My appeal is not to authority.
My appeal is to their moral positions, which are solid.
You wrongly presumed, with no evidence.
My appeal is not to authority.
My appeal is to their moral positions, which are solid.
You wrongly presumed, with no evidence.
Rebuttal to the 88 criminologists:
"Deterrence & the Death Penalty: A Reply to Radelet and Lacock"
The majority populations of all countries may support the death penalty for some crimes (1).
Why? Justice.
MORAL FOUNDATIONS: DEATH PENALTY PT. 1
1) Saint (& Pope) Pius V: "The just use of (executions), far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this (Fifth) Commandment which prohibits murder." "The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent" (1566).
2) Pope Pius XII; "When it is a question of the execution of a man condemned to death it is then reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned of the benefit of life, in expiation of his fault, when already, by his fault, he has dispossessed himself of the right to live." 9/14/52.
3) John Murray: "Nothing shows the moral bankruptcy of a people or of a generation more than disregard for the sanctity of human life."
"... it is this same atrophy of moral fiber that appears in the plea for the abolition of the death penalty."
"It is the sanctity of life that validates the death penalty for the crime of murder. It is the sense of this sanctity that constrains the demand for the infliction of this penalty. The deeper our regard for life the firmer will be our hold upon the penal sanction which the violation of that sanctity merit." (Page 122 of Principles of Conduct).
4) Immanuel Kant: "If an offender has committed murder, he must die. In this case, no possible substitute can satisfy justice. For there is no parallel between death and even the most miserable life, so that there is no equality of crime and retribution unless the perpetrator is judicially put to death.".
"A society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else's life is simply immoral."
5) Billy Graham: "God will not tolerate sin. He condemns it and demands payment for it. God could not remain a righteous God and compromise with sin. His holiness and His justice demand the death penalty." ( "The Power of the Cross," published in the Apr. 2007 issue of Decision magazine ).
6) Theodore Roosevelt: "It was really heartrending to have to see the kinfolk and friends of murderers who were condemned to death, and among the very rare occasions when anything governmental or official caused me to lose sleep were times when I had to listen to some poor mother making a plea for a criminal so wicked, so utterly brutal and depraved, that it would have been a crime on my part to remit his punishment.".
7) Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "Again, every rogue who criminously attacks social rights becomes, by his wrong, a rebel and a traitor to his fatherland. By contravening its laws, he ceases to be one of its citizens: he even wages war against it. In such circumstances, the State and he cannot both be saved: one or the other must perish. In killing the criminal, we destroy not so much a citizen as an enemy. The trial and judgments are proofs that he has broken the Social Contract, and so is no longer a member of the State." (The Social Contract).
8) John Locke: "A criminal who, having renounced reason... hath, by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or tyger, one of those wild savage beasts with whom men can have no society nor security." And upon this is grounded the great law of Nature, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Second Treatise of Civil Government.
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"Moral/ethical Death Penalty Support: Christian and secular Scholars"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-support-modern-catholic.html
"The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/20/the-death-penalty-neither-hatred-nor-revenge.aspx
"The Death Penalty: Not a Human Rights Violation"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2006/03/20/the-death-penalty-not-a-human-rights-violation.aspx
"Killing Equals Killing: The Amoral Confusion of Death Penalty Opponents"
====
1) US Death Penalty Support at 80%; World Support Remains High
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/04/
The death penalty has a foundation in justice and it spares more innocent lives.
THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES
Of all endeavors that put innocents at risk, is there one with a better record of sparing innocent lives than the US death penalty? Unlikely.
1) The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/
2) Innocents More At Risk Without Death Penalty
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/
The death penalty is no more revnege than is any other sanction, meaning not at all.
The death penalty is imposed for the same reason all sanctions are, which is that sanction is based upon a just, appopriate and proportional sanction, in consideration of the crime committed.
Please review:
"The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/20/
All sanctions are based upon that which we find to be just, appropriate and proportional to the crime.
The death penalty is just such a sanction when considering the worste of all crimes.
Sactions are also based upon taking away that which we value, be it money, with fines, freedon, with incarceration, or life, with execution.
A sanction cannot be a sanction unless we take away that which is valued.
Life is the most valued of all wordly goods, therefore taking it away is the most serious of sanctions.
Death Penalty Costs Studies: Saving Costs over LWOP & Fact Checking Required
Dudley Sharp, contact info below
As a general rule, the death penalty cost studies are worthless. Those that purport to compare life without parole costs to death penalty cost are, in most cases, comparing apples to kangaroos not apples to apples.
There is no reason that the death penalty, in general, should be more expensive than LWOP and, in many, if not most cases, the death penalty should be less expensive.
1) Virginia: How the death penalty will save money over life without parole (LWOP).
Virginia executes in 5-7 years. 65% of those sentenced to death have been executed. Only 15% of their death penalty cases are overturned.
(Source Virginia AG)
With the high costs of long term imprisonment, such a system, as Virginia's, a true life sentence will be more expensive than such a death penalty protocol. All states could duplicate this protocol, with the major exception that you can't transfer Virginia jurisdiction judges to other states.
2) Texas cost study - I have told the Dallas Morning News for years, to stop using their totally inaccurate cost review. They still use it.
They found that it costs $2.3 million per average death penalty case (for 5 cases), more than 3 times more expensive than a $750,000 life sentence. (C. Hoppe, "Executions Cost Texas Millions," The Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992, 1A)
The death penalty costs are for pre trial, trial and appeals and incarceration. Yet, the life cost is only for confinement for life. Big problem.
In addition, an academic review, by a neutral academic, found that the verifiable costs in the DMN article actually found the death penalty was cheaper.
3) Duke (North Carolina) Death Penalty Cost Study: Let's be honest
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/06/duke-north-carolina-death-penalty-cost.html
Almost exclusively, this study is presented, by media and anti death penalty folks, as the best example of the death penalty being much more expensive than a life sentence. Fact checking reveals just the opposite.
This study has been so distorted in the media and within anti death penalty literature that it really should be mandatory teaching in journalism schools as a fact checking disaster. I cannot find one example where the authors of the study ever corrected these distortions, thereby reflecting poorly on them, as well.
Prof. Cook, one of the authors, has a new study out, which claims an $11 million savings for NC, by ending the death penalty. I haven't read it yet. Maybe it really finds the death penalty saves money.
4) Cost Savings: The Death Penalty
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/05/07/cost-savings-the-death-penalty.aspx
A general review of some of the study problems and corrections for them.
5) Maryland cost study: A reply
See Dudley Sharp comments to article, after article at
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/03/09/death-penalty-costs-more-than-life-in-prison/
6) Colorado
Cost, Deception & the Death Penalty: The Colorado Experience
7) New Jersey - See my reply to the official state review of costs, in the reply section, at bottom
December 24, 2007 6:50 AM
dudleysharp said...
http://hallnj.blogspot.com/2007/12/
8) Kansas - The study most quoted found that death penalty cases cost 70%, or about $500,000 more per median case cost than for the equivalent non death penalty murder case, but, the foundation was this: " . . .there was nothing we could look at to verify the accuracy of any of the data assembled for this report." (page 2). "Actual cost figures for death penalty and non death penalty cases in Kansas don't exist." (page 10). On pages 29 and 31 the study discussed methods of saving money. Again, please refer to "Cost Savings: The Death Penalty". ("Performance Office Report: Costs Incurred for Death penalty Cases", A K-Goal Audit of the Department of Corrections, by the Legislative Division of Post Audit - A Report to the Legislative Post Audit Committee, December 2003)
9) California - There are a few cost study numbers that are quoted, based, exclusively on analysis by anti death penalty folks. California considered a thorough, objective study by RAND, below, but rejected it. It was too expensive!
"Investigating the Costs of the Death Penalty in California: Insights for Future Data Collection in California, RAND Corp., 2/2008
http://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/
Sincerely, Dudley Sharp
e-mail [email protected], 713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas
Innocence
The false innocence claims by anti death penalty activists are legendary. Some examples:
"The Innocent Executed: Deception & Death Penalty Opponents"
The 130 (now 139) death row "innocents" scam
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/03/04/fact-checking-issues-on-innocence-and-the-death-penalty.aspx
"The Exonerated: Are Any Actually Innocent?"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2006/08/21/the-exonerated-are-any-actually-innocent---new-mexico.aspx
Sister Helen Prejean & the death penalty: A Critical Review"
"At the Death House Door" Can Rev. Carroll Pickett be trusted?"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/01/30/fact-checking-is-very-welcome.aspx
"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx
"Cameron Todd Willingham: Another Media Meltdown", A Collection of Articles
http://homicidesurvivors.com/categories/
"A Death Penalty Red Herring: The Inanity and Hypocrisy of Perfection", Lester Jackson Ph.D.,
The reason to be for the death penalty is because it is just; the same foundation of support for all sanctions.
In addition, it saves innocent lives.
Saving money is just an additional bonus.
Justice
ETHICAL/RELIGIOUS SUPPORT FOR THE DEATH PENALTY
"Death Penalty Support: Religious and Secular Scholars"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-support-modern-catholic.html
Deterrence
All prospects of a negative outcome deter some. It is a truism. The death penalty, the most severe of criminal sanctions, is the least likely of all criminal sanctions to violate that truism.
25 recent studies finding for deterrence, Criminal Justice Legal Foundation,
http://www.cjlf.org/deathpenalty/DPDeterrence.htm
"Deterrence and the Death Penalty: A Reply to Radelet and Lacock"
"Death Penalty, Deterrence & Murder Rates: Let's be clear"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/03/death-penalty-deterrence-murder-rates.html
"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx
Cost
"Death Penalty Cost Studies: Saving Costs over LWOP"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2010/03/21/
