Death Penalty - Questions
February 28th, 2006 - 5:47 pm
I have a question … or two. I am working on an art project for a juried show, and while I have some ideas of my own, I wanted to get some outside ideas to kick my creativity in the butt a little.
When you think about the death penalty, are you pro or con? What images, feelings and thoughts come to mind when you consider the topic?
Be as brief, wordy or cryptic as you want. I’m just trying to engage my brain on the subject a little more and maybe see it from other people’s points of view. I tried brainstorming with Lin, but after all these years of living together, on some subjects, it’s very much like talking to myself … no new data or points of view, in other words. 
10 Responses to “Death Penalty - Questions”
Pro. The victim’s family can gain some sort of relief, some sense that justice has been served.
As long as there is no truth justice can not be final.
Lowering society to the level of the murderer is not a good look.
Death is too easy an out in some cases, whereas life in prisoned is sometimes not long enough.
America lags behind the rest of the Western world in its embrase of this brutality.
I think the death penalty should be determined on a case by case basis. Some murderers I do not want my taxes to support (*cough* Scott Peterson) for the rest of their life in prison, but some do feel remorse for what they’ve done.
First off, this is just another typically phony American “issue,” along with gun control and abortion and medical marijuana, et al. People find it much easier to judge emotionally rather than intellectually. The fact is that far fewer than 1% of the murderers in this country face any real prospect of execution, and that’s only for those apprehended, tried, found guilty of premeditated first degree, and so sentenced. (Texas contributing its statistical anomaly, notwithstanding). Viewing it from this perspective, the enormity is that so many thousands of perpetrators every year get off without having to pay back anything in any form to anyone, i.e., they win in the final analysis, because the victim is permanently dead and they get to live. In this state, New Mexico, most will eventually be parolled.
In even greater perspective, how is it we have so little compunction about incinerating Indochina or Arabia, places where most of the dead are civilians, and mostly women and children, and then indulge in so much misplaced emotionalism?
My main problem with the death penalty is that there will always be crooked district attorneys grabbing Joe Nobody off the street and railroading him for publicity and political purposes.
I think the reason this remains unresolved in America is because it has become a mini-industry and enough people are making money off it to keep it going, from the $300 an hour court provided defense attorneys to the ‘executive directors’ of any number of anti-death penalty organizations who need a hook to pull in donations.
I have always wondered whether those forlorn women who flood death row inmates with love letters are simply the uneducated counterparts to the activists who oppose execution.
it actually costs more to execute someone than house them in prison for life. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=108&scid=7
also, the victim’s family often admits (even after the fact) that putting the prisoner to death not only didn’t help them feel better, but made them feel worse.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=573&scid=62
not to mention the cases where a prisoner has later been found innocent, sometimes when it’s too late and they’ve already been put to death. oops.
there are other websites out there dealing with this topic, but i’m too damn lazy to look them up. but i guess it’s obvious that i think the death penalty is pretty stupid and a backwards way of dealing with crime.
An opinion coming from a steadfast Wildman might seem a bit harsh, but I have to be honest and say that the Death Penalty has been an issue for humans/animals alike since the very beginning of time and it is not nor has never been isolated to demographic regions.
When a murderer takes a life are they not issuing a Death Penalty on their victims? They take a life without second thought and yet when they receive the Death Penalty they don’t want it.
Truth is that Death Penalties come in many facets and with many reasons. Such as being Jewish at the wrong time in the wrong place during WW II, or being a soldier in a kill or be killed situation.
I had a friend in the Army in Southeast Asia who killed an eleven year old girl who was bobby trapped by the VC to walk among the GI’s for a handout with the purpose of killing as many as necessary. Although many pointed their weapons in the direction of the child only my friend fired. Who was at fault for this Death Penalty? My friend, the VC?
My friend whom I had grown up with finished his tour came home and tried in vain to overcome what he had done. We buried him here in North Texas a few years ago after he took his own life to end his nightmares. I was asked by his family to do the artwork on his headstone. On a personal note if I could get my hands on the VC responsible for what they did to not only to my friend, but moreover to that innocent child I would deal out the most agonizing death imaginable.
The fact of the matter is that there have always been Death Penalties throughout the ages and when someone takes a life it places a very severe burden on the families of the victims as well as society as a whole. There is a check and balance system that civilization has always been based on. Are we to overlook these checks and balances just because some deranged individual wants to take a life at their own discretion?
True no system is perfect especially a justice system. The murderers and the justice system know only too well how to take advantage of the imperfections. It is more than obvious that neither one has a conscience when it comes to life so the issue of conscience in regard to the Death Penalty is placed squarely upon the shoulders of public opinion.
My friend had taken the life of countless armed men in combat and the life of an innocent child. He never thought twice about the men, but he issued his own Death Penalty in regard to a small child. Although he saved a lot of his friends lives that day in Southeast Asia he paid the price with his own.
My friends it is all about conscience.
I miss you Mo.
Orb it would serve the art world and the system well if your project reflected the whole picture ( conscience ) of the Death Penalty.
Thanks for all the comments. You have all given me something to think about, as if I wasn’t already thinking about this too much anyway.
it would serve the art world and the system well if your project reflected the whole picture ( conscience ) of the Death Penalty.
I’d like it to. I don’t really know where I stand on it myself. It’s one of those tough questions I have asked myself but not gotten an answer on yet. Maybe working on this project will help me resolve my inner dilemma about it.
Indeed it is a very hard issue. I would like to think that murderers and convicts in general could be rehabilitated back into being productive members of society and I am certain that some could be. As with any rehab options success has more to do with whether the individual in question wants to be rehabbed or not, or can, be at all. I do think there are some horrendous crimes/indiviuals that should warrant the death penalty.
There are exceptions to every rule except one. The very instant of life and death are a perfect beginning and a perfect ending compared to what comes in between. The end result is that right and wrong share the same space on a thin line where a border is very hard to discern where one might begin and the other shall end.
Truth is that it is impossible to be correct in a world where so many standards are determined by so many opposing opinions and the result being set by the most popular opinion of the day which can change from one day to the next.
In trying to make an artistic statement submerse yourself from all sides of the issue and don’t be concerned that it may reflect an unpopular opinion. People thrive on seeing something from a different perspective from their own. More times than not it allows them to see something for the very first time and to learn something from a world they share with others. They may not share in the sentiment of your statement, but they will respect the reflection of your opinion in the art you create.
The death penalty is not a deterrent, it has never stopped anyone from murdering another human being. It is however the penalty available to various states and the federal government to exercise if the defendant is found guilty based on the evidence presented to the courts. The death penalty should not be sough, nor is it, in all murder cases, some murders can be can successfully argued as justifiable homicide. But there are some murder cases where the death penalty is the only correct method of punishment regardless of financial cost. The law student who was raped/tortured/murder in NYC over the weekend is such a case that comes to mind.
I do not believe that we have the right to take a persons life. That is the person that did it or the jury that has to give it…… I believe it is cheaper in the long run to house them with life without parole than to kill them
first if someone has done a bad crime such as murder…..that gives them their rest of their life to think about their crime
I have a sister that is in Prison for a crime I believe she didnt committ……
But the she got life without parole for 1st degree murder in Missouri
I feel this gives us time to find out if she is guilty or not. To get the case reviewed by organizations…. and to know she is alive.
I really believe that others should have that opporitunity to do same…….. John Jacob Chamberlain #478755 is on death role for just being at the crime. The man that did it .. got a plea deal
my sister Linda Lou Ealey #087629-hu3g-40a is life without parole for a person dying in her care.
what is the difference…… John for being there or Linda for letting a woman in her care take Linda’s pills
I believe only one that can take a life is the higher power of our earth and heavens………
not a human being………
what makes us any different that the animals that prey on other animals