Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[mlsoft]

webster...

I do believe in capital punishment (with scriptural backing) and think it should be more prevalent than it now is.

The reason that it has not acted as much of a deterrent is twofold, in my opinion. First, many crimes are crimes of passion, done in the heat of the moment and those types are not as prone to be deterred (and probably should not be subject to capital punishment). The more important reasons for being ineffective as a deterrent is that the punishment is rarely used, is never swift (it takes about 20 years to get somebody executed) and it is done in relative secrecy.

If capital punishment were to become certain, swift, and public, I believe it would quickly become a strong deterrent to all but crimes of passion. Of course doing that is far more complex than it sounds, and part of that would be to see to it that if guilt is not well established, then there can be no capital punishment. It would also require a massive overhaul of our judicial system.

Having capital punishment hardly means that your "life belongs to the state," but it does mean that if you commit a capital offense, you forfeit your life to the state - big difference.

Just my opinion, though.

mlsoft