Personally, reading about the torture of solitary confinement and prison in some of America's maximum security facilities eliminates any worry about Tsarnaev "getting away" with life. I hope he's locked up and kept there until he reaches a state of permanent deranged psychosis, and has the voices in his head eat his brain from the inside out.
But some people still want him dead. Thoughts?
Some people deserve the death penalty. However, I do not trust the power to put citizens to death in the hands of government, or anyone else for that matter. Innocent people have been put to death. In the US, since 1973, 152 people on death row have been exonerated. How many more should have been? For me, the question is not a matter of appropriate punishment.
The family makes a good point. I'm against the death penalty for many reasons. If the death penalty is supposed to be a punishment, keeping him alive is probably a bigger punishment, and there's always the possibility of redemption, but I doubt he would last long in prison.As long as the defendant is in the spotlight, we have no choice but to live a story told on his terms, not ours,” they wrote. “The minute the defendant fades from our newspapers and TV screens is the minute we begin the process of rebuilding our lives and our family.
I agree with lil - this is about the fact that a death penalty will mean endless rounds of appeals and deny them closure. Could be worse - at least it's a federal case. The Feds executed John Allan Mohammed in 7 years and Tim McVeigh in 4. By way of comparison, California hasn't executed anyone since 2006... and has 745 inmates on Death Row. A federal inmate costs about $28k/year to incarcerate, and about $1.3m to execute. Break-even is 46 years. Add the 5 or so he'll be incarcerated prior to execution and he's gotta make it to 77 or so before the execution is the money-saving option. Those are the bare statistics. From an ethical standpoint? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Capital_punishment.PNG Put it this way: we're not keeping good company.
I'll bite Sounds pretty cruel and unusual to me. I don't get hard for the death penalty. Too many innocent people fall victim to it. Tsarnaev is stonecold guilty. He and his brother, for whatever fucked up glory, decided to indiscriminately kill and maim people that posed zero threat. There is no possibility of his innocence and I believe the only real justice is death. Fuck him and fuck Rolling Stone.I hope he's locked up and kept there until he reaches a state of permanent deranged psychosis, and has the voices in his head eat his brain from the inside out.
Cruel and unusual is certainly true. We were watching this in a class of mine, and while I know solitary was bad, I didn't know it was this bad. If you're going to go watch that video, it has a lot of graphic, bloody scenes. With that being said, I'm not sure the death is the right punishment. A few weeks ago in an episode of The Following, the main character, Ryan, told another, Mike, who was about to shoot his father's killer, "You shoot him, his pain stops, you let him live, and it never ends." I thought it was really well put. The scene is just after the last commercial line, at 37:00. nowaypablo - You might be interested in that documentary. But seriously, it is quite graphic. If you're not good with blood, stay the hell away from it.
That's what I'm trying to say. That's cruel and unusual. Life in solitary is a fate worse than death. I know I'd rather die. Klein makes a good point that it actually costs more to kill than to incarcerate, but something tells me his sentence will be handled stunningly swiftly. And that's okay with me, and I'd like to think it's okay with Tsarnaev as well. If he truly believed in what he was doing, he was ready to die two years ago. I don't think we're doing him a favor. I just want it done. Let's all wash our hands of it and heal.You shoot him, his pain stops.
Another reason why we shouldn't have the death penalty: