American juries are awarding the death penalty with decreasing frequency these days. Good news.
I have vacillated on the death penalty for several years, beginning with witnessing the implosion of the old St. Louis Arena. (Long story.) But let’s give credit where it’s due: the death penalty itself.
Never having been a proponent of the deterrent of the death penalty, I have maintained that capital punishment can be defended on two grounds:
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Some crimes deserve elimination of the perpetrator.
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Society must, occasionally, demonstrate its abhorrence with an individual by his execution.
I think one of the reasons the death penalty is in decline is because we have already killed a lot of the individuals who fit category 2. Additionally, the correlation between our large prison population and our 50-year low crime rates is too obvious to miss, except for liberals, who believe that crime is low because of global warming.
UPDATE: I found this interesting piece from Annie on AA.
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