connecticut politicsDespite the fact that CT has rarely used its Death penalty law, it remains on the books. Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill this last week ensuring that the adjourned general assembly will not have the votes to override the veto.
This issue is a difficult issue that needs to be addressed on many fronts. First, it is not surprising that the death penalty is used on minorities, because they are usually the groups that have a larger than average number of people living in poverty. Hence, crime, for some, is viewed as a way out of poverty and get rich quick. This is not to say that whites also engage in this, they just do it with MBA's and a greater amount of education. Frankly, there is not difference between the drug dealer on the street and the CEO who knowingly drives his company into bankruptcy. They both know they are breaking the law; they steel from various groups of people without discrimination along as they have money; and they can expect a certain amount of government intervention when things go wrong. Now, it would be silly to say that these similarities are the same scale. But yet, are they. One group destroys family incomes and individuals through drug dependence; the other group destroys families with visions of the American dream and retirement savings,only to find the investors have been taken down the river. At least with drugs you get what was advertised!
Secondly, the state should not be involved in putting people to death. That does not mean they should not be punished or removed from society. My reasoning would be that I am a vindictive man, I find the death penalty the easy way out for some criminals. I want them to suffer, death is the absence of suffering.
Third, I would like to see that the death penalty be used only in cases where there is absolute definitive evidence of murder, etc. The state must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is killing the right person. There is no room for a mistake here. For this reason if nothing else, the death penalty should be used sparingly. How many people in the past prior to DNA, have been possibly put to death for a crime that they did not commit? There are literally hundreds. And let us not forget the use of the death penalty in the South as a racial weapon.
Finally, we have to think hard as citizens like we have the fate of people in our hands, do we have the right to pass judgment? If we do, then do we not want to ensure that the person in question is absolutely guilty? I would hate to be on a jury, make such a decision, only to find out that the person did not commit the crime. That is a travesty.
