Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty - Austin Sarat

[denorios]

Comments

[trepkos]

The thought of the death penalty makes me queasy, but some kinds are worse than others. Interesting that people who want the death penalty brought back were the most likely to vote for Brexit.

[denorios]

It is an interesting correlation, isn't it? And in many ways, it doesn't surprise me. It seems like a symptom of the same kind of mindset - conservative, insular, reactionary, wanting to wind the clock back to the glory days of some imperialist myth...

[thenewbuzwuzz]

I suppose you could argue that more painful methods would be more efficient at scaring potential criminals into obeying the law? I don't know. Capital punishment as such seems gruesome and sketchy to me. It's difficult to imagine living in a country that still uses it.

[denorios]

That's always been one of the arguments for the death penalty - that deterrent aspect - but it quite clearly doesn't work. A) because people aren't always thinking clearly and logically when they commit murder; or B) you're assuming they aren't aware of the potential consequences and prepared to pay them when they commit murder; or C) people never think they'll get caught! The death penalty used to be used for a whole array of minor crimes back in the day - stealing bread! - and it never stopped people then. It just doesn't work as a deterrent

[thenewbuzwuzz]

It's also that you can't undo a death penalty at all (a life sentence you can undo in part).