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I am (by some definition) a politician. (approved parliamentary candidate, political blogger, what have you. never actually won, mind.) I am happy for anyone w

I am (by some definition) a politician. (approved parliamentary candidate, political blogger, what have you. never actually won, mind.) I am happy for anyone who seeks power over others as absolute as political power (and military power, since they can also commit war crimes which are international crimes) to be subject to the death penalty if they misuse that power. Including me. I am not gambling the life of my "loved ones" on such a system, nor am I defending the death penalty in 99.99% of the cases where it is used today (I am just as appalled as you at the way it, and the prison system in general, are used to subjugate ethnic minorities in America.) EDIT: some more clarifications. I hugely respect alan_cx's position, which was mine for many years. I also want to point out that I don't want to change UK law - I want to augment the powers of the ICC (international criminal court) to allow it to punish crimes by death, where the current maximum is life imprisonment. I actually thought they already used the death penalty, but I've just checked and I was wrong.

kybernetikos 13y ago
I think the point that was being made is that when you make the rules you have to assume that there will occasionally be mistakes in the application of those rules and sometimes the whole purpose and intent will be corrupted given enough power and opportunity. Given that, even if you support the death penalty for certain crimes or kinds of individuals (crimes against civilians during war or prisoner abuses can test my own anti-death penalty stance) it can still make sense not to support the death penalty as an institution.
- narag 13y ago
  Death penalty is also a problem when seeking extradition. There are provisions in many national legislations to avoid extraditing persons if they could be imposed a penalty that doesn't exists in the country.

kybernetikos 13y ago

I think the point that was being made is that when you make the rules you have to assume that there will occasionally be mistakes in the application of those rules and sometimes the whole purpose and intent will be corrupted given enough power and opportunity. Given that, even if you support the death penalty for certain crimes or kinds of individuals (crimes against civilians during war or prisoner abuses can test my own anti-death penalty stance) it can still make sense not to support the death penalty as an institution.

narag 13y ago
Death penalty is also a problem when seeking extradition. There are provisions in many national legislations to avoid extraditing persons if they could be imposed a penalty that doesn't exists in the country.