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I have previously discussed why I think the anti-death penalty stance is not just incorrect, but evil. This morning, I have received news that what I consider the most pro-crime administration of my lifetime has done something that I thought was unthinkable, and has commuted the death penalty sentences of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates:
I am, as they say, triggered. For an administration filled with pro-crime sentiments and excuse-making for evil people, this probably tops the charts. I am disgusted by Biden's handlers. Here's the list of federal death row inmates. Absolutely none of the usual reasons for opposing the death penalty even begin to make sense for these guys. People worry about sentencing someone that's wrong accused to death - did they get it wrong in these examples?
They just somehow accidentally tabbed the wrong guy for murdering a prison guard? Really could have been anyone? Or perhaps you're concerned that it should only be reserved for the worst people, which is why Roof has to go. OK:
I'd love to hear the explanation for the parents of that preteen girl why their child's life wasn't every bit as sacred as the victims of Bowers and Roof. Why does he deserve a commutation? Perhaps it's because she was just an individual, so her life doesn't really deserve to be repaid with retributive justice, in contrast to Roof's victims. On an intuitive level, almost everyone knows that Dylann Roof deserves to die and that the only miscarriage of justice will be that it takes decades of fighting with demonic attorneys to get it done. Somehow, a bunch of otherwise decent people have convinced themselves that while Roof is sufficiently evil that he just deserves to die, there are probably a bunch of other death row inmates that don't. I believe this is because they're just not aware of the facts of those cases. Let's look at one of the commuted sentences:
How many people, knowing that information, would say that it's important for the President to spare these guys from execution?
There is no coalition that I have more sincere contempt for than people that spend their lives trying to avoid the execution of men like Kadamovas. There are so many issues where I grant a difference in preferences, values, evaluations of policies, or genuine mistakes. On this one, I am just sincerely angry at everyone that disagrees with me. The Biden administration has done so many things that I disagree with, but most of them still fall into that category of normal political disagreements. Denying the victims of these crimes the only justice that could have been done is evil.
If Dylann Roof claims that he achieved sexual gratification while shooting could Biden commute his sentence too?
Btw - do you think that some of those would be rejected? Life without parole is crueler and harsher sentence than death in some conditions.
On the latter point, very few people in the position to get death penalties seem willing to accept them rather than appealing endlessly. I don't know what the actual numbers are on that front, but the desire to simply stay alive seems very strong.
For what it's worth on my end, I am personally opposed to deliberately creating conditions that are crueler and harsher than the death penalty. As I have probably mentioned in one of these threads where I hold forth on the death penalty, I don't view the death penalty as a way of maximizing harshness, but as a cap on the allowable suffering and extent of retributive justice meted out. Many people instinctually feel that a clean death is too good for some killers, and I understand that sentiment, but one of the reasons I so strongly support it is precisely to subvert the temptation to descend into inflicting excessive cruelty on the condemned.
It does occasionally happen, most notably with Gary Gilmore, that a condemned prisoner asks to be executed and still needs to go through large portions of the appeals process for baffling reasons.
Edit- wrote down the wrong Gary.
Gary Gilmore too. Subject of the (long-winded and overcooked) book The Executioner's Song.
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