Probably Opening a Can of Worms

Confession: I'm fairly obsessed with politics. You wouldn't know by reading my blog because I've shied away from writing about it. I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it has to do with the nature of politics. Everything is very, very complicated and no matter how much information you have on any particular issue, there's still more you could learn. And although I have my basic opinions and try to follow things closely, I admit that I can be wrong about things. Since most people seem to be either extremely opinionated or apathetic when it comes to politics, I haven't really felt like opening that can of worms. Until now. At the request of one of my fantastic Colorado friends, I'm going to start blogging about my views.

First on my agenda: the death penalty. Although I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about this topic, I've only recently solidified my opinion on it. Here are some of the pro-death penalty arguments and my rebuttals for each:

1) It's a just punishment. They deserve to die for what they've done. I worked as a tutor for prisoners trying to get their high school diplomas a few years ago and it really opened my eyes to a completely different world than the one I was brought up in. While there were scary, scummy prisoners, it was easy to see that a lot of them had been born into really bad situations. Situations so bad that if I was placed in them I'm sure I'd be in prison as well. It was amazing to see how they reacted to the program I helped implement. Most of them were so thirsty for any bit of knowledge and kindness they could get. While they had all made serious mistakes, they wanted to change for the better. I'm not naive enough to say all prisoners are like that, but I am saying there are some who, when given the chance, will change for the better. They may deserve to die for what they've done, but as a Christian who believes it's possible for people to change, I just can't support this argument.

2) It deters other potential criminals. Whether or not the death penalty deters future criminals has been thoroughly studied by many criminology experts. While there is some support for the deterrence argument, most experts agree that it doesn't work. Would sentencing more people to death or decreasing the time spent on death row lower the crime rate? It's hard to say, but I really don't think so.

3) Getting rid of the criminals prevents them from committing the crime again. This is true. It does keep them from committing the crime again, but so would incarceration for life without parole.

4) Countries with the death penalty have lower crime rates. Yes, but these countries are: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, etc. Oh wait, do we really want to be like these countries? Because I'm pretty sure we should be taking our cues from Iran. It being an axis of evil and all...

5) The death penalty costs less than incarceration. I won't even pretend it's not expensive to keep a prisoner for life. That's a lot of money spent on food and amenities that could have been used for something like education or law enforcement. Unfortunately it can also cost as much or more to execute someone. Costs for trials in which the death penalty is sought are significantly more expensive than ones in which incarceration is desired. And I'm not sure that it's completely logical to kill someone (no matter how awful they are, they are still human) in order to save money.

So there you have it. Feel free to share your opinions.