Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket.

  • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    If you could point out even one benefit to the death penalty in our modern world, I’d be willing to consider it. There is none. Not on a moral, societal, safety, or fiscal level. There is certainly harm caused by it, not least of which is the belief that it’s okay to take someone’s life for any other reason than the immediate risk of life and health of another person. Some people think it’s okay to kill 10, some think it’s okay to have the government kill 1.

    • derf82@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      For many of us, simply knowing we will no longer be sharing this planet with them is enough. That’s a moral and societal benefit most definitely. He who deprived others of life gets deprived life themselves.

      Hell, if nothing else, the death penalty can save a trial by providing leverage for a plea. If you are guaranteed life imprisonment, why not force a trial? But if you might be executed in such a clear cut case, maybe you plead guilty on exchange for life imprisonment to save your life. Save victims having to testify.

      The bottom line for me is that this guy is pure evil. The cops shouldn’t have taken him alive to begin with.

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        There is a moral cost for treating life casually. When police kill a suspect who shoplifted $100 from a store and engineer some flimsy excuse to claim self defense when they flee or use excessively brutal force when arresting a drug user and possible petty counterfeiter isn’t so surprising when we have the public advocating for summary police justice rather than doing what they can to uphold the rule of law, which does not include gunning down criminals in the street.

        Also, a whopping 2.3% of federal criminal cases go to trial already. So your other justification for capital punishment is that number is just too high?

        • derf82@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I’m not the one treating life casually, that’s the mass murderer.

          I swear, some of y’all have more sympathy for him than the victims that died in far more pain and were far more innocent than he is.