Troy Davis executed
Broadly people who get convicted fall into
a. The innocent , convicted by an incompetent, sometimes evil powers that be.
b. The guilty , unintenionally
c. The guilty, but who regret their actions and feel genuine remorse and wouldn't do so again
d. The guilty but mentally sick
e. The guilty who would do it again.
It seems that whether you support the death penalty or not depends on how important you think a v/s e is. There are of course people driven by revenge or emotions who support the death penalty - but the only rational reason I can think of is that you weigh the costs of keeping psychopaths alive against the inherent barbarism of taking another humans life.
To me the existence of humans who could be innocent is enough to abolish the death penalty. We generally do not think governmental agencies are competent enough to handle mundane tasks - why do we think that we would always get important legal decisions correct?
Broadly people who get convicted fall into
a. The innocent , convicted by an incompetent, sometimes evil powers that be.
b. The guilty , unintenionally
c. The guilty, but who regret their actions and feel genuine remorse and wouldn't do so again
d. The guilty but mentally sick
e. The guilty who would do it again.
It seems that whether you support the death penalty or not depends on how important you think a v/s e is. There are of course people driven by revenge or emotions who support the death penalty - but the only rational reason I can think of is that you weigh the costs of keeping psychopaths alive against the inherent barbarism of taking another humans life.
To me the existence of humans who could be innocent is enough to abolish the death penalty. We generally do not think governmental agencies are competent enough to handle mundane tasks - why do we think that we would always get important legal decisions correct?
