>but certainly there are a few wrongful convictions in there.
And that's the best argument against capital punishment.
A wrongful conviction with a long (life+$X years) sentence allows for wrongful convictions to not only be reversed, but then the wrongfully convicted can be released, hopefully with some restitution.
If someone is wrongly convicted and executed, there's no useful recourse.
If someone is correctly convicted of a heinous crime, keeping them off the streets is effective enough to stop them from committing such crimes in our society. What's more, I'd say that decades in a 10x10 box is much worse than the sweet release of death in a few years.
I imagine some folks would disagree with that assessment, but that's how I see it.
If it turns out later (cf. The Exonerated Five[1]) that they're not actually guilty and we'd heeded the rantings of some people[2], they would likely have been murdered by the state for a crime they didn't commit. How is that fair or appropriate?
Sadly, we seem to have forgotten about Blackstone's Formulation[0] here in the US. And more's the pity.
> A wrongful conviction with a long (life+$X years) sentence allows for wrongful convictions to not only be reversed, but then the wrongfully convicted can be released, hopefully with some restitution.
If you've locked someone up for half their lifespan, even in much better conditions than US prisons, even millions wouldn't make up for that, and I doubt we give them millions. Execution takes away someone's whole life, but that's not such a huge step change compared to taking away a substantial portion of their years. We should take false imprisonment just as seriously.
And that's the best argument against capital punishment.
A wrongful conviction with a long (life+$X years) sentence allows for wrongful convictions to not only be reversed, but then the wrongfully convicted can be released, hopefully with some restitution.
If someone is wrongly convicted and executed, there's no useful recourse.
If someone is correctly convicted of a heinous crime, keeping them off the streets is effective enough to stop them from committing such crimes in our society. What's more, I'd say that decades in a 10x10 box is much worse than the sweet release of death in a few years.
I imagine some folks would disagree with that assessment, but that's how I see it.
If it turns out later (cf. The Exonerated Five[1]) that they're not actually guilty and we'd heeded the rantings of some people[2], they would likely have been murdered by the state for a crime they didn't commit. How is that fair or appropriate?
Sadly, we seem to have forgotten about Blackstone's Formulation[0] here in the US. And more's the pity.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone%27s_ratio
[1] https://www.history.com/topics/1980s/central-park-five
[2] https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-news-trump-death-pen...
Edit: Corrected prose.