RE: Death Penalty
July 20, 2014 at 12:07 am
(This post was last modified: July 20, 2014 at 12:11 am by The Grand Nudger.)
When a plaintiff gets awarded damages - we don't cut the check out to his wife. Just another way that we finesse our system to include the death penalty (and how we handle it - thinking it handled - when it goes awry).
On principle, sure, compensation for wrongful imprisonment isn't likely to be adequate either - but at least the guy gets to bitch about how little he got for his trouble after the fact, he might even have legal options available to pursue justice - over and above any monetary sum. At least, in short, he isn't dead, and that's a pretty big deal eh? The fact the we compensate people at all shows that we know there ought to be a way to address the grievance of an individual convicted in error. I don't see how the death penalty allows us to do that. A check to the deceased's spouse is blood money, a tribute to guilt.
On principle, sure, compensation for wrongful imprisonment isn't likely to be adequate either - but at least the guy gets to bitch about how little he got for his trouble after the fact, he might even have legal options available to pursue justice - over and above any monetary sum. At least, in short, he isn't dead, and that's a pretty big deal eh? The fact the we compensate people at all shows that we know there ought to be a way to address the grievance of an individual convicted in error. I don't see how the death penalty allows us to do that. A check to the deceased's spouse is blood money, a tribute to guilt.
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