why i can't oppose the death penalty in all cases

[arely staircase]

93. your three reasons for punishment

most statistics i have seen do not show that the dp deters other people from committing similar crimes. it does however prevent that person from doing such things again (much more certainly than a life prison sentence, prisoners can kill other prisoners, guards or escape and kill more on the outside) but i have thought about it long and hard and i suppose reason three would be it for this guy (the brain trauma, depending on what we are dealing with, might mitigate my position). "that it makes a strong statement on the part of society at large that certain kinds of behavior will not be tolerated" is much closer to my feelings on the matter. and i don't believe emotions necessarily undermine justice. laws against child molestation are, imho, not only based on protecting children, but also our repulsion to it. i don't think that undermines any concept of justice.

now as far as punishment generally being a deterrent, it often is. take traffic laws. say there is a stop sign at which i usually don't come to a complete stop. but one day i notice a patrol car nearby as i approach it. i will come to a complete stop for absolutely no other reason than the 300+ dollar deterrent that is staring me down. if one of my students doesn't do their homework several times in a row, some negative reinforcement (teacher euphemism for punishment) such as taking away their recess for a day usually fixes it. but people who commit the types of crimes that can earn one the dp stopped thinking about consequences long ago, if they ever did imo.

thanks (again, if i've already said this) for engaging/disagreeing rationally here. i have been called all sorts of things in the past 24 hours here on this - including being an anti-white racist and no better than the perp himself. as far as i know the guy is black; i have not read what race he is.