Thursday, June 26, 2008
Capital Punishment for Rapists
There is a growing debate regarding capital punishment for child rapists. This is one of those issues where anyone that takes the "no" position gets painted as sympathetic towards the most heinous of crimes. This isn't a statement for or against capital punishment, but given that it exists, people need to realize why rapists are not subject to capital punishment-- because this makes the marginal punishment for murder after rape zero. Would there be more rapes if the punishment were higher? No, that number could only fall (assuming criminals value life in prison over death), but the percentage of rapes that would become murders would rise. Rape is horrible, no doubt-- but the secondary effects of such legislation need to be realized.
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9 comments:
Supposedly, there is little love in prison for those that molest children. While the State may not be able to hand out a death sentence in these cases, the perpetrator's prison mates will probably quickly remedy that situation.
Very dumb idea. Lawmakers are doing their best to ensure that child rapists have the incentive to become child murderers... If child rape becomes punishable by death, the incentive will be there to kill the child as well, leaving fewer witnesses.
One thing that never gets brought up in cases like this is the number of people who are wrongfully convicted.
Every year we see people freed after years behind bars because of new evidence such as DNA that exonerates them.
Do we really want a state that will invariably put innocent people to death?
Something being overlooked, is the added burden it will place upon a child "knowing" they were responsible for someone's death.
Also children will be far less likely to tell anyone, if they know "Daddy or Uncle" et cetera, will be put to death if they do speak up. Image giving pedophiles an additional weapon to threaten children with.
Glad the US isn't becoming like China. Killing people for less then taking someone's life doesn't sound like justice. Revenge is what that law amounts to.
They deserve what they will get in prison.
Maybe some of these rapists will be afraid of execution and will stop committing these crimes.
It should not hurt to be a child. I don't disagree with the death penalty or even public hanging for pediphiles. If the courts think that the punishment does not fit the crime why not life in prison. There are plenty of individuals in prison that are there unjustly; put the people there that deserve it.
Wonder why children have so much trouble functioning in school or life?
Apart from the terrifying slippery slope that capital punishment for non-capital offenses opens up, is anybody else finding the language being used by pro-capital people astoundingly offensive towards the victims? One Louisiana prosecutor said that child rape is worse than murder because it "kills [the victim's] soul". Excuse me? It's bad enough to have such a thing happen to you, but to then have people saying you're soulless and better off dead because of it? Who's side is that prosecutor on, anyway? What is wrong with these people, that they'll throw away a victimized child as a lost cause, just to further justify their own anger?
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