i believe in the death penalty.
i believe in its deterrent value, but not as it is currently administered.
there’s a reason that they used to burn witches in public. it made everybody think twice.
it seems now that a death sentence is an endless series of appeals that are lost after twenty years.
lost in the media as an “oh, by the way” or one column inch on page thirty-nine.
the state should, at the rendering of a death verdict, undertake one final investigation to uncover
any mitigating circumstances for a fixed period of time. at the end of the specified interval, if mitigating .
conditions are not met, the execution warrant is signed.
and what’s up with life in prison without parole. life in prison generally .
if you’re going to die in prison, why should i pay for thirty or forty years
when i can pay for five, maybe streamline the system down to three.
maybe a sentencing threshold. if the total of your crimes adds up to 98
or more years it makes more sense to kill you.
here's my idea.
televise executions, in prime time, regularly.
once or twice a month, maybe weekly when the ratings pick up...
at first it would be abhorrent to advertisers, but i think that
people would watch it. like the proverbial train wreck. and then an
ad agency would make the spin “supporting justice” and it would make money,
for everyone.

i also think that lethal injection is too sanitary, too humane.
i don’t believe any serial or mass murderer got their victim really stoned before they brutally slew them.
you could have the “WHEEL OF JUSTICE” like they have at
the carnival;only it picks the method of execution,and there’s only one loser.
and let a victim’s relative spin it. or a “let’s make a deal” type forum, you know,
door number one,door number two.... this may sound cold, but it makes sense. you reduce the prison population, saving
millions of dollars. the death penalty would become a real deterrent, not an abstract
idea argued in ivory towers. and make money doing it.

and if someone innocent is accidently executed, which i guess is possible,
although i don't think anyone on death row is truly innocent,then
the family could be recompensed from a fund set up from the savings.