Saturday, November 03, 2007
The Death Penalty: No!
The Clarion is vehemently opposed to capital punishment. There are two roots that the Clarion's opposition to capital punishment is grounded in, both of which have expansive offshoots.
One, the State should not have the power to kill its own citizens, never should a social contract cede that much authority to the governmental entity. (There are reams of sub-points to this argument that can be discussed later, including, but not limited to, the inability of the State to correct a mistake once capital punishment has been administered, and, separately, how a multi-national, multi-racial society cannot possibly administer such punishment in an unbiased manner.)
Two, capital punishment precludes rehabilitation. It is not so much that the Clarion believes that all criminals can be rehabilitated, but we firmly believe it is incumbent upon society to make the attempt. It is presumptive of a power and capacity far beyond the human to decide prima facie who can and can't be rehabilitated. It is a mark of our own human failures, societally, especially those of the prison system, to presume people unrehabilitatable.
One, the State should not have the power to kill its own citizens, never should a social contract cede that much authority to the governmental entity. (There are reams of sub-points to this argument that can be discussed later, including, but not limited to, the inability of the State to correct a mistake once capital punishment has been administered, and, separately, how a multi-national, multi-racial society cannot possibly administer such punishment in an unbiased manner.)
Two, capital punishment precludes rehabilitation. It is not so much that the Clarion believes that all criminals can be rehabilitated, but we firmly believe it is incumbent upon society to make the attempt. It is presumptive of a power and capacity far beyond the human to decide prima facie who can and can't be rehabilitated. It is a mark of our own human failures, societally, especially those of the prison system, to presume people unrehabilitatable.
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