It solves what it supposed to solve. Murderers no longer murdering people. The same way life in prison does. As for what it doesn't do "It doesn't lower murder/rape/etc. rates. It doesn't save taxpayer money. It doesn't "solve" anything in society (which, again, is what government policies are in theory supposed to be about)" Pretty sure life in prison doesn't achieve any of that either.
Yes, life in prison and the death penalty "solve" the issue of keeping a murderer from murdering anyone else.
But it just so happens that the death penalty introduces a whole bunch of other drawbacks, and life imprisonment at the very least allows for things like wrongly imprisoned people to get some semblance of their life back.
So, if one wanted to pick the better government policy of the two...
If there was a way to make it accident and corruption proof, make it painless, quick and more efficient when it comes to cost I would think in some circumstances it should be an option.
As it stands now? I think it's a clumsy system which is why I voted on California Proposition 34 in 2012 to make death penalty cases become life imprisonment with no parole. In my mind these are both equally barbaric, and both can be vengeance fueled actions. They are meant to be punishments and neither is very humane.
So we agree, since death penalty has flaws that life imprisonment doesn't have, but both accomplish the same goals, it would be pretty strange for someone to still support the death penalty...right? Why would someone still want to support the government killing someone, if we already admit that it's way more flawed than the other option?
Hurm.
edit: Is it a fair assessment to say that pro death penalty folks tend to focus on gut feelings on individual cases ("what a monster, how could we let this guy live!") as opposed to the anti death penalty folks who are looking at as a matter of public policy, and all that it entails?
posts like this seem to indicate that.
Valnen said:
I don't believe someone that would rape and murder an innocent person should be considered a person at all. Takes a subhuman monster to do something like that.
I get why people have these types of feelings. Hell, I have those same exact feelings too sometimes. I don't think there's anything even necessarily "wrong" with these types of feelings. I just don't think it should be matter of official state policy.