The Death Penalty

There has been a lot of news lately on the death penalty. North Carolina executed the 1,000th person since the penalty was brought back nearly 30 years ago.

Tookie Williams is in the news in California because he’s the celebrity cause of the week. George Ryan, Illinois’ former governor commuted nearly every death sentence in the state a few years back, because all the evidence wasn’t perfect.

Peter Slevin at the Washington Post has an article about it in today’s paper. By reading the headline “More in U.S. Expressing Doubts About Death Penalty” you’d think there was a great philosophical divide about the penalty. The truth is, and it is in the article, 2 of 3 Americans support the death penalty. Yes, it’s down from 80% a dozen years ago, but that is still, by any measure, huge support. (EJ Dionne calls it a "substantial but less intimidating majority")

Eugene Robinson has an op/ed piece about it also, in which he states he’s against the penalty, but doesn’t think Tookie should get out of it, simply because Jamie Foxx and other stars are in his corner.

William’s case is about the power of redemption, his supporters say, but I think it's more about the power of celebrity. The state shouldn't execute Williams, but only because the state shouldn't execute anybody -- the death penalty is a barbaric anachronism that should have been eliminated long ago, as far as I'm concerned. But it can't be right to save Williams just because he's a famous desperado (or former desperado) with famous friends, and then blithely go back to snuffing out the lives of other criminals who lack his talent for public
relations

I normally don’t agree with Eugene, and I don’t on whether the death penalty is good or bad, because I like it. However, I do agree that just because Hollywood thinks you are reformed, that’s not a reason to commute the sentence.

Even the President is weighing in on it, saying it deters crime. I’m in that camp, if the penalty is used correctly. One of the problems we have is illustrated by the Williams case; he committed his crime in 1979, and was convicted in 1981. The death penalty must be administered much more quickly to be an effective deterrent.

The other way to make it work more as a deterrent and less as just another punishment is to have it witnessed by more than the state and victims families. Death penalties should be on TV! I’m not joking, we should televise them, from the long walk to the gas chamber, or bed, to the wheeling out of the body. Let people see the person die for his/her crimes, then we’ll get some discussion going on it in schools, and lower level prisons.
Brainsters Blog has a nice take on the penalty also. Newsweek Periscope has an article about jurors who regret the idea of the sentence they handed down.