The man accused of the mass shooting of nine worshipers in a Charleston, South Carolina church faces an array of charges. Considering that he faces nine death-penalty counts, is there really any point to larding on additional counts, other than making ourselves feel better about ourselves? At a certain point, redundant justice becomes ludicrous.
Crime and Punishment and Punishment and Punishment
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
12 Comments. Leave new
I see your point, Ted – Yes, it is ludicrous if you consider trying to apply a separate punishment for each conviction, but I think that can be resolved by giving him concurrent death sentences. Otherwise, the really, really ludicrous fact here is that once given whatever convictions and sentences, that it will take months and years for the appeal, if any, and sentencing to be followed through on, and during all that time, we have to pay thousands, possibly millions to pay for everything up until he’s gone – and if he’s sentenced to death in a state that has no death penalty, it will probably be millions. My preference is that he be taken out behind the building and shot through the head as soon as the trial is over, which will also cost thousands and possibly millions.
You know what they say, “Justice, Can’t live with it, or without it!” 🙂
@ rikster –
“– and if he’s sentenced to death in a state that has no death penalty,…”
—–
How is THAT a possibility???? 😀
The death sentenced can be applied in a federal court trial within a state where there is no state death penalty. This just happened in the Boston marathon trial.
States may make marijuana legal, for example, but the Feds can still come into the state and prosecute without state cooperation.
If the prosecutions fails at one count they can try again on a second, third, etc. count.
It’s a like using 60 bullets to kill 9 people, like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s hard to screw up.
The problem with the death penalty is simple.
Let A be the number of cases.
Let B be the number of cases in which you are absolutely sure you’ve got the right guy.
Now, B MUST be less than A because there are stories in the papers all the time about someone who was on Death Row or locked up without possibility of parole who gets exonerated: a better DNA test is found, new evidence is uncovered, a witness recants, a crooked DA is identified, etc., etc.
So you are now talking about a group of people who, already screwed by the system, are about to be murdered by the state.
And here’s the big question: What if it’s you in that group? Is the death penalty still fair? Is it still the “best” we can do?
I seem to recall (maybe in a previous lifetime?) that SCOTUS ruled that the death penalty was “cruel and unusual” punishment, thus unconstitutional — and for a time it was outlawed. (At the time. I was living in Germany.)
Whatever happened to reverse that?
(Similarly, Roe v Wade legalized abortion. What happened?)
Mein verehrter Lehrer, here below the URL of a list of US Supreme Court decisions relating to capital punishment : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_decisions_on_capital_punishment. As you see, that court has been all over the place on this issue. Not until a majority of US citizens change their attitudes towards legalised state murder – as they have to same-sex marriages – will this barbaric practice be abolished….
Roe v Wade has never been overturned, but has been nibbled away by legislation at the state level ever since 1973….
Henri
Thanks for the response. It appears that “Furman v Georgia” (1972) was the case I remembered, imposing a moratorium. I thought at the time, since I was living in Germany, that the U.S. had finally joined the civilized world and outlawed the death penalty. I never understood how it could have been re-instated. (It wasn’t, if it was simply a moratorium.)
I’ve since looked at “Roe v Wade” and learned that it basically left the abortion issue up to the individual States.
What pussies!
«I thought at the time, since I was living in Germany, that the U.S. had finally joined the civilized world and outlawed the death penalty.» But to join the civilised world, one has to be civilsed. Sometimes I wonder which, of the United States and China, will abolish the death penalty first….
Henri
I agree Alex – there are some cases where we can know that we have the culprit – like Roof (aka, Rusty on Major Crimes 🙂 ) – and in these cases, if the person is found guilty and sentenced to life without parole or death, I simply do not want our system to pay huge sums of money to house and secure them for the rest of their lives, or linger on death row for years on end. That money is sorely needed for all sorts of failing infrastructure and social programs for the needy. Similarly, WTF is the deal with “how” to apply the death sentence? States are running around in bureaucratic circles with different methods and chemical cocktails? That’s ridiculous. Our society already has myriads of ways to kill someone that work instantly and effectively. How about a stick of dynamite duct-taped to his head, or maybe turn him over to the police – they seem pretty effective already in killing people. Much cheaper than a drone, without the “collateral damage”. I simply think it’s a crime to spend the huge sums of money to keep them around for years.
Somebody on these boards (and I apologize that I can’t give proper credit) suggested carbon monoxide. The offender simply goes to sleep peacefully and never wakes up. If the U.S. simply HAS to kill people, that seems a reasonable choice, no?
Actually, Ted, I think a criminal convicted of, e g, high treason – i e, displeasing the King – was hanged (actually suffocated by a noose) almost to the point of death, after which the other penalties, including emasculation, were applied (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered). But your point is well taken ; perhaps the most realistic explanation is one that considers the so-called criminal (in)justice system as the WPA for lawyers…. 😉
Henri