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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <117200029@inmet>
Date: Wed, 17-Sep-86 18:02:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.117200029
Posted: Wed Sep 17 18:02:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 08:19:10 EDT
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Nf-From: inmet.UUCP!janw    Sep 17 18:02:00 1986


[nose@nbires.UUCP ]
/* ---------- "Capital Punishment [New subject]" ---------- */

>[...]
>  -Steve "Two's company, Three's a totalitarian dictatorship" Dunn

>-The first duty of a citizen is to mistrust his government

Thank you, Steve. I agree with all you say on this (and the signature
line sums up much of it).

Let me add a couple of other arguments, less important than yours.

- The condemned person is dead but the executioner stays with us.
Personally, I don't relish the idea of living in the same society
with him. I might shake his hand by mistake.
- Death may or may not be an inhuman punishment - but  ten  years
on  Death Row certainly are. Unless we are ready to dispense with
due process guarantees that drag this out (and  we  aren't)  we'd
better dispense with capital punishment.
- (This is an extension of your argument). If we ever have a
totalitarian dictatorship here, it will probably come to power with
lots of fine-sounding slogans, and will have, at first, well-
meaning allies. If the absence of death penalty is by that
time a well-established principle - then it may take the new
order a month or two to restore it. This would save thousands
of innocent lives.

		Jan Wasilewsky