Death Penalty
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For most of my life, I have been against the death penalty. It just seemed to me that the opportunities for misapplication were too great to justify such an irrevocable act. Over the years we've seen a number of examples of individuals wrongly convicted for crimes who have been freed based on advances in DNA testing. As a sociologist by education, I saw the studies that suggest that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder because most murders are crimes of passion. As a corrections professional, my contact with criminals has suggested to me that in those instances where murders are committed through cold, hard, calculated acts, the death penalty probably isn't a deterrent, because the individuals who commit those acts assume that they are too smart to get caught. The death penalty appeal process is long and expensive, to the point of making it cheaper to keep someone in prison until they die than to execute them.

That said, in the past few years I have come to believe that the death penalty is justified and perhaps even necessary. This is an emotional thing. Like so many of the potential 'flashpoint' issues we face today I don't think anyone really makes up their mind about the death penalty purely on the basis of logic. Although it sounds perhaps needlessly flippant, I've come to feel that "sometimes you've just got to cull the herd," in the words of Dennis Miller.

We've had the death penalty in Kansas since 1994. We've only applied it six times since then and have yet to execute anyone. I was a bit surprised today to learn that the Kansas Supreme Court has declared our death penalty law unconstitutional because it gives "prosecutors an advantage when jurors were asked to balance aggravating and mitigating circumstances at sentencing." Frankly, given the legal technicalities available to defense attorneys, an advantage to prosecutors arguing for the death sentence for individuals already convicted of murder doesn't seem out of line to me.

Well, now we get the circus that comes with high profile appeals, as this is likely to be. And it probably means that the Carr brothers will spend their lives in prison instead of being executed. (The Carr brothers were convicted of forcing five people to withdraw money from ATM's and then engage in a variety sexual acts before they were shot while they knelt in the snow. One survived. I'm sure she's thrilled to hear about today's ruling.)

Now, this is the same Court that has previously ruled this same death penalty law constitutional. I guess they weren't getting enough press coverage. And since arguing about whether or not to teach evolution in school seems to be the exclusive province of the Kansas School Board, this seems as good a way as any. And, it is just another example of why what is legal isn't always what is right.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Friday, December 17 2004 05:41:20 PM

Better Late than Never
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I have a friend and co-worker for whom I have considerable admiration. He is, I believe, one of the truly decent people in the world. He has also been my right hand for several years. I owe him a lot.

His story is unusual. He is an American citizen, born here to Chilean parents working here. He grew up in Chile. He had the misfortune of coming of age in Chile during the Pinochet coup. He also had the misfortune of being an easy target for a spineless co-worker who was looking for a way to take the heat off himself when Pinochet's goons came looking for dissidents.

He told me once about being 'arrested' and 'interrogated' and hearing people being executed and bodies piled up and pools of blood on the floors of rooms he was held in. He was lucky, in that someone he worked for vouched for him and he was released with only a couple of broken bones and a bad beating. I have never seen him express hatred for anyone, ever, in the dozen years or so I have known him, except when he talked to me about Pinochet. And now, Pinochet is back in the news, indicted for the abduction of 9 dissidents and the murder of one of them during his reign in the 70's and 80's. He may or may not go to trial.

While my friend was living through the events in Chile, I was whining about doing chores around the house and other assorted mundane trivial nonsense. I only mention this because one wonders just how many people are here in America who have stories like these. How many have lived through similar events? If you have ever talked to one of these individuals, you can't help but be struck by how easy we have had it, those of us who have grown up here. And, how much we take for granted, a lot of the simple things in our lives. Like not being rounded up in the middle of the night and taken out and killed or tortured because someone said we were 'suspicious'.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, December 13 2004 09:30:21 PM