I'd love to ask
While reading a certain usual article in the newspaper, I wondered about the overwhelming approval of death penalty in Japanese society. I am against death penalty. I wouldn't say this is because I have compassion for the criminals who enjoyed torturing and murdering innocent people. Yes, if I were the close friend of the victim, I would probably feel indifferent about it but I do believe killing the criminal does not do any good for me or for the society. It is not a solution, or even a deterrent, as the statistics have shown us. But again that is not what I want to say here.
It just raises in my mind a question about the mentality of these folks. My question for the advocates of death penalty is, are you willing to do the dirty job? Would they push that button, watch it actually happen right before their eyes and sign the paper stating they did it? Obviously, they wouldn't. Then why do they support death penalty? They do because someone else does it for them. They favor it and do not want to do it themselves. Many of them don't even want to serve as lay judges either because they find it annoying or they just don't like to be responsible for the outcome. You'd expect if the majority had such conviction, then they would actively be willing to take part as jury. I wonder if they realize they are being inconsistent.
It just raises in my mind a question about the mentality of these folks. My question for the advocates of death penalty is, are you willing to do the dirty job? Would they push that button, watch it actually happen right before their eyes and sign the paper stating they did it? Obviously, they wouldn't. Then why do they support death penalty? They do because someone else does it for them. They favor it and do not want to do it themselves. Many of them don't even want to serve as lay judges either because they find it annoying or they just don't like to be responsible for the outcome. You'd expect if the majority had such conviction, then they would actively be willing to take part as jury. I wonder if they realize they are being inconsistent.