Reasonable Outrage

I have gone from being for it, against it and now for it. I was first for it because I figured it was cheaper to execute a convicted killer than to keep him in jail. Pure economics nothing more. Then I found out it cost considerably more.

• LA County Murder Trial $625,000
• Death Penalty sought $1.9 Million
• Cost to put 5 guys on death row in NY State $23 Million

So now I just wanted them to rot in there. I just didn’t see that it would deter criminals. Most people, and maybe my thoughts are derived from movies, don’t think or care about the death penalty at the moment of the crime. A lot of deaths would seem to be a crime of the moment or passion.

But apparently there is some evidence that

“each execution, on average, results in 18 fewer murders.” And alsothat, “Specifically each additional execution reduces homicides by 5 to 6, and three additional pardons (commutations) generate 1 to 1.5 additional murders.”

New Jersey wants to fast track an end to the death penalty.   I heard Lars Larson’s late night talk show last night which led me to this site.  Oddly enough if you put “the morality of the death penalty” into google you will find both sides of the debate. One saying it is moral and the other saying it is not.

I am not a journalistic reporter or number crunching economist just like 99% of the population.  The only thing I think that would sway me on the idea that innocents might be executed is if I knew of people who had never done any time in jail before the homicide for which they were convicted.

If someone can give me evidence of that I would be interested in that.  Otherwise my feelings are that people get away many times over for the behavior they are caught.

People who speed didn’t just do it that one time they got caught.  I have a hard time believing that a criminal getting busted the third time for the “Three Strikes Law” had only committed those three crimes.

Jail is not a deterrence for the average repeat offender.  But there was an interesting statistic on one of the sites that was intriguing.  States with the death penalty have higher homicide rates, 9.0 vs 9.3.   If a state that doesn’t have the death penalty neighbors one that does, the former has a lower homicide rate.

I can’t wrap my head around that one but I still think it should be there.  And to answer the typical question, “Would I pull the switch?”  Most likely not.  I don’t know if I would want to be the judge in tough cases either, or the guy on the bomb squad, an undertaker, garbage collector, etc.

Last summer I drove by a mini carnival in some supermarket parking lot.  I saw the pony rides.  It is unbelievably sad.  Because of Disney movies we often humanize animals but here they were tethered to a circle with their head down looking unkempt.

“Hey little Sally, want to have some fun riding a tiny horse in a circle?  Won’t that be exciting?  Doesn’t it look happy?  And if you don’t enjoy it, we always have the dog at home to kick.”

Subtle aren’t I?  I don’t understand people putting birds in cages either.  Like a comedian said, “Oh look how beautiful this creature is with the gift of flight!  Let’s lock it away.”

While we are on animals, check out the post about the Humane Society which I found surprising.