From: Emlyn (emlyn@one.net.au)
Date: Fri Apr 13 2001 - 20:48:35 MDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Corbin" <lcorbin@ricochet.net>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2001 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: The pool we're trying to paddle in
> J Corbally wrote
>
> > Seems to me like the death penalty is more a case of
> > legalized communal revenge than anything to do with
> > justice. The idea that a Govt. can actually kill
> > someone is disturbing.
>
> Isn't the idea that a government can put you in prison for
> life, deny you any chance to pursue a career, or marry, or
> travel, or even have children equally disturbing to you?
>
> You perhaps may want to bring about a situation where
> person A can in fact kill person B, but no government
> can kill person A regardless of what he has done.
>
> Also, isn't it better to let ten thousand guilty men
> go free rather than deprive an innocent man of his
> livelihood, his freedom, and his family? (Never mind
> what the ten thousand guilty men may do; apparently
> what's important is that our own hands, i.e., our
> government's hands, remain clean.)
>
> Lee Corbin
A couple of quick points...
- No one is talking about letting people go free, as you have mentioned
above... a life sentence is a bloody awful prospect.
- There is no reason in my mind to trust the justice system (in your country
or mine) to decide when a person should be killed.. there seem to be too
many cockups. Life imprisonment is a fair compromise, because when it turns
out that a person was innocent after all, they are (usually) not already
dead.
- Also, disturbingly, there seem to be a lot of political machinations
around whether people are executed or not, in the US; thumbs up or thumbs
down seems to be related to the predicted effect on the governors PR, and
subsequent likelihood of being reelected. If you are going to do that, then
make the convicted fight savage beasts in an arena for the pleasure of the
crowds... be honest about what the real purpose of the sentence is.
Emlyn James O'Regan - Managing Director
Wizards of AU
http://www.WizardsOfAU.com
emlyn@WizardsOfAU.com
"Australian IT Wizards - US Technology Leaders
Pure International Teleworking in the Global Economy"
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