Death Penalty Is The Wrong Punishment For James Holmes

[markpkessinger]

22. Even if you have no problem with Holmes being executed . . .

. . . If you support capital punishment in what may be regarded (by some, at least) as an "easy" case like this, then you should be prepared to argue in favor of it in cases where the line is not so bright. I'll be honest: I'm not going to lose a whole lot of sleep over this particular case. But I do lose sleep over the fact that our criminal justice system gets it wrong, and does so frequently (as hundreds of DNA exonerations around the country have clearly demonstrated). If you support the death penalty, then you should be prepared to come up with an ethical and moral framework within whiich the execution of innocent persons (even if only rarely) can be justified, because to a greater or lesser extent, all human systems are flawed. So you can't really have one without the other (i.e., you can't have capital punishment where, by somebody's standard, the case is obvious, without also having the occasional execution of innocent persons). If you can justify the latter, then fine, support capital punishment. If you cannot, then you need to think long and hard about the greater ramifications of your ad hoc application of principles of justice. That is why I always have been absolutely and utterly opposed to it.