So you're okay with the head of a government usurping the will of the voters?
In some cases yes. A lot of voters don’t like tanks. Should we stop building them? Even fewer like Congress…should we get rid of it? I don’t like subsidies to farmers and I would imagine if it were put to a national vote…subsidies would go down 90%-10%.
In some cases, of course…no.
As for the death penalty…it clearly is no deterrent although it does drastically reduce repeat offenders. As for the nature of penalties supposedly being a deterrent to crime; it isn’t working.
I’m for the old “guilty today, death tomorrow” template. I would force the states that have the death penalty to fast track executions. You get 90 days, a 3 judge federal panel to look at the convictions and go over the trials with a fine toothed comb, and if the defense can’t get the judges to overturn the conviction. You get the needle.
The current 20 years on death row? No way.
The question becomes what to do with those currently condemned prisoners. Given the system they were tried under, given the set of rules the judge had, the jury had, the prosecutors and the defense had; I don’t think you can just order summary executions. I get the feeling that juries would be a bit more careful if they knew the hanging was taking place on their way out of the court house so to speak.
I’m of the opinion that the entire system of justice needs to be overhauled. I’m stringently against the death penalty. But….if we’re going to have it, lets have a real death penalty where executions are the proverbial “clear and present danger”.
