MrDarwin

I've always been ambivalent about the death penalty. Until fairly recently I supported it for purely practical reasons: get them out of society, and make sure they can never commit any crime ever again.

But the execution of Timothy McVeigh made me realize that there is a significant reason against capital punishment (and again a purely practical one): when you execute a criminal, you are eliminating a witness--sometimes the only witness--to a crime that has been committed. With that witness gone, with him goes any chance of getting more information about that crime, or about other crimes that may have been committed (by that person or by others).

Who's to say that Timothy McVeigh didn't know a lot more than he let on? Who's to say he may not have ultimately had a change of heart, and spilled everything he knew? Who's to say we won't ever need to question him about the Oklahoma City bombing or other crimes he may have been involved in? But now we'll never know, because he's gone, and with him everything he ever knew. The same goes for anybody on death row, most of whom are unlikely to have committed only one crime in their lifetimes.

[ June 17, 2002: Message edited by: MrDarwin ]</p>

Bubbly

My vote: Pro-Death Penalty for Murderers (those who are on the offensive & who desire to take another's life from them)...

Mercy to the guilty criminal may be cruelty to the people.

It's about Accountability.

It's about learning to do the right thing.

IMO