Divided Supreme Court rules against death row inmate with rare condition

[qazplm135]

7. non sequitor

1. Has nothing to do with sympathy. I was merely responding to the "it's the law" argument as being quite frankly intellectually lazy. If you want to argue WHY the law is correct in this case, feel free. If you want to argue FOR the Supreme Court decision, feel free. Saying "it's the law" is insipid.

2. The death penalty is not a topic that is properly analyzed using emotional arguments. I could as easily point to the innocent people who have been killed. Do you have sympathy for them? How many innocent people must die so you can feel morally clean about executing this guy? Many judges and a jury have found innocent people guilty and they've been killed too.
See, I can make emotional arguments too.

3. Having said 2, the reality is that the DP is not a 100% fool-proof system. Innocent people WILL be executed. So, to have a DP system is to have, by definition, a system that executes at least some innocent people. Unless you have a system in mind that will make 100% sure only the truly deserving and guilty will get it? Or do you have a system where the rich or whites won't get it less than the poor or people of color? Because if you don't have either, then you are saying, I'm ok with a system where the innocent are killed and the poor and POC are more likely to be killed than whites are. You can't bifurcate it and say well...with this guy, he REALLY is guilty so I'm ok with it, because he's not an individual event, he's part of a system.

so yes, the fact that he "isn't black" doesn't mean that the "disparity in the death sentence of black men doesn't apply." It's built into the system that resulted in this man's death. He wasn't part of some separate, non-biased system.

Justice isn't about sympathy. It's about justice. Justice is served by the removal of the offender from society. Put him in a cell. Deprive him. Require him to focus on the brutality of what he has done. There are all sorts of ways to make him recompense for the lives he took. Killing him only satisfies revenge. And if that were all it did, I'd not care all that much. The reality is the system that we use to kill him is racist, biased against the poor, and even sexist (the rare case where men are at a disadvantage here)...and perhaps most important, guaranteed to kill innocent people.

but hey, if you get to exercise your sympathy for the victims...well, I'm sure that's worth a few innocent lives.