Donald Trump and his puppet Bill Barr at the "Department of Justice" - what a joke to call it that - have decided to reinstitute the death penalty in federal cases.
This is the most absurd issue in American politics. It is amazing that in 2019, I still hear people on Washington Journal (C-Span) calling in and saying "let's electrocute them, fry them, or hang them." We are one of the few countries on earth that still do two things that are gross. First, we don't provide health care to all and we pay out of pocket for "health insurance" yet still have a deductible, co-pay and lifetime limits. Secondly, we still have state-sponsored murder in the form of the death penalty.
If you could guarantee me that everyone who was put to death was guilty as sin, well I might buy your old testament argument of "eye for an eye". Old testament, so old, it's before Jesus. However, statistics show that one in nine people on death row are innocent. Hundreds of people on death row have been exonerated either in the nick of time or posthumously - meaning they have already been killed by your government - the same politicians you all claim to DESPISE.
The most mind-boggling thing about this is that I have to hear so-called evangelical Christians tell me that it's okay to put people to death, but yet hear them lament about abortion. Which is it? Are you really pro life or are you just full of it. They make so called Christian arguments like an "eye for an eye" but I would retort with Jesus' teaching of "turn the other cheek". It's not like we are setting criminals lose. They are still serving prison sentences. They are being punished.
The Christian right will also say I am a "bleeding heart" but how do you explain to the family of an innocent person who was executed by a corrupt politician, "oops we made a mistake". Shove your apologies, along with your "thoughts and prayers" every time a gun-toting, second-amendment maniac, murders 59 people at a concert, 49 in a night club, or 26 people in a church just to name a few.
Former Governor Rick Perry (Republican of Texas - highest death penalty state in the union) had a chance to issue a stay of execution in a case in 2004 where a man was put to death for killing his three children in a fire (arson). It turns out the local fire marshal was wrong, it wasn't arson at all, and the science proved it. How do you fix that Mr. Perry? Maybe now that we've established that Mr. Perry is a murderer, we should put him on death row to? Of course, I am being deliberately provocative here to make a point. Politicians get to decide who lives and who dies, but they can act with impunity and without consequences. Regardless of what I think of Mr. Perry's decision, I don't think he should be on death row, after all I am against this antiquated idea of punishment, but instead put governor Perry in jail for life for murder.
The rules apparently only apply to some people. Justice. what a joke. Justice only belongs to the people who can afford it. If you have no money, you have no justice. If you're wealthy though, you get sweetheart deals like the one Jeffrey Epstein got from the federal prosecutors in Florida all those years ago - a 13-month sentence. Outrageous! OJ Simpson cleared of double murder, only because of the legal dream team. Justice belongs to those who can afford it, and it makes me sick to think how many people are currently on death row right now or rotting in prison, claiming their innocence, and no one cares.
Well they got a trial, so the jury must have been correct in their decision. However, how many people got a public defender who has 70 clients and doesn't really care about your case. OJ had Kardashian, Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, Cochran. Anyone charged with a crime would be happy to have one of those lawyers, he had all 4 among others. Justice belongs to those who can afford it. FULL STOP.
Until we can actually level the playing field in the justice system, we can not have a death penalty. Someone can be in jail for 20 years, and be exonerated by DNA, but at least they are still alive. You can apologize for that, you can give them $20 million dollars - a $1 million for each year we stole from you. After all, money is America's favorite way to apologize. You can't apologize to a grave stone for getting it wrong, you can't fix that.
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