The Death Penalty
                       An article by Nice Guy

Recently  I  have  noticed  an alarming growing, amount of people who are
supporting  the  reintroduction  of  the  death  penalty.   If  you are a
civilised human being you should be afraid, very afraid.

For  a  start  60% to 70% of murders are when people are intoxicated with
either drugs or alcohol (mainly alcohol).  This means that when the crime
was committed the person did not have full control of themselves.

The  next question is what crimes should the death penalty be brought in.
Child  molestation,  premeditated  murder,  racist  killings, rape, child
killings, deaths caused by drunken driving or manslaughter.  These crimes
are  possibly  the  worst,  so  which criminals should be killed.  All of
them?  I don't think so...

Is  killing really a civilised attitude to take.  We are the only mammals
to  walk on two feet, we have evolved from the primordial slime.  Most of
the  highly  developed  sea mammals and land mammals have a society where
everyone  is protected.  The most obvious example is that of dolphins and
lions,  yes  lions.   Lions although they kill other animals as we do, to
survive they never kill their own.  So they show * US * how THEY are more
developed than us.

The  next  question  is  how  do  we  kill  the  person,  hanging, lethal
injection,  electrocution,  the firing squad, drowning, burning, smashing
of  person's  skull on wall, death by a thousand cuts, starvation or what
ever  you  can  think  of.   Some  of these are particularly painful.  If
killing  for  killing  is  ever  reintroduced  I  would think that lethal
injection is probably the most humane way.

Another  point  to notice is that nobody seems to realise that in America
they  have  to  keep  people in prison for at least ten years so that the
convicted  felons  have  a  number  of  tries  at being acquitted and are
allowed to try to lessen the chances of a wrongful conviction.

Contrary  to  popular  belief  there  are very few 'plush' prisons.  Most
prisons  involve inmates staying inside for 23 hours a day and then given
an  hour  free  time.   However  some  of  this  23 hours can be spent on
learning  qualifications  and  being  taught  how  to hold down a job.  I
believe  the main point of prison should be to reform, with punishment so
that  victims  can  feel  they  have  been  righted.   Also  prisons  are
unhygienic  due to 'slopping out'.  Prisons are also dangerous, they have
high  suicide rates, offenders who have committed particular crimes (such
as  child  molestation)  are usually tormented and beaten up on a regular
basis.

The  few 'plush' prisons which exist are low security and house blue chip
criminals  (fraudsters)  or  AIDS  sufferers.  The men inside are usually
non-violent.   The  reason  these  prisons  are  'plush'  is  because the
facilities  are  better the main improvement being that there is a toilet
and they have some privacy and are treated like human beings.

To  put  a  biblical note on the whole thing, in the old testament it was
said  'An  eye  for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'.  But Jesus said 'He who
has not sinned, cast the first stone' nobody is perfect and no punishment
should  be  so final that the punished should not have a chance to redeem
themselves.   Also  quoted  is  'I  tell  you  to forget the old ways, if
someone  slaps  you  on  the  right  cheek  give  them  the left' and 'If
everybody took an eye for an eye everybody would be blind'.

So to sum up, the death penalty in my eyes is wrong.  Everybody should be
given a chance and the education to redeem themselves.

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