I got a response from one of my digressions of June 10, about the death penalty, from Victor Noto. The following is directly from his email:
"Most victims, if not all, agree that whatever punishment the criminal gets
it usually will not ease their pain nor bring back the love ones they lost.
I will admit that revenge is a real feeling in may victims of crime hearts
but the state will and can never succumb to such base reasons for
punishment in a civilized law abiding country. Besides if revenge is a
motive for punishing a prisoner, the method of killing would not be a
consideration because torture would certainly be a better form of revenge
that say a lethal injection.
"A big deal is always made about the method of death being cruel and a
unusual. We just went through this in Florida because a guy was
electricuted and a flame came from his head. The government is worried,
that the murder who hacked up perhapes a dozen people, whether he suffered
some pain as they killed him instead of dying instantly. It seem such a
silly debate. For those who still hold on to the belief that capital
punishment logically has to be a crime preventor, I say call your state and
federal represenatives and ask that all executions be made as public as
possible and put it on prime time TV so that the public can see what are
the consequences of a murderous act against the law and humanity. Believe
me people will just become hardened to the act and it will be entertainment
and there will be little prevention to the crazy, antisocial, crimally
insane and angry people who engage in capital crimes. That is my take on
the subject of capital punishment."
"A hot issue you have on June 10 about capital punishment which you will be
hearing much about because as you said of the Timothy McVeigh case. I have
got to agree with Michael Jackson the talk show host that there is too much
needless killing without adding the government (the people) through the
court system. I just had a discussion today about it so even though I have
believed what I believe for years it is fresh in my mind. I recently heard
that we may very well be alone in the world practicing the death penalty at
least in the non communist world. South Africa has even abolished the
death penalty. All the world feels it was and is a barbaric practice which
does not accomplish the goal of crime prevention and set a bad precedence
of killing by the law and the government. As far as I know every person on
death row that we have put to death in this country has said they either
did not think of the consequences or the death penalty before they
committed the crime or they were even enticed by the prospect of getting
killed. So capital punishment does not prevent crime. Is it effective
punishment? Well to tell you the truth I feel that living a long life in a
maximum security prison and being locked up for 22 to 23 hours a day is
more punishment, although less brutal, than death. All indications are
that it cost more to put a man to death than it is to institutionalize him
for life without parole.