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Who needs a unifying theme anyway?

I also do Stuff My Girlfriend Says which is a lot funnier than this. Mostly because my girlfriend is funnier than me.

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This point was made well last week by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, writing for The American Scene. In any penal system, he pointed out, but especially in our own — which can be brutal, overcrowded, rife with rape and other forms of violence — a lifelong prison sentence can prove more cruel and unusual than a speedy execution. And a society that supposedly values liberty as much or more than life itself hasn’t necessarily become more civilized if it preserves its convicts’ lives while consistently violating their rights and dignity. It’s just become better at self-deception about what’s really going on.

Ross Douthat, Justice, After Troy Davis - NYTimes.com

As much as I like Pascal-Emmanuel, this rationale for maintaining the death penalty makes me furious. It’s not a case for executing people – it’s a case for reforming the prison and justice systems.

Trying to make out that executing people is somehow the more humanitarian choice is the real self-deception here. If prison is so bad that execution is preferable, then we would surely need to increase the number of capital crimes until we reach the sweet spot where people were only serving sentences short enough to not be quite as bad as being executed.

Capital punishment is the mark of a tyranny – a system wherein every interaction with the State takes place while it holds a noose around your neck. Why intelligent people whom I otherwise respect would support it is entirely mystifying to me.