LINE OF THE DAY, part XVIII

From Mehvolutionist (I love the screennames people come up with - makes me wish I were creative) in this Gawker article:

The reasons I'd like to think I'd be against the death penalty if someone I love was murdered (besides the possibility of innocence):

If there's an afterlife, and it's forgiveness and heaven for everyone: Why give this guy an advance ticket? Make him live in a cement box 'till he croaks on his own.

If there's an afterlife, and murderers go to hell: If that's where he's going anyway, I wouldn't mind if he spends four or five decades in a cement box beforehand.

If there's no afterlife: Lights out sounds kind of peaceful. Way more pleasant than living in a cement box, anyway. Cement box for him! 

To which MizJenkins (who also is a starred commenter - what does it take to get a star on this site?!!) replied:  Interesting, you're anti death penalty because essentially it's not sadistic enough for you? 

Though you did not ask, I tend to be pro-death penalty because I believe at some point we have a responsibility as a society to remove members from it who will not and cannot participate lawfully. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong, but at some point, enough must be enough. I would also expand the death penalty for financial crimes which result in the ruin of many lives, sometimes thousands of lives, like what happened with Enron and with Bernie Madoff because, in my opinion, they've done just as much damage as a murderer does to the family who grieves over the victim. Just because they continue to live does not mean they have not done grievous harm to them.


But I also am somewhat receptive to the idea of using the death penalty in place of long prison sentences too. Nowadays, things change very quickly and there are all sorts of barriers to returning to being an upstanding citizen. If prisons aren't also about rehabilitation, why do they exist? Whatever happened to "having paid your debt to society"? Why should a person who's served time have to mention that on an employment application? They were released...they were legally forgiven, no? If you believe the person is still a criminal at heart, why were they released? That's why I'm against shit like Megan's Law. I don't support child molesters in any way (in fact I would probably argue they be put to death), but if they've served their time, what's with the scarlet letter? If you believe they're still a danger to children, why were they let out in the first place? A prison sentence probably shouldn't be longer than seven years in these modern times. After that, I think you really have to consider what you expect to get out of a longer incarceration. Or maybe prison (in terms of punishment) should be no longer than two years and the penitentiary part (the rehabilitation into society) can be indefinite or maximized in the sense of if you don't "graduate" back to full citizenship within (for the sake of argument) seven years, you will be put to death because you have deemed yourself unworthy of society as per our modern definitions of what is proper civil behavior.


Okay, I'm rambling...