The ultimate penalty...

The debate has always been centered on the choice of life in prison versus death for the most heinous of crimes...I touched on my reasoning in my "Insanity vs. Guilt" series, but feel I left some things unsaid...

I recently found a discussion concerning the death in prison of Susan Atkins, posted elsewhere several years ago, in which I argued my beliefs against those of a person who was firmly entrenched on the side of those who believe life in prison is not only a more feared punishment, but serves for the greater good of humanity...

I edited somewhat for clarity and context since the original arguments to which I responded are not represented here...Comments either pro or con are always welcome...

Those who have taken the lives of fellow human beings for nothing more than monetary gain, covering up other crimes or sometimes just for their own amusement show me that they have no regard for life, not even their own...They can't be trusted in society because they violated a basic trust that all humans share, to live among others without causing harm to each other...With that in mind, I extend the same thought to drug dealers, pedophiles, rapists and traitors...All those crimes are heinous enough to be penalized by death...

Keeping them alive in prison until they die anyway serves no one, not even the prisoner...It's known that criminal gangs exist in prison, run by prisoners for the purpose of gaining wealth and power...Those career criminals can only do that while they are alive...Why let them live to train armies of thugs when death brings a close to any more foul deeds they can accomplish...

"Life without parole" means they die in prison...Execution means they die in prison, they just do it before they can bring more harm to more humans and draw on public resources that are sorely needed elsewhere......

Whose life was enriched and what quality was added to that life by keeping Ms. Atkins alive an extra 40 years?...I wouldn't have objected as much to her incarceration if her own reason for being had been redeemed over the last 40 years...

By the same token, I think it might be easy to find those who would be gladdened knowing how much she suffered by being kept alive for 40 years...Are they the same people who would have leaped for joy if she had been executed?...Maybe, but I think many are happy knowing the public suffered right along with her...

Personal satisfaction can also come from knowing that someone felt high enough above humanity to be able to destroy the lives of others with impunity, and that same person was caught, tried and received the only punishment which guarantees not being able to ever harm another human being...Yes, there are those that attach more revenge/retribution to the punishment than I would like and I object to those motives as strongly as those who oppose the death penalty...

I am as appalled and repelled as they are by the hypocrisy in the lives of those who espouse both the religious and secular views...We can both point to many everyday in the public eye...And, no, I do not take such statements personally unless they have my name attached...

Those on death row have very little contact or influence on the general prison population...It is those serving very long or life sentences that have the ability and opportunity to pass their "skills" on to a new generation of criminal...

That value system is installed by the very ones who criminally take lives, either by murder, making others become dependent on drugs or forcing a lifelong memory of a horrible physical act on another...Accepting that value for the purpose of removing that blight from society is, to me, a sad necessity...

Death is the end result of life without parole; why put it off if the guilt is ironclad?...Why give this person the chance to detrimentally influence other lives while alive?...

I can understand a feeling of relief that a criminal has died and can't be a menace to anyone anymore, but I find no necessity to "leap for joy" at the death...

I look at it as punishment, nothing more...

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