A very common argument against capital punishment is that many innocent persons are executed.
The difficulty with that argument is that the execution of innocent persons actually performs a useful function.
Those who are executed are frequently black (unless they happen to be wealthy) or poor whites. I haven't done any research on this, but my general impression is that when someone of wealth or high social standing is tried in a case where capital punishment is possible they get off the hook, like O.J., Leopold and Loeb and others.
All of which works out well from society's viewpoint. The poor person who commits a capital crime is far more likely than a wealthy person to commit similar crimes if he escapes the chair or gas chamber or firing squad. The wealthy person who gets out from under that threat is unlikely to commit a capital crime again.
So, executing innocent persons may actually be an argument FOR capital punishment.
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If Jaybees is ever picked up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and sentenced to die by a jury of his peers, I'm willing to bet real money he'll begin squealing about his innocence and how unfair his death is while begging for someone to get him off of Death Row.
You're a sociopath and an oxygen thief, Jaybees, and I'm pissed that you're stealing my air.
I bet you'd be changing your tune very quickly if you found yourself wrongly convicted and on death row awaiting execution. People like this always think that capital punishment is OK as long as it's the other guy.
Seriously, having money means you're above the law? Since when is this a good thing?
I've heard some lame arguments in favour of the death penalty, but this takes the cake. Maybe the whole bakery.
Jaybees, I dub thee Fucktard. Arise Fucktard Jaybees.
What if a poor person kills someone and then a rich person is arrested and proved not guilty? Then the murderer gets away.
What happens to the actual murderer if society executes the wrong person? Now two innocent people have been killed and the culprit is loose.
Seriously, what possible advantage could there be to killing arbitrary poor people?
I have now officially begun to plot the murder of a rich guy. That way, I'll take his money, be rich and above the law, and grab that hot little 12yr old girl down the street for a good old-fashioned rapin'!
"I haven't done any research on this"
Yeah, well stop right there, then.
That's the most disgusting thing I've read in a long time. I sincerely wish that Jaybees is sentenced for a crime he didn't commit. Then he can see how awesome injustice is.
There used to be a time where no one said this kind of shit, because being a bigot or mocking the misery of the poor and oppressed is and should be embarrassing.
...
I got that you're saying it's good to kill poor people. But I'm not sure how that segues to it being good to kill innocent people.
Unless you're just saying poor people are the criminal classes, and even those of them who are blameless we are better off without.
...there are no words. That is an actual evil sentiment with no logically reconstructable emotional pathway leading to it. What.
So, an average poor person is more likely to commit a crime than a rich one who already did and knows they can get away with it? And what exactly would be the point of killing them? Would their possible future crime be worse than murder?
Let's just send a death squad to kill poor people at random then, it works so well in Brazil or Colombia!
So, executing innocent persons may actually be an argument FOR capital punishment. you deserve to be executed...
How does a state-sponsored murder of an innocent person perform a useful function?
Yup, rich people get off easier, even when they are guilty, as they can afford better lawyers.
Many rich people have been found with their hands in the same "honey-jar" at a later time.
Why would a rich guilty person be less likely to commit the same crime again, than a poor innocent person is likely to commit the crime he didn't commit in the first place?
Nope, killing innocent people makes capital punishment even MORE barbaric and brutalizing than it already was. Black people are fucked from the start; they might as well commit the crimes people like you already think they have committed...
still waiting for the argument to support "the execution of innocent persons actually performs a useful function."
'Cause you mostly talk about guilty people getting off scot free. And even there, you're wrong. My observation is that every time someone gets away with a crime, they're MORE likely to do the same, or worse, in the future.
But back to the 'useful function' of killing an innocent person? What the fuck would that be?
There is one useful function, but it's from the perspective of a powerful psychopath who's gained a position of power in society. Less people around means more wealth I can take. Hence, good for me, right?
Which makes me wonder, why are the people who give these arguments always psychopaths who have no power?
Clicking on the quote link, it's now a diet & healthy eating blog.
Some... thing's innocent 'Opinion' has just been executed.
@Leliel
Like I say, some... thing's 'argument' no longer exists. Yet, FSTDT still does: and said 'argument' continues to be executed.
This organisation does not tolerate failure , Mr. Jaybees.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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