Game of Words: View vs. Counter View 1.30

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

VIEW: NIKHIL DEV

 The justice system basically attempts to mete out punishment that fits the crime, and as such, severe crimes result in harsh imprisonment. The crime of “petty larceny” is not treated with the same severity that is meted to “grand theft auto,” and the latter, consequently, receives more time in prison.  So if severe—but non-lethal—violence toward another is found deserving of life without parole, then why should premeditated homicide be given the exact same punishment?  This fact might induce a potential criminal to go ahead and kill the victim he has already mugged and crippled.  Why would it matter?  After all, his sentence could not possibly get any worse.

If murder is the willful deprivation of a victim’s right to life, then the justice system’s willful deprivation of the criminal’s right to the same is—even if overly severe—a punishment which fits the most severe crime that can be committed.  Without capital punishment, it could be argued that the justice system makes no provision in response to the crime of murder, and thus provides no justice for the victim.    

COUNTERVIEW: JOSHUA AVINASH

Most prisoners consider each other to be in the same predicament, and treat each other quite well in general.  But they are still in prison, and despair about their lack of freedom.  What is life like for Zacarias Moussaoui, a member of the September 11 hijacking teams who got caught a month before the attack?  A single juror saved him from death.  He has, since 2006, been imprisoned for twenty-three hours per day in a tiny concrete cell, with one hour of daily exercise in an empty concrete swimming pool. He has no access to other inmates, and only rare contact with guards, who say nothing to him. He can see nothing of the outside world except a tiny sliver of sky—and this will be his life. Hence, capital punishment is an unnecessary threat.          

 Consider a pedophile that kills an infant girl by raping her.  There is an unwritten “code of honor” in prisons that virtually requires inmates to kill such offenders.  Probably half of America’s prisoners were in some way abused as children, and harbor a strong hatred for child abusers.  The murdering pedophile is given the death penalty, but will probably also spend ten years in prison prior to this.  He will most likely be kept in solitary confinement for his own protection, but there are some loopholes in such protection, and the inmates may find their way to him. And if this happens, the pedophiles are often gang-raped, castrated, beaten to death, stabbed, and sometimes even beheaded before guards can save them.