages against justice (like Derek Bentley); again and again the death penalty has been proven not to be an effective deterrent; any case where the death penalty exists will eventually lead to the state killing an innocent; the death penalty forces the state itself to become a murderer; that specifically hangman are required to kill on behalf of those who do not have the stomach to carry the blood on their hands; that enemies of the state can be made into martyr's.
Revenge is an argument FOR the death penalty, but I think a poor one. It is very understandable that the families of the victims want to see the killer pay the ultimate price - but it is not a good basis to create law upon.
I genuinely think, and I know I said it before, that the value of the death penalty is deeper than the usually given reasons... I certainly dont believe in a biblical eye for eye (which ends up blinding us all if you take it to its ultimate end) - but I do believe hanging is a ritual that is valuable to society, it is an act of cleansing and act of ridding society of the crimes of the killer. The killer is hanged not for the sake of some religious or moral idea of justice, and not to satisfy the pain of the victims loved ones: to wash the murder from the general society and in one action to cut the disgraced and degraded element away from society.
I do not support torture of any kind, or punishment that has any kind of sadistic level, I detest the system in America where people can sit on death row for decades constantly in terror of execution. Execution should be efficient and painless - the casting out of an individual who is proven unfit to live - without celebration, spectacle, or hate.
I would support only death by hanging is an acceptable means of execution, and that it must happen very quickly after the sentence is given, with one chance to appeal and one chance to appeal to the head of state for mercy. I support it only in cases of murder which are "the worst cases" (subjective, I know). In no case is it permissable for a woman or a child to be hanged (and that may be sexist, but it is my position).
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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
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