[Vision2020] Life Imprisonment: A Superior Deterrent?

[Ted Moffett]

*All:*
**
*Regarding the arguments for the death penalty as a deterrent, which is a
very questionable argument given the empirical evidence regarding the death
penalty as it exists in the USA, what I wrote earlier on this subject, that
I send again at the bottom here, might argue for life imprisonment as a
superior deterrent to crime than the death penalty.  *
**
*Life imprisonment under spartan conditions no doubt is viewed by some who
commit horrendous crimes as a worse outcome than the death penalty  We have
seen some on death row in the USA make efforts to block appeals of their
case, requesting to have the death penalty carried out.  Indeed, given the
extreme psychology involved sometimes in the minds of perpetrators of
horrendous crimes, carrying out the death penalty in some cases boils down
to state assisted suicide for someone who does not care about life, theirs
or anyones. *
**
*However, I am not suggesting that instead of the death penalty, the state
should "abuse" prisoners given a life sentence till they die of "natural
causes" to establish a superior deterrent to crime than the death penalty,
even if there was a superior deterrent effect if such a program were carried
out.  This would be justifying the state committing human rights abuses, and
indeed suggests another argument against the death penalty; that state
sanctioned killing of its own citizens places within the mind of its
citizens the notion that the deliberate and calculated killing of another
human being who is confined and helpless is sometimes a morally justifiable
act, giving moral support to those who wish to commit murder to carry
out "justice" for whatever offence they believe someone committed that they
think deserves death as a penalty... such as, perhaps, the Matthew Shepard
or Dr. Slepian cases?*
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"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from
religious conviction."

*Blaise Pascal*
*----------*-
*How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully
aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not
only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an
individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in
its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of
such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all
contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply
no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live
them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light. *

Barry Lopez from "Arctic Dreams"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375727485/jjsbooksbuilding/002-0608912-6642455
*-----------*
**
*Well, OK, Winston (1984) was crushed as a human being by the
*>* state to make a statement that the state has the power to destroy (as in
*>* destroy the spirit, beliefs and love a human being followed) a human
being
*>* who opposes said state, while they are alive, the point being this is
worse *>* than having the state simply execute its opponents, because it is
a
*>* destruction of the very freedom seeking individualistic humanity in the
soul *>* of a human being that constitutes the essence of the opposition of
the
*>* individual to the power of the state...*
**
*Ted Moffett*

* *
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