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Probability for people on trial, or total lifetime probability? It's very different. I think the total lifetime probability matters more. We consider it accept

by burfog 8y ago

Probability for people on trial, or total lifetime probability? It's very different. I think the total lifetime probability matters more. We consider it acceptable to drive cars. This kills 1% to 2% of the population. This seems like the baseline for acceptability. Not even 1% of the population gets put on trial with the possibility of the death penalty, so we could just go straight to execution without a trial and still be more acceptable than letting people drive cars. Or shall we ban cars? Only 1 in 119,012 die from execution. Another baseline for acceptability is drowning. Homes all across America have pools. A person is about 100x more likely to die of drowning than an execution, yet pools are still legal.

lb1lf 8y ago
...but surely it is reasonable to maintain there's a distinction between having people die from what we can call accidents or mishaps - falling into a pool, being run over by a truck, getting electrocuted or choking on a peanut &c on one side... ...and on the other being locked up for years by the system we - as a collective - have created to protect us from just that kind of arbitrary violence, before that same system murders you -ahem- for the Greater Good(tm)? The fact that the murder of an innocent is highly unlikely doesn't (IMHO) make it any more acceptable. Government is supposed to protect you; not kill you in the very textbook definition of premeditated murder. (Besides, cars and swimming pools have verifiable upsides. The 'benefits' -if any- of the death penalty are highly debatable.)