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I tend to go back and forth on this issue, but I would pose the question that if we made it mandatory that everyone had to serve out capital punishment duty (i.
by gcheong 17y ago
I tend to go back and forth on this issue, but I would pose the question that if we made it mandatory that everyone had to serve out capital punishment duty (i.e. you get called to pull the trigger, inject the syringe, or whatever and if you refuse you risk punishment by death yourself) as we do for jury duty then would you be willing to do your civic duty? If you are, what does that say about us as a society? Do we go back to the good old days of public hangings and stonings? If not, then what is so different about paying tax dollars to support the killing of someone?
- aarongough 17y agoThat's an interesting perspective actually. I'm not sure that I could do that duty in cold blood... If I was affected by the crime personally in some way then obviously it would likely be a different story. Perhaps we could have a 'jury of executioners'? 12 potential executioners get called at random, the majority of them have to agree that the death sentence is applicable, all while knowing that one of them would be called upon to do the deed at the end...
- easp 17y agoIf we are executing enough people that capital punishment duty is actually a meaningful way to acquaint people with the gravity of taking another person's life in the name of justice, then our society is already repugnantly sick and violent. I think we are some distance from that, and I'd rather not move closer. Furthermore, I think the risk of such an experiment is that we desensitize the population to the taking of human life.