Alterform

Here is what I got in the mail today:

"man, anti-abortion but pro capital punishment. not right. you go on about the death of an innocent in the womb yet have you considered the death of an innocent on death row? it happens. it has happened. it will happen again. if the death of one innocent is alright when you kill some guilty too, then i guess you can sleep easy at night.

sick."

Just a few points to make on this one:

1. Innocents die on death row? Really, when? I’d like to see a case or two of people who were executed and later exonerated since we reinstituted the death penalty in 1977.
2. But, even if we have executed an innocent person, while that is a terrible occurrence, that does not invalidate the death penalty. It simply means we need to use current technologies (eg DNA testing, advanced forensics, etc) to their fullest to make sure we have the right man.
3. If you’re so dead set against capital punishment because an innocent MIGHT be killed, then surely you’re against driving, as there are confirmed cases of innocents dying on the roads all the time, or against alcohol, or against electricity, and on and on and on.
4. And no, Im not comparing capital punishment to driving, I am saying that in all human endevours, mistakes get made, and sometimes, those mistakes cost a life. I wish it wasnt so, but that possibility shouldnt stop life as we know it.

In the end, the entire argument against the death penalty that because an innocent may get killed (which, as far as I know has never been shown since 1977), makes it wrong, is fallacious on it’s face. The solution to ending traffic fatalities is not getting rid of cars, but making people better drivers, and the roads safer.

Ah well…