Why is the Death Penalty still allowed if it is really expensive and unprofitable?
Why is the Death Penalty still allowed if it is really expensive and unprofitable?
If the Death Penalty doesn't have a profit motive, and is so obviously barbaric, why do political groups and people in America still rally behind it? Surely there's more to it than most Americans just being blood thirsty monsters, right?
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Like with every other harmful and barbaric practice in the US that hurts the working class, the cruelty is the point. It always has been the point, throughout North America's entire history of settler colonialism. The crimes against humanity perpetrated by the US are so grave, so atrocious, so absurdly evil that they can never be atoned for.
Take a look at the US' prisons. They deliberately engineer them to be sites of torture. They deliberately restrict nutritional value and variety, refuse to have air conditioning installed, and facilitate the conditions for violence and abuse to occur both from guards and fellow inmates. The heat in the summer is getting worse and causing people to drop like flies in US prisons, just like they deliberately let COVID run rampant and eat everyone alive. There's also the arbitrary use of solitary confinement and sensory deprivation that frequently goes anywhere from a few years to several decades. These places are built to thoroughly destroy people in the worst possible ways imaginable. I've even read something once about lethal injections not being efficient in some cases, causing the victim extreme pain sometimes for days before they finally die. It's not about rehabilitation, it's torture porn for these fuckers.
The US has never been the hero of really any story. It's always going to be the epicenter of the world's evil, until it is irreversibly destroyed in its current form and rebuilt to benefit the working class and punish evil instead of endlessly rewarding it.
Sadism. It's just sadism. A lot of people in the US enjoy seeing others being hurt and killed. They think that people accused of death penalty crimes are acceptable victims so they can fully indulge their blood lust. The number of cases where the family of the victim of the murder pleads with the prosecutors not to seek the death penalty and then the accused is sent to death row is really illustrative. It has nothing to do with justice for families or anything else, it's just the state flexing it's power to kill and the bloodthirsty mob indulging their love of violence and misery.
I want to steal things. I want to kill people. I want to cut people off in traffic and run over bicycles. Get the fuck out of my way, right? But you know what? I control myself. I follow the rules. But when I see someone stealing, or who cuts me off, I get so fucking angry, man. Why should they get away with it? I'm sitting here doing everything right and all I get from it is shit. So why the fuck shouldn't I just steal shit and kill people if you can just get away with it? Society only works if there's punishment. Don't let your fucking dog shit on my lawn and not pick it up. God dammit. Just fucking behave. It makes me so fucking angry. I wish I could punish these people myself. So many people do bad things and get away with it. There are people who follow the rules and people who don't. I see someone who doesn't follow the rules. I'm so angry. We need more good people and less bad people. Society won't work like this. My fucking hands are shaking man I get so worked up when I think about it. You can't let them get away with it. They need to be punished more severely, obviously. We need to catch all of them. Until it sinks in. Until the bad people are gone or stop being bad.
You're right
We have no choice but to make the death penalty profitable
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Gun range but with live targets
Pay extra to choose the race, gender, sexuality, and age of your target
Are you seriously giving them ideas right about now? :madeline-stare:
wow okay put down the lathe before someone gets hurt
I think most Americans don't realize how expensive the death penalty is, and IME when you explain it to them, their response is usually something like, "Well they should just shoot them, bullets are cheap." People are more inclined to see the expense of the death penalty as government inefficiency that needs to be fixed, rather than a reason to get rid of it.
In other words,
Surely there's more to it than most Americans just being blood thirsty monsters, right?
No.
Can you explain why its so expensive? Not how but why
Why is the death penalty so expensive?
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Legal costs: Almost all people who face the death penalty cannot afford their own attorney. The state must assign public defenders or court-appointed lawyers to represent them (the accepted practice is to assign two lawyers), and pay for the costs of the prosecution as well.
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Pre-trial costs: Capital cases are far more complicated than non-capital cases and take longer to go to trial. Experts will probably be needed on forensic evidence, mental health, and the background and life history of the defendant. County taxpayers pick up the costs of added security and longer pre-trial detention.
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Jury selection: Because of the need to question jurors thoroughly on their views about the death penalty, jury selection in capital cases is much more time consuming and expensive.
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Trial: Death-penalty trials can last more than four times longer than non-capital trials, requiring juror and attorney compensation, in addition to court personnel and other related costs.
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Incarceration: Most death rows involve solitary confinement in a special facility. These require more security and other accommodations as the prisoners are kept for 23 hours a day in their cells.
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Appeals: To minimize mistakes, every prisoner is entitled to a series of appeals. The costs are borne at taxpayers’ expense. These appeals are essential because some inmates have come within hours of execution before evidence was uncovered proving their innocence.
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