Would you kill for the state?

Ronnie Lee Gardner has just been murdered by the state of Utah in America. The following is some of my thoughts about the death penalty, and why would anyone volunteer to do it.

First off I am totally against the Death Penalty.

So though I wouldn’t do any shooting, I do understand that to make the volunteers have some doubt as to whether or not they actually shot the person that dummy bullets are used for one or more of the guns. This is supposed to help some of the volunteers cope with the aftermath of their task.

As to actually volunteering, you do have people volunterring to join the army. The army’s main purpose is killing, though in reality it doesn’t do it very much during peacetime. It probably isn’t very different to the police officers who volunteer for the execution job. After a period of time and through training and experiencing it day in day out people can become desensitized to just about anything.

Now on to the actual task. I would have thought that a bullet to the head is a lot quicker and more instant than by lethal injection which has been shown to not be 100% effective straight away. The only reason a bullet is not shot into the brain is that society is weird about death. Why should death by lethal injection be any different to death by bullet? Something to do about blood? Why connotations of the wild west? I thought Americans reveled in their frontier history? And why should they think they have to be humane to a criminal as he is being executed? You’re already executing the criminal because you’re trying to be vengeful so why not go all the way and give them painful death – they probably deserve it.

As to the reoffending rate being 0% with the DP. The reason why we currently have reoffending is because people are released. If life did mean life then the reoffending rate would be 0% as well. It’s because some people seem to think that criminals are put off by prison and would never reoffend haven been through the process. Yes, for some, but a small minority.

The majority see it as something to factor into their jobs. A bit like racing car drivers accept that they might die, but its worth it for the fun they have driving. The same with criminals. They accept that there is a downside to their chosen career but they seriously believe that they are only being unlucky if they are caught. The really serious criminal will factor in the DP into their criminal activities. In some they might go further because “in for a penny in for a pound”.

As to why I’m against the DP. Rather than an innocent locked up for a long time than an innocent murdered by the state. In the former compensation can be paid, in the later it’s too late to say sorry. Note that I did not say rather a criminal on the streets than an innocent executed. Not having the DP should be tied in with whole life sentences. Execution is just a pretty word for state sanctioned murder. A bit like “collateral damage” for the deaths of civilians during war.

Murder is murder and is wrong no matter who is doing it.