Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Date: Fri,  2 Oct 1992 11:19:48 -0400 
From: Dean Calloway <dc4l+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Death Penalty, for or against?

Excerpts from netnews.soc.culture.african.american: 1-Oct-92 Re: Death
Penalty, for or a.. by Christopher Morton@NCoas 
> As a Black political scientist, I have the following opinions on the subject:
>  
> 1. There are some acts which by their very nature require the death penalty.
> No form of encarceration permitted under our constitution could EVER be 
> fitting punishment for the acts of Jeffrey Dahmer.  Our prohibition against
> cruel and unusual punishment precludes the punishment he DESERVES. 

Judgement call.  This is a subjective interpretation of "justice," and
should not be passed off as "objective."  

I happen to agree that Dahmer's actions merit execution.  However,
couching this as some sort of "truth" when it is truly only opinion is
an error.


 Therefor,
> let us just eliminate him.  He and others such as the murderers of Allen Berg
> and Mulugeta Seraw are a manifest threat to society.  Society has a right to
> eliminate such threats.

... but then you come to a point where you need to determine who exactly
is a threat and who isn't?  Is anybody objective enough to keep their
personal feelings from affecting their decision?  No?  

Should it be "death by popular demand?"  Yes?  The problems inherent to
this are so obvious, one need not even note them.


>  
> 2. The question of deterrence is irrelevant.  The death penalty prevents 
> recidivism by the perpetrator, ABSOLUTELY.


Many murders are "heat of passion" type things.  A situation escalates,
someone grabs a gun... BOOM!  All over.  People don't think clearly at
times like this... should they be punished becuase they lost control...

If they shouldn't, again, who is to determine who should get juiced and
who doesn't?

>  
> 3. Chronically violent persons present a threat not only to society at large,
> but to prison guards and inmates alike.  What should be done, indeed what CAN
> be done with someone who continues to commit murder after receiving a life
> sentence?  Curtail his icecream ration?

A federal prison is not a pretty place.

>  
> > sentences drive the cost of incarcerations up)?  What can the govt do to
> > stop the tide of violence that we have?

Change the environment to foster less crime...


>  
> Make it DANGEROUS to commit crimes.  The only thing that the current
mania for
>  
> repressive gun controls has proven is that gun control makes crime
safe for th
> e
> criminal.

This, in a word, is absolutely FALSE.  The ONLY reason why crimes
committed with handguns are so numerous is precisely because handguns
are legal and so easy to get.

In a country like Canada, handguns are illegal to own.  As a result,
murders by gun (per capita) are much fewer.  

There's so many guns floating around now that it would be difficult to
get rid of them all.  However, "gun control makes crime safe for
criminals" is totally erroneous and the reason why we have so many guns
out on the street.


  It is a myth and an outright lie that the police will or even CAN
> _PROTECT_ you.

A little extreme and needlessly emotional.  Go whip out a piece in a
mall (black or white) and see how far you get.

  They can't, and even leaving aside the tendency for some
> departments to leave Blacks and other minorities to their own devices, legal
> precedent absolves them of responsibility to protect ANYONE.  The LA
riots and
>  
> a thousand other anonymous incidents around the country have shown that.
>  
> > since I work in it daily, and there are not enough Black voices around this
> > place.  I fight a losing battle daily for some issues (crack cocaine
sentenc
> es
> > vs. powder cocaine, under federal statute, crack cases are sentenced
100 tim
> es,
> > that is right 100 times, more harshly than powder cocaine.  Of
course you kn
> ow

I seriously doubt this... one hundred times?  You get two years for
powder, and 200 for crack?  C'mon, hyperbole...

I KNOW that many states carry harsher sentences fro crack than powder,
but 100 times?


> > what racial group makes up 94.1% of the crack cocaine cases), but I would
> > like to know if other battles are worth fighting.
>  
> The criminal justice system works just as the army does.  It reacts tardily 
> and excessively (indeed blindly) to whatever problems are eventually
perceived
> .


DCAL
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american