This reminds me of that episode on Last Week Tonight about lethal injection. Lethal injection isn’t about a “humane” way to kill someone. It’s more about providing comfort to people who support the death penalty but don’t want to think about the morbid details about killing people. I wonder how many people would stop supporting the death penalty if they were forced to witness an execution live, especially if it’s lethal injection. If the horror of witnessing a botched lethal injection doesn’t at least give people pause about the whole idea of execution, then I don’t know what will.
IMO the easier and more effective argument is that the state should not have the right to kill people.
The people that are in favor of the death penalty is usually conservatives. And they tend to be more easily convinced against something if you can attach “big government” to the concept. It’s not a guarantee, they’ve got plenty of room for double think, but it’s a bit better than appealing to empathy.
Conservatives in general struggle with empathy, and so even if somehow forced to watch an execution they probably would be glad that the prisoner is suffering.
The state should not have the power to kill people because it will invariably be used to kill innocents and silence political opposition.
This reminds me of that episode on Last Week Tonight about lethal injection. Lethal injection isn’t about a “humane” way to kill someone. It’s more about providing comfort to people who support the death penalty but don’t want to think about the morbid details about killing people. I wonder how many people would stop supporting the death penalty if they were forced to witness an execution live, especially if it’s lethal injection. If the horror of witnessing a botched lethal injection doesn’t at least give people pause about the whole idea of execution, then I don’t know what will.
IMO the easier and more effective argument is that the state should not have the right to kill people.
The people that are in favor of the death penalty is usually conservatives. And they tend to be more easily convinced against something if you can attach “big government” to the concept. It’s not a guarantee, they’ve got plenty of room for double think, but it’s a bit better than appealing to empathy.
Conservatives in general struggle with empathy, and so even if somehow forced to watch an execution they probably would be glad that the prisoner is suffering.
The state should not have the power to kill people because it will invariably be used to kill innocents and silence political opposition.