Death Penalty . A few reasons it is popular in the United States.

Death Penalty All of my published opinions on the Death Penalty have to date reflected the view of Abolitionist.

In other words I strongly disagree with the Death Penalty used in any context.

If my view on this issue were widely held it would be easy for any legislature to abolish the practice, once and for all.

The practice could be eliminated from every country on this planet. In the interim It appears theInstitute agrees. I cannot do that all I can do is write article on theinternet about the topic and hopefully one day with enough community pressure the death penalty will indeed be taken off all statute books as a penalty option.

“Who speaks for the victims of those we execute?”

“All over the country, news stories bemoan and hype the countdown to execution number 1,000. But where are the stories regarding the ripple effects of the heinous crimes that these murderers were executed for committing?”

“Who is counting the victims?”
“A conservative estimate puts the number of victims of these 1,000 murderers at 1,895. Why do we hear so much about the killers? Yet so little about the victims. As well as loved ones, who are left behind to pick up the pieces?
A small sampling of case histories will leave readers shaken.”

‘Melvin and Linda Lorenz, and their son Richard were killed by Roger Stafford. Melvin stopped on a highway near Purcell, Okla., to help what he thought was a woman whose car had broken down, but instead was ambushed by Stafford and his brother, using Stafford's wife as bait. Less than a month after these horrific murders, the trio killed six employees of a steak house in Oklahoma City.”

If we take a say a sometimes quoted religious position of of the Death Penalty often quoted. Lex Talinos the concept of an ‘Eye for an Eye’ or ‘Tooth for a Tooth’ .The death penalty may be seen to be justified- given that many of the number of gruesome multiple murders that are committed. We can easily i predict that the victim of the murderer will have suffered probable a far more horrific death that that will be imposed by the Death Penalty adminstered in a sterile and calculated prison environment and having it administered by lethal injection. The sedative given if administered correctly will all but eliminate any real and lengthy suffering that probably the victim was subjected to by the perpetrator. However the really is quite different. I will elaborate on this in future posts.

A New York truck driver, who spent nearly 19 years in prison for murder, was released on April 28, after testing of DNA found in the victim's clothing excluded him as the killer. Frank Sterling, now 46, was convicted of the 1988 murder of Viola Manville after he confessed to the crime during an all-night interrogation. He later recanted this confession, claiming he had slipped into an hypnotic state during the lengthy questioning and parroted details given to him about the crime. The DNA test pointed to another man, Mark Christie, as the killer. Christie, who is serving a sentence for strangling a 4-year-old in 1994, confessed to the murder earlier this month. He had been questioned about Manville's killing in 1988 but was discounted as a suspect after he denied involvement. (Sterling was convicted in 1992, shortly before New York adopted the death penalty in 1995. The state abandoned capital punishment again in 2007.)

The retentionists argue that the death penalty id fair because for instance we are quick to put down a dog who bites a child or old person. Similarly the retentionists argue that putting to death serial killers and the like mean that they can be put out of action and no longer pose any threat to society. Nor do we have to waste any more material resources on them. Similarly retentionists argue far from being painful and full of dread the death penalty is quick and simple and far more humane than keeping someone against their will cooked up in a prison for the rest of their lives.