Dear
Pogo
YES there is a difference.
When I asked an anti-death penalty activist why she wasn't OKAY with death penalty being
a CHOICE as she was with abortion being a CHOICE
she said she trusts woman with the choice of abortion [that affects her directly where the
woman bears the responsibility] but she DIDN'T trust juries and govt with the CHOICE
of putting someone to death [because that doesn't affect them directly, so it can
get skewed by too many other factors because the consequences aren't on them].
Her words were just the part about trusting a woman to make her own decision
about abortion, while not trusting the legal system with the choice of the death penalty.
I added the part CLARIFYING that the woman is making a choice that directly
affects her, while the govt/juries are making a choice of something affecting other people's lives.
They are never punished either way, for making the wrong decision to punish an innocent person.
The judge, jury lawyers are not held to it, so anything can go wrong because they don't pay for it.
Pogo if you are going to be fair, the way I use the death penalty to make an analogy,
when a Catholic Prolife leader asked me how can I be AGAINST abortion and want to prevent it 100% but I am prochoice,
I pointed out that her own Catholic church is AGAINST the death penalty,
yet most people support that as a choice.
We don't believe in BANNING it, but we don't want executions to happen when they could be prevented by preventing murder and crime in the first place.
So I said that my views of abortion are like that.
I believe we can PREVENT it without banning it by PREVENTING unwanted pregnancy
by PREVENTING rape, incest, sexual abuse and relationship abuse by FREE CHOICE,
by informed consent and education as how the Prolife movement already does successfully.
they don't need abortion to be banned in order to prevent completely by free choice.
So this is similar to wanting to get rid of executions by preventing murder.
Not by banning the choice of executions.
I believe we can prevent MOST murder by addressing conflicts and criminal sickness in advance. Most murders can be prevented, just like most abortions can be prevented.
The work on prevention is not something that can be legislated by govt because
it is all personal work and addressing issues on a private level only individuals can do by CHOICE.
So I support free choice, and try to prevent killing and murder that way,
not by banning the choice of abortion and not by banning the choice of executions.
With executions, I would require CONSENSUS since it is a highly spiritual
and religious matter; people would have to AGREE on guilt including the guilty party
and AGREE that no other restitution or other sentencing would serve better, etc.
If people AGREE to give that authority to the govt, as long as it is consensual
I believe that is a choice. But if there is spiritual or religious disagreement,
then that should be resolved first, even if it means having the prolife Catholic groups
pay for the life sentence of restitution or whatever else they can get an agreement on.
I would go for consensus and restorative justice as the model to establish a sentence
and agree who is going to pay for what. If we handles all cases that way, we could prevent murder by intervening and resolving conflicts, ordering treatment for sick people, much
sooner, at the first sign of abuse or complaint, and not wait until a killing occurs to require
a consensus on how to resolve the criminal complaint or charges. So I would intervene much sooner in order to prevent murder, capital crimes and punishment. All without banning executions.