Florida: Makes murderers of us all
Sat Nov 17, 2007 6:02PM
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Makes murderers of us all

November 16, 2007
The United States is one of the few remaining industrialized nations
that practices capital punishment. The biblical concept of an eye for
an eye is alive and well here, while in rapidly secularizing Europe,
the practice has been abandoned in favor of more civilized behavior.
It is ironic that we feel justified in violating any commandment, as
long as we proclaim our righteousness while doing it. I am no longer
religious, but I was raised a Catholic and I do not recall an
asterisk in the Fifth Commandment that referred to the footnote
containing exceptions.

The Europeans realize some things about capital punishment that still
elude us in the USA. Judicial murder is not about punishment or
making the victim of the crime whole again, it is simply vengeance on
a national scale.

Punishment implies reformation, but that's hard to do when you're
dead. Murder victims cannot be made whole again for obvious reasons.
The only net effect of capital punishment is to make us and the
criminal morally indistinguishable.

Deterrence is also a fiction. The true sociopath does not consider
consequences and every criminal, regardless of mental condition,
thinks he will get away with his crime, even if he has a long rap
sheet that indicates otherwise. Remorse to most criminals is only
retrospective.

Capital punishment simply makes murderers of us all and gives far too
much power to the state. Enlightened societies avoid taking mortal
vengeance at the expense of their humanity and civilization, why
don't we?

ADAM NEHR
Orlando

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opi ... 1837.story