From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 03 2002 - 15:36:08 MST
Damien wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 01:56:37PM -0500, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>
>>>> Now, how much of your own money would you personally pay to feed
>>>> murderers in prisons? Are you going to support your high-minded
>>>> moral sentiments with cold, hard cash?
>
> The usual figure is that it's more expensive to kill someone (and
> deal with death row appeals) than to just leave them in jail for life.
### Just put a check-box on my tax form, allowing me to donate money to kill
murderers. I (and a lot of other similarly irrational, bloodthirsty humans)
will happily pay a nice sum for every head rolling off the guillotine.
>
> As for you, how much of your own money will you pay to the families of
> convicts who were executed and then found innocent?
### The direct damages (monetary), plus non-economic losses, up to the
current cap (probably about 250 000 $ in today's money). No problem. It
would be clearly my duty to pay (and then ruthlessly punish those
responsible for the miscarriage of justice that occurred).
By the way, I fully agree with Greg Burch, who is against the death penalty
as currently practiced, with insufficient degree of certainty. The standard
for considering the death penalty must be much higher than the standard for
incarceration.
-----------
Will you accept
> being killed yourself, to satisfy the feeilings of the victimized
> families?
### I accept the risk of being unfairly accused and executed myself,
therefore I am already paying for my pleasure with real blood. Since the
execution of an innocent would not be the result of my premeditated,
malicious action, I would never be even partially liable for murder, merely
complicity in a negligent application of the law, an offense not punishable
by death.
---------
>
>> ### OK, you don't want to pay. You won't let me kill the bad guy
>> (who, say, killed my wife). What do you want to do? Let him go free,
>> and keep killing?
>
> Who you think killed your wife.
>
### Say, I have video footage from the cameras I have in my house. The
murderer was bitten by my dog, there is his DNA splashed around the living
room, the neighbor's cameras filmed him and his car arriving at my house and
then leaving. All other evidence checks out. The guy admitted he did it,
said he felt restless, was stoned, needed some fun. He even gives access
codes to his own cameras, showing exactly what he did. Do you think a jury
might not feel justified in concluding *with certainty* that he did it?
Rafal
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