POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
Gee, what a surprise.
In America?
The death penalty?
It just couldn't be clearer that the man is mentally ill.
Very likely he suffers from late-onset paranoid
schizophrenia.
He belongs in an institution where he can do no harm.
___________________________________
All first-rate judges and lawyers know, from long experience,
that the death penalty has no deterrent value whatever.
This goes back to a fundamental analysis of human behavior
in part.
Heavy penalties are of far less deterrent value than is the
certainty of being caught.
When you add in the fact that every single instance of
murder involves a degree of mental instability - either serious mental illness
or temporary blazing rage or even psychopathy in the case of "cold-blooded"
killers - there is no argument for the death penalty ever, other than the
Nazi-like one of just eliminating the unfit.
Legal experts know that the death penalty is horrifically
costly with all the appeals and legal ploys. It costs a small fortune and years
of wrangling to execute one convicted person. From that point of view alone, it
makes no sense.
