| | Mark,
In response to your first paragraph, that the state is executing a helpless person who is in prison and this is murder, one, the prisoner is not helpless. Depending on how he handles himself in prison he could be commiting violent acts against other prisoners or against guards. While within a prison the person may not be able to focus his aggressiveness or pursuit of crime on the general public, he can pursue crime within the prison. Remember Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison, for an example. Some people may say he deserved it, however, it was murder within the walls of a prison where prisoners are helpless. People who intentionally set out to commit violent crimes are not helpless. They may be worked up in prison because not having the freedom to go where they want is annoying, but they still have the human beings to be victims. I used murder in prison as an example, however, the violent acts commited more often are rape and beatings of other inmates. Usually in prison it is the more violent criminals who can come into the power positions and they pursue violence on the less violent criminals, (except serial killers, which is an interesting issue) as you are probably aware, the one criminal who should be most afraid about entering a high security prison, are those who are child abusers and rapists. Even criminals have a code of what is acceptable and what is not, and they're means of justice isn't what society would probably consider acceptable. Just in response to your first point, prison does not make criminals helpless, and in fact it has been shown in studies that it can increase the aggression and violence.
On to the second paragraph and the point I want to mention. First, within the legal system their are distinctions at the trial level between the type of violence commited and how it should be punished. Serial murderers, which are premeditated murders and usually more horrific crimes would tend to be sent to death row. A premeditated murder by one person on another person, including only that murder, can also be considered for the death row and usually it is also taken into consideration the circumstances of the murder and how horrific it is and even if the defendent has shown any remorse. While the mindset and psychology of a serial killer and a woman who sets out to kill her husband because he had an affair are different, their intentions and the end result are the same. Someone, or many people are dead. I suppose if one could conceive of a way to execute a person more than once for their offenses then the serial killer could be killed over and over. I personally however, think that one murder premeditated without remorse in which the person is clearly guilty proved through physical evidence and DNA, justifies the taking of the prepetrators life.
And to the last aspect of your post, there hasn't been sufficient evidence that the death penalty does deter crime, however, violent crime rates have decreased in some areas. So far, there hasn't been any good cause/effect reasons. However, to suggest that the death penalty would increase murders I believe is an extreme statement in the other direction. Talking about serial killers and premeditated murder, because you get to the lower crimes and it's a different set of issues. However, there are serial killers who have never been caught, which basically leads one to the idea that they are so methodical and careful about their kills and it's the routine and ritual of the kill that matters that they won't leave witnesses or be pursued by police, and because the intelligence level of most serial killers is in the genius range, the thought of killing a police officer is perhaps something they would consider detrimental to their continued pattern. Besides, some like the chase and some even set out to be caught and will leave clues. And some even have the intention of eventually wanting to die, which is why they want to be caught. As for the premeditated murder of an ordinary person onto another, I would have to do more research into this, but the ones who would get scared and think about starting to cover tracks probably wouldn't kill too many more people before being caught themselves, if they even do set out to kill witnesses or pursuing police. There is usually a bit of arrogance that they won't be caught because they think they planned it so well and have thought things through.
The minds of people who are capable of killing in a premeditated manner and those of sociopaths and other personality disorders which in the extreme can turn to violent crimes is really quite fascinating. And while there is a part of myself that thinks studying them is intriguing, from the evidence and studies so far, there is very little hope in ever changing them. Right now, with sociopaths psychologists/scientists don't even know why they happen to become so. And basically, when someone chooses to take a life, to take the rights from another person, I do think they have made the conscious decision to void their own rights to life.
I agree that their has to be DNA and physical evidence to support the facts that the person did in fact commit the crime, but after this, I think the death penalty is acceptable, although I agree it shouldn't take years to be put into effect.
Although, there is one minor point in Glenn's post I want to address. A freely signed confession is a great tool for helping put criminals away. The problem with the legal system today however, is that some criminals who can be coerced or even made to believe they might have done something, or people who sign confessions to keep someone they love from prison etc. Although it doesn't happen often, there have been incidences where people signed a confession, such as one in which four different men signed a confession to a rape and murder of a woman, and in the end none of them did it, there was no physical evidence even attaching them to the crime scene, and they eventually did catch the real prepetrator, and he signed a confession and his DNA matched that found at the scene as well as other physical evidence and he even admitted to doing it alone. The four men are still in prison because they signed the confession, which they didn't do. The legal system still needs a lot of help.
Jen
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