Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Capital Punishment- For Or Against?

The state gave one the needle yesterday. A multiple murderer who needed it. And he slipped away into sleep and then into death. Nowhere near as easily as his victims died. He beat them to death, so I hear.

I started work at the prison where this happened. The place was brand new and they built a room especially for doing executions. The room was apparently classified top secret because nobody had the keys for it and nobody could let us in to see it and we weren't allowed to see the room anyway.

Idiots.

After I had been there about six months they sent around a memo asking for staff members who might be interested in being on the execution team. Maybe interested wasn't the word. Willing to be on the team. I signed up. I figured it would be worth some overtime now and then.

The memo started a huge debate on camp. And it showed what a bad judge of character I really am. All the hard core hoo-rah types that I thought would be the first ones to sign up were the ones saying loudly that they wanted nothing to do with executions. It was only the quiet ones and the odd ones like me that were saying "What the hell..... I'll do it."

Opened a big can of worms, that did.

But of course, I wasn't one of the "In Crowd" there, so I wasn't even considered. With the Major we had there at the time you had to be one of his boot licking crew to get any kind of special assignment. And I despised the arrogant little sawed off S.O.Beeotch. He was a prick. The kind of person that wouldn't even acknowledge you if you spoke to him.

And I only stayed there eight or nine months before I transferred to where I am now. And they didn't do any executions while I was there. So it wouldn't have mattered if they had put me on the team or not. If they hadn't transferred me I would have quit.

I seem to have wandered off topic.

Lethal injection is supposed to be "humane". Personally, I don't see the point. You just go to sleep and stop breathing. That's no deterrent. Like going to prison at all is no longer a deterrent. Going to prison is like taking a vacation and being executed is going to sleep.

I think at least they should bring back hanging and the electric chair. They are both nasty deaths and would make people afraid to take that step. I agree that the gas chamber was not a good idea. Way too hazardous for staff and bystanders and not good for the environment. But the other two worked pretty well.

As long as you kept the sponge wet.

Maybe we should bring back stoning to death. Make it an audience participation thing. Give the victims families a chance at some satisfaction. I'll bet Nolan Ryans family would be safe forever.

Or better yet, let's make it something truly gruesome and macabre. Something so truly horrific that it would make people really afraid of the death penalty.

Being tied up and sealed alive in a coffin full of beetles and immediately buried.

That would do it. I'd sure behave myself.

I'll be accused of being to harsh. I don't care. I think prison should be a punishment. Not the vacation day care center that it is now. They have it too easy and now they go out too easy. That in itself is a crime. Humanity should be spared for humans. Most of these animals are no longer human and should be treated as such.

I'd heard that our new governor was going to change things for the better. Not better for them, better for us. Haven't seen anything as of yet. I'd love to see a four word telegram from his office stating: "The gloves are off."

Showtime.

The little pricks would learn to behave themselves then, I'm sure.

8 comments:

  1. Then my work here is through. (grin)

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  2. against it.

    i'm against killing however one wants to "justify" it.

    how does taking another life make things better? revenge? i say lock 'em up for life/no parol.

    everyone dies in the end. let God sort it out.

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  3. Against, the worst of them aren't afraid of dieing so it's not a threat to prevent the crimes.

    Against, because we're convicting to many innocent people and discovering our mistakes years later.

    Against, what kind of punishment is nothingness?

    For: Hard labor and chain gangs.

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  4. g- I accept your decision. And I see your point. But when you lock them up for life they go from preying on the people outside to preying on the people inside. And they still write letters and screw with peoples minds out there. I'm personally still in favor of whacking them myself.

    Anon- They say they aren't afraid to die, but most of the worst of them are cowards at the core.
    We do and have convicted a few innocents, but not as many as you think.
    Death is not really punishment for them. It's safety for us.
    And I'm all in favor of hard labor and chain gangs. No more play time.

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  5. When i was young, i was totally against death to prison persons, I have since changed my mind. I read, i read books, magizines. the internet. and in my fifty plus years, i have come to believe that too many of them are released to kill again. period. in my heart and opinion, i find it appalling when this happens. Nor do i want to be taxed to the hilt to house someone for their intire life while i struggle to live a law abiding life. raising children to be law abiding citizens, while a killer or child molester, can sit on their butts and watch tv. heck i didn't even let my two year olds watch two hours of tv a day, let alone ALL DAY. I wasn't allowed to buy 2 cases of formula for my twins, because of the black market scams, but some one in prison can get 3 free meals a day. No no ...i'm tired of reading about innicent children being killed by people who have been let out on parole, or by "accident"
    loopy mama for a reason

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  6. Sorry I'm late with this, I was on vacation. The only reason I'm against it is that if you're wrong, you cannot fix it. In theory, I have no issue with killing people as punishment.
    Now, I think also that it shouldn't be done in the middle of the night in secret. I want it done during prime time and on tv so we can all see what is being done in our name.
    OTOH, we can easily harvest the organs of the condemned and save a bunch of lives every time someone's in line for the needle.
    Go ahead, call me crazy.

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  7. Joe- If you weren't crazy, you wouldn't be reading this drivel. I can respect that in a person. And it so happens that I agree with you totally. It should be done out in the open so people can watch and they should be harvested down to their bone marrow. Anything left should be given to medical students. Not even a decent burial.

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