The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

The recent Supreme Court decision regarding not killing minors got me thinking about something. First of all, I think it was a good decision. To imply that 17 year olds somehow don't know what they're doing when they kill people is pretty silly, but the general rule in this country is to strip rights of those under 18. If 18 years olds can't vote or drink or join the army or rent cars, then it's only one or two logical steps away to say that they cannot be killed by the government. To put someone that young to death seems to me to be rather vindictive. While the crime was most likely pretty heinous to warrant execution, the general wisdom says that kids only become self actualized at about 18-20, so you could make a pretty valid argument for not killing kids.

As for the death penalty in general, I don't have a problem with it. Most liberals say they're against the death penalty almost across the board, but at the same time aren't really bothered when people like Tim McVeigh and John Malvo are sentenced to execution. I personally think that if one goes to the extent to kill people who he has never met and who have never done anything to him, then that person does not value any human life. To lose the killer's life then from the killer's standpoint is negligible, since he doesn't value life, and at the same time it is perfectly justified from a societal standpoint. People who kill people they know are a different ball of wax, though you could argue that anyone who murders someone and isn't in a life threatening situation themselves does not value human life.

That being said, I don't believe that people should be executed. I think, much like socialism and religion, capital punishment works in theory but not in practice. Once it is put into the hands of the people it is bastardized and ineffective. There is ample opportunity to misplace or misread evidence or otherwise screw up the process. The worst crime a government can commit would be to execute an innocent person.

Also, from a nuts and bolts standpoint capital punishment is a waste. There's always going to be a moral argument against it, all of the evidence points toward the fact that it does not deter violent crimes or murders, and between all of the necessary appeals processes, executing a prisoner costs something on the order of 5 times more to the taxpayer than simply jailing him for life. At the end of the day if a killer is off the streets and isn't killing anyone, and can't hope to be parolled, then that is just as effective as them being dead. Except maybe for the jailhouse interviews and opportunity to continue to spread some sort of message of hatred or murderousness, like Charles Manson.

I think I've probably contradicted myself within this post. At the end of the day, I personally am not bothered by executing people who've killed other people, providing it is absolutely justified. I think the problem comes in most of the time in being absolutely justified. Justified in the sense that there is no doubt that the person committed the crime and also that it won't be a huge waste of money just to get someone killed when they could just as easily rot in jail.