My home state is in the news yet again. It is trying by hook and crook ( mostly crook) to execute a man with a reported IQ of 69. The link below provides a good discussion of what such an IQ score means.
http://m.hrw.org/...
BUT, ALL THIS MISSES THE POINT, WHICH WOULD BE THE SAME IF HIS IQ WERE 200.
The death penalty is public policy. Is a public policy good or bad? Depends? What does this public policy do for us? CONTINUED IN EXTENDED COMMENTARY
The death penalty ------
1. It is a general deterrent and its existence and the fear of receiving it stops murder (Not proven and pretty dumb on its face---murderers [as we define them] are not in the business of the rational calculation of costs and benefits. If they are, then they often work for some corporation, and we don't kill those folks. But, if corporations are people who can give money, can we execute them? Yet, another conundrum for the Robert's Court.
2. It is a specific deterrent that keeps someone convicted of murder from murdering again. This is true. You kill someone and it dramatically reduces their likelihood of being involved in a later killing. (However, the innocence project and other sources tell us that we have to be willing to kill some folks who weren't guilty to get this effect, which is also attainable with life imprisonment--which is a reversible error, unlike killling someone.
3. It is a necessary retributive act in that it satisfies family and friends of the victim and their desire for vengeance (Not really. Some families say it doesn't bring their loved one back--or more frequently, they say that the prisoner got off easier than their loved one. Not much satisfaction there).
4.It is an important moral statement by our society that certain acts are so heinous that they require the State to take violent, extreme action to show its disgust. It is a statement about our society's commitment to the sanctity of life. (Hard to make a moral statement about murder by killing people, some of whom are innocent or not very different from people who got much lower sentences [sentencing disparity]).
5. It is required by our religious beliefs (eye for an eye, etc). (Mercy, forgiveness, and redemption are also part of our religious beliefs, so it is unlikely that religion will be used as anything other than a post-hoc justification for what you want to do for other reasons).
6. It is cost-effective in that it is cheaper than keeping those convicted of murder in prison for life. (The marginal costs of one more inmate is swamped by the tsunami of costs associated with litigation in death penalty cases).
So, the death penalty is NOT good public policy, but it is public policy. Why?
At its simplest, it is Nancy Graceless saying that some folks "just need killing." It gives some frightened people a sense that all is not out of control It provides an illusion that "our values and folks like us" are being protected from "the other."
Laboratory sentencing studies show that ugly people, scary people, and people who are different than us get the harshest sentences. The death penalty in the real world is no different, but way more horrible.
When prison system have to buy the drugs to kill people out of somebody's car trunk, or show a false id (OH, Yeah, we are a hospital, sort of), and other countries won't let their corporate persons sell death drugs to us, then we should be getting a message.
Finally, remember when you ran with a rough crowd for awhile when you were younger. Your parents, quite rightly, told you that you often get judged by the types of folks you roll with. Well, let's look at who wears the same club jacket we do in 2012: China (2000+), Iran (314), Iraq (129), Saudi Arabia (79), USA (43), Yemen (28). Okay, China is the team captain; Iran and Iraq are club officer. "Uh, Uncle Sammy, you're rolling with a bad crew." (see Eternal Hope's DK post on what the death penalty does to our standing as a moral leader)
Murder is almost always an act of passion (however twisted) or desperation. We call those murderers for whom it is neither--professional assassins or hitters. No matter who much we dress it up or try to medicalize it--capital punishment is killing done without passion or desperation.
It is a shameful act, to loosely quote an earlier post of mine--
"The most frightful spectacle is when our civilization uses its great strength without exercising its capacity for mercy."
(paraphrase of Macaulay, not known as one of England's great bleeding heart socialists)
THE AMERICAN DEATH PENALTY IN ONE SENTENCE. WHETHER YOU WANT TO KILL LEX LUTHOR OR CHARLY GORDON