Sunday, July 09, 2006

 

don't play games - just say you want revenge...

murders are horribly sad and tragic events...

should i repeat that???

okay...murders are horribly sad and tragic events...

so, on this point we are all on on common ground - death penalty opponents, agnostics, and supporters alike ... each of us is appalled, offended, and heartbroken when we learn of the loss family, friend, and even stranger has suffered when someone's life is senselessly taken by violence at hand of another person...

so where do we depart this common ground??? the short answer is our response and in the case of those who support killing a killer to show that killing people is wrong the justification is that it is reserved for the "worst of the worst"...

if we look at 2 current murder cases here in tennessee we can consider the arbitrary nature of such a classification...

jennifer hyatte is accused of fatally shooting a prison guard to help her inmate husband escape in august 2005...both she and her husband george are charged with first-degree murder in the killing of state prison guard wayne "cotton" morgan...the district attorney general's office is seeking the death penalty for both...

genero espinosa dorantes and his girlfriend, martha patlan, were returned yesterday from mexico to nashville to face charges that they killed patlan's 4-year-old son, then fled to mexico after dumping his scalded and burned body in a nashville park...

dorantes and patlan will not face the death penalty - the mexican government does not extradite prisoners to the u.s. who are mexican nationals facing a possible death sentence.davidson county deputy district attorney tom thurman said that the government had to assure the mexican authorities there would be no death penalty in order to obtain an extradition...

two murders - both grievous... the first tragic - yes, but nothing heinous as far as these horrible outcomes go... the second - tragic, yes and truly /horrific...

possible outcome in the first case - two executions ... possible outcome in the second case - two sentences of life without the possibility of parole...

this is but one example of what is meant by the arbitrary and capricious nature of death sentencing...

this is why justice adolpho birch dissented in death sentences time and time again while upholding the convictions themselves ...

tennessee has no functional proportionality review and capital punishment is not reserved for the so-called "worst of the worst"...

it's obvious that we do not need to - and should not - seek killing killers as a response to homicides...we call again for the state to stop diverting resources from victim's compensation, crime prevention, and children's resources and do away with a sentence inextricably tied to a broken system...

so let's at least have an honest discussion about where our consensus falls apart and don't play games - if you're for the death penalty just say you want revenge...

peace out <3
posted by the tennessee dude Permalink  
Comments :
if you're for the death penalty just say you want revenge...


I most certainly will NOT say that, because as I've said here before it is NOT about revenge for me.

In fact, if someone killed someone close to me I'd recuse myself from having any input in their sentencing.

I believe that the death penalty is about justice. Not revenge.

And I think it's reprehensible that you would even begin to assume you know my motives simply because I disagree with your position on this issue.
# posted by Blogger Kat Coble : Monday, July 10, 2006 12:15:00 AM
 
katherine,

thanks for offering your feelings on the issue ... i was not ascribing my personal knowledge to your motives katherine but rather assessing general motives from a social perspective ...

afetr all, justice is social and not individual in nature (see for example john rawls' a theory of justice 1971)...

hector black whose daughter was murdered ~6 years ago shared with tcask just today...

"It seems to me the DP is an act of revenge. A life for a life. I know that when our daughter was murdered, I wanted the man who did it to hurt the way I was hurting. I wanted him to suffer like our daughter did. I wanted to get even. Seems to be a natural impulse. But is there any way of getting even? I mean really even. How can anyone make up for the brutal death of your loved one? Isn’t bringing the loved one back is the only way to really get even - to get back to where you were before the horror? My wife and I came to realize that killing the man who killed our daughter would not honor her in any way. Doesn’t the death penalty just add one more death, one more group of relatives and friends hurting. Does the world need more pain? Seems to me there is more than enough to go around."

Hector's voice holds some moral authority on this issue - moreso than mine ever could...

"Justice" could be served by many means and all of them less than death Katherine ... to simply fall back on the argument that "it's the law" falls short of sound reasoning on moral grounds (and i RARELY make the case on moral grounds)... that's the same argument that laissez faire social libertarians used to stay out of the debate over slavery in the u.s.

i respect your right to disagree with our position katherine but i'm disappointed that one of nashville's blog divas didn't muster a more solid defense of killing people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong...

thanks - and please keep reading and sharing!
# posted by Blogger the tennessee dude : Monday, July 10, 2006 11:21:00 AM
 
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