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While I have no sympathy for the convicted murderer, rapist or child molester, I resent politicians who peddle the notion that if you are against the death penalty that you're soft on crime. Honestly, I don't think the death penalty serves a purpose other than to cater to the public's need for vengeance and to provide a means for politicians to assert their tough-on-crime bona fides. I believe it represents our national frustration about violent crime's persistence in our culture.
As for deterrence, study after study have shown that certainty of punishment is a deterrent, not severity. Namely, if you were certain to get a $10 fine every time you went 56 mph in a 55 zone, you wouldn't speed. OTOH, if the fine was $1000, but there was a 1 in a million chance of getting caught, you'd speed. If it were an effective deterrent, the US would have the lowest violent crime rate of any of the western industrialized democracies, not the highest.
If it could be administered fairly and acted as a deterrent, I'd support it whole-heartedly. Until then, we're kidding ourselves as to both its efficacy and morality.
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As long as the roots are not severed, all will be well in the garden.
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