I'm Just Sayin'

A couple of weeks ago, maybe three or four, I came across an article written by Ronald Hart. Ron is a newspaper columnist and his writings and opinions  are published in several papers.  I don't recall which of his articles I read first...I've read quite a few of them now, and I love his style. He shoots straight from the the hip and writes with wit and humor. You can find his published works at RONALDHART.COM.  

Ron's most recent column was published in the Panama City News Herald yesterday..."No doubts about death penalty". Ron is an avid proponent of the death penalty as I am, although less so now than I was a few years ago. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going soft the issue, it's just that the cost of death penalty trials is so much more than other criminal trials. The cost can be 70% more than  non-death penalty trials.  This cost may be well worth it. Ron writes that some  studies indicate that for each execution, as many as 18 murders are prevented. I have always wondered about how the number of things that do not happen or have not happened can be predicted, but the point is that the death penalty may act as a deterrent in some instances. This is good and if it is valid, logic should tell us that even more murders can be prevented if the appeal process didn't take so long...years and years in most cases. Further more, if the executions were more ghastly or scary than what we allow now... I submit that the death penalty would be more of a deterrent.

Sometimes murderers either don't consider the ramifications of killing someone, or they think they can get away with it, or they just don't care.  Scott Peterson, who killed his pregnant wife,  thought he was too smart to get caught, much less be convicted and given the death penalty.  The threat of the death penalty wasn't a deterrent in his case. Brian Nichols went on a killing spree in Atlanta and killed 4 people including a judge, two sheriff department employees and a federal agent. Nichols, a church going computer engineer was standing trial for rape and false imprisonment when he overpowered a guard and got her gun. He wasn't considering the threat of the death penalty when he murdered those folks.

I must address the issue of executing an innocent person. We have, I'm sure, executed a few folks who did not do it.  While this mistake is very rare, everybody knows it happens. I agree with Ron that new technology will help us reduce this type mistake to even lower levels, but we still may very well execute an innocent person.  Ron says that, "this is the cost of doing business". And he is right. The war on crime is just what the name indicates... it's a war. Every time we engage in war, we have casualties. Innocent folks get killed. We subscribe to and endorse this idea each time we send our citizens to battle. And some of the casualties are a result of "friendly fire"...we mistakenly kill some of our own. We also mistakenly kill innocent civilians. Sometimes innocent bystanders are killed as a result of a police chase. We can't just stop trying to catch fleeing criminals. The result of abandoning our efforts to stop crime or to stop aggression... to stop the bad guys...would be unimaginable. I don't accept the term "acceptable casualties". No loss of innocent life is "acceptable". But innocent people will always become casualties in our efforts to make the world safer. There is absolutely no way to avoid this.

So, the death penalty acts as a deterrent some of the time...maybe. And it could be more of a deterrent if we brought back "ole sparky"...maybe. Is the cost worth it? I don't know. Maybe it is...maybe the satisfaction in killing the killer...maybe that alone makes an execution worth it.  Retribution! I have an idea to help us recoup some of the costs associated with death penalty trials. I submitted my idea to Ron...haven't heard back yet. Here is my proposal. Bring back the electric chair and fry the convicted on pay for view television. This is not a joke...  I am very serious. We could probably even make money using this plan. Pay per view ultimate fighting generates more than $2 million per event...I know pay per view boxing generates way, way more than $2 million per event...more in the $50 to $100 million range I'll bet.  Public executions is is not a new idea. Making money from those public executions is not a new idea... so don't write my plan off too quickly. I think the deterrent factor would increase dramatically also. Even those who don't really give a damn whether they live or die don't want to fry in the chair. Hell, we could raffle off tickets to see who gets to pull the lever. The proceeds of the raffle would go to the victim's family.

I want to start a "bring back ole sparky" campaign.  Let's give the death penalty a louder voice. Let's quit protecting the law breakers and let's quit accepting the blame for what they do. Let's reserve our pity for the victims not the perpetrators. As election time draws closer, let's remember which candidates would pull the lever on ole sparky, as we pull the lever in the voting booth.