yesterday oklahoma's governor signed into law a bill expanding the death penalty to include anyone twice convicted of rape, sodomy or lewd molestation involving children under 14 ... a day earlier, south carolina's governor signed a bill making a second rape of a child younger than 11 capital crime...

one can easily understand an impulse to protect our children ... but how one responds to that impulse says much about their capacity to link means to ends...

does killing child rapists protect our children??? absolutely not, in fact, the law may send the message to molesters "you might as well kill the child" since they already face a death sentence...

that's the very definition of bad policy -- seeking one end yet obtaining just the opposite...

fortunately tcask was instrumental in beating back a similar effort in tennessee earlier this year ... in case you missed the lil' jesuit dude's blog about it check it out now...

rather than expand a death penalty system that is reserved for the unluckiest of the unlucky, we should end it ... studies consistently find that you are more likely to be sentenced to death for killing a caucasian than an african american or a hispanic; some counties pursue the death penalty more than others, leaving the decision of life or death to elected prosecutors rather than a consistent, fair, system; people who can't afford an attorney are too often appointed lawyers who are asleep, drunk, unqualified or simply incapable of doing a good job at their trial...

the same type of emotional response that led to the passage of these 2 bills is what continues to drive soft public support for the death penalty in general ... rather than diverting tens and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on retribution that fails to deter a single murder, we should invest in programs that promote the healing of murder victims, compensate them for their loss, and promote the actual prevention of violent crime in the communities where we live...

peace out - <3