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In response to
"we don't get worked up about some guy killing one person. we ignore virtually every murder in this country."
by
TFox
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I have no idea what one thing has to do with another.
Posted by
pmb (aka pmb)
Oct 20 '09, 07:57
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If we could be faced with a situation where someone is going to be murdered and choose to protect them we would, but murders happen outside of those parameters. Putting someone to death is a reasoned choice so we have the ability and responsibility to be damn sure we're right.
The reality is that the death penalty doesn't work on any scale the way it's supposed to. I don't really have a moral problem with the concept, but the reality is that we have never implemented it fairly (a white woman is magnitudes less likely to be executed than a black man for the same crime), and since we have a responsibility to not execute innocent people (and have due process and all that), it costs much more to execute than to imprison for life. I understand the impulse and the concept, it just doesn't work in reality.
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