Re: Death penalty

["Sunil Ramalingam" <sunilramalingam@hotmail.com>]

Doug,

You wrote, "Everyone who opposes the death penalty for murder after a first 
conviction is in principle supporting the death penalty for this murderer's 
future victims."

This could only be true in a zero-sum world in which the only choices are 
the imposition of the death penalty or no punishment at all. I know there 
are more choices than these two, and I disagree with the idea that opponents 
of state-sanctioned killing of this sort support future murders.

I also have to quarrel with your use of the term 'death penalty.' I 
understand that you use it to describe all situations in which lethal force 
is used, but it seems to me that it should be used to describe the sentence 
handed out by a jury or judge, after a conviction or guilty plea; but then, 
I'm an attorney. I do agree that many people would agree with the use of 
lethal force in certain situations, but heck, I'm also a confessed 
relatavist.

Sunil






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