5 ms·
The legal cost of committing a crime is something like (severity of punishment * likelihood of punishment). I suspect that the latter term is far, far more impo
by hx87 10y ago
The legal cost of committing a crime is something like (severity of punishment * likelihood of punishment). I suspect that the latter term is far, far more important to the legitimacy of a government, since it indicates competence whereas the former indicates stringency or leniency, and people respect a competent but lenient government far more than a harsh but incompetent one.
Besides, life in prison is a harsher punishment than death.
- akiselev 10y ago>> Besides, life in prison is a harsher punishment than death. I'm sorry, WHAT?! You seem to have a gross misunderstanding about the permanency of death.
- gambiting 10y agoI would absolutely choose death over lifetime sentence in US prison system, absolutely and without hesitation,.
- stale2002 10y agoWell you are in the significant minority. The point is that most people disagree with you.
- hx87 10y ago> Well you are in the significant minority. Do you have evidence to back that up?
- stale2002 10y agoWell at the very least by the fact that most people in prison don't try to kill themselves. Some do, sure, but most don't. Or how about this. The vast majority of people who are being charged with the death penalty in the court of law, try to prevent that sentence from happening. If everyone prefers the death penalty, then why would they use their lawyers to sue and prevent it from happening?
- gambiting 10y agoI am sure you agree that most people sentenced to death try to overturn it entirely and go free, not convert it into life inprisonment.
- stale2002 10y agoWhat? There are lots of cases where they try and plea bargain it down to life. Why plea bargain down to life if you prefer death penalty.
- hx87 10y ago> plea bargain it down to life Life with the possibility of parole, i.e. you still have a chance to live a free life, no matter how small and short. There are few if any cases of someone trying to bargain down to life without parole.
- akiselev 10y agoYou're wrong. I just Googled the phrase plea deals life without parole and found literally pages and pages and pages of articles about people plea bargaining down to life without parole. [1][2][3][4][5] And that's just from the first page. You do realize that you aren't executed right after the guilty plea, right? In capital cases many levels of appeals are mandatory and a death row inmate waits an average of 15 years before they're executed. In California, which has the largest death row population, no one has even been executed in a decade and there are no plans to so in many places it's a de facto life without parole sentence anyway. [1] http://www.kesq.com/D-A-Approves-Duncan-Plea-Deal-Life-In-Prison-Without-Parole/491564 http://www.kesq.com/D-A-Approves-Duncan-Plea-Deal-Life-In-Pr... [2] http://www.aol.com/article/2016/04/23/cody-rackemann-receives-4-life-without-parole-sentences-plus-20/21349708/ http://www.aol.com/article/2016/04/23/cody-rackemann-receive... [3] http://articles.philly.com/2016-01-14/news/69738739_1_mackie-and-hammond-justin-mackie-otif-wright http://articles.philly.com/2016-01-14/news/69738739_1_mackie... [4] http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/courts/plea-deal-in-hicks-park-slayings-results-in-life-sentence/article_2bd987e5-17e2-59af-9f2e-e7dfeb21cc49.html http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/courts/plea-deal-in-hicks-par... [5] http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/07/ariel_castro_agrees_to_plea_de.html http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/07/ariel_castr...
- eric_h 10y agoI would not, personally. Yeah prison in the US sucks, but at least I would finally be able to find the time to read everything I wanted to.
- hx87 10y agoIt is you who seem to have a gross misunderstanding about time and suffering. The dead don't suffer.
- akiselev 10y agoThey also don't get any appeals, pardons, or get to discover new evidence to help their case. They don't get to see sentencing reform or more lenient judges that wipe out that life sentence. They don't get to see how forensic science and police procedure change and given how messed up the current state of the art is, there will be many more living people that will be released.
- ionised 10y agoBut they don't care about any of that stuff, they're dead.