The dude in Norway who murdered 70+ people for no reason will be spending 21 years in jail instead of life and instead of getting executed. Naturally this has sparked debate over capital punishment, and even though I’m not thrilled with the death penalty as a policy, I absolutely have no problem with it on a basis of morality. I genuinely don’t understand the people who do, actually. I always ask them, but never get much insight into what moral basis exactly there is for keeping all murderers alive – which is what being anti-death penalty means despite the reverse not being true. Same as being anti-war vs the “pro” position which is favoring it in some cases: the “anti” side is against it in all cases and the pro side is only in favor of it on a case by case. same with abortion – the pro side is case by case and the anti side says its immoral no matter what.
In response to my search for insight on the matter, I usually just get stupid bumper sticker phrases like a sarcastic “lets kill killers to show that killing is wrong!”. When I correct them however that no one smart thinks “killing” is wrong – it’s “murder” that is wrong and they don’t really believe themselves the philosophy behind the argument of capital punishment being hypocritical because they don’t apply the same standard to other crimes. People who say that are not against kidnapping kidnappers or confiscating property from a thief, yet their logic dictates that if killing murderers is hypocrisy then jailing kidnappers is hypocrisy. And that’s where they stop responding… every time.
But another often used argument is that life in prison is a fate worse than death. Which is really odd since they’re going from “capital punishment is too cruel” to “I want them to have an even MORE cruel punishment”, but rendered complete nonsense considering no killer ever chooses death. They all want to live. Desperately. They make plea bargains and cooperate with the prosecution so they can avoid the death penalty. Killing these people doesn’t make them martyrs, it makes them go away. They get forgotten. They get prevented from killing again either within prison or getting released from it.
As for those hellish prison cells that capital punishment abolitionists claim is a worse punishment than being put to death (even though no one convicted of murder ever thinks so), here are some torture chamber one-person-per-cell examples in Norway (Bastoey Prison, courtesy of this Daily Mail article from 2010):
Each inmate gets a private cell with mini-fridge, flat-screen TV and even a private en-suite bathroom and barless windows – because they let in more sunlight.
Then for every 12 to 15 rooms there is a top-notch kitchen with stainless steel work tops and lounge areas complete with IKEA-style sofas and coffee tables.
To cap-off their stay at Halden, the pampered prisoners can even enjoy a gym – complete with rock-climbing wall – a music studio and luxury library.
Allegedly an even nicer prison exists there where hardcore felons “have an island where the they work on a farm and live in cottages., In summer, they can improve their backhand on the tennis court, ride a horse in the forest and hit the beach for a swim. In winter, they can go cross-country skiing or participate in the prison’s ski-jumping competition.”
Sounds like a fate worse than death to ME, right?
UPDATE: While looking for a picture of a cell in the prison the shooter is going to (cuz who knows, maybe they’re not ALL like this, right?) I finally found one and as you can see, it is a significant downgrade: the television is not a flat screen! *GASP*
Okay, for one I don’t agree with capital punishment on several grounds, but it has nothing to do with how it’s “too cruel.” It’s that it’s an easy out. Plus, they don’t kill people cheaply anymore. What happened to death by firing squad? Now it’s thousands in chemicals. Aren’t bullets like five cents?
You’re right though that there are plenty of morons out there who don’t understand the difference between killing and murdering. Just because you kill someone (via say drunk driving) doesn’t signify intent. Hence why it’s called manslaughter. Stabbing my friend nineteen times in the chest might be hard to constrew as to not have been murder, but an accident instead – but it was I swear.
Putting people in jail under the charge of kidnapping? I would wager most of those charges are paired with several
other things. For if they just kidnapped someone for a while, and then let them go unscathed – that – um – seems just kinda
weird to me. I’d have to see the laws state by state and what cases they originally were sighting for the punishment and charge. There are some crimes which were given criminal
punishment so that when they’re paired with other acts the punishment can be more severe at sentencing. Jailing someone is also done under the idea that said person has
violated the laws of a society, and they are serving a sentence in response to that. So I don’t really equate with it being criminal. “You violated the laws of the society, so now you’re taken from it. Come sit in the corner.”