Some legislation is “shoot from the hip” … not carefully thought out, but obviously echoing a not-uncommon sentiment, if not common sense itself.
Florida’s Representative Brad Drake (R‑Eucheeanna) has concocted a fine example, HB 325. He got the idea from an overheard conversation. He was in a Waffle House, and one of his constituents was chatting about the Manuel Valle case in the Supreme Court. The convicted murderer had appealed many times, and what the Supreme Court was mulling over was the Valle’s objection to the manner of capital punishment, particularly the drug used in the lethal injection, to which he had been sentenced.
“You know, they ought to just put them in the electric chair or line them up in front of a firing squad,” said the Floridian.
So Drake wrote up a bill to junk lethal injection, offering, instead, the electric chair as the standard method, with a “firing squad” option.
“There shouldn’t be anything controversial about a .45-caliber bullet,” Drake insists.
None of this addresses my big problem with capital punishment — our American states’ actual, sorry record on the issue. There have been far too many wrongfully convicted innocents.
I freely confess: If I had to be executed, I might prefer a firing squad.
But since I’d almost certainly be innocent, I’d rather not have to make any decision regarding my unjust killing.
Shoot-from-the-hip legislating is not the proper response to the death penalty controversy.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
7 replies on “The Uncontroversial .45-Caliber Slug”
This is a perfect illustration of what has been lost with the 17th Amendment.
George Washington is said to have told Jefferson that the framers had created the Senate to “cool” House legislation just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea.
Without the states being able to curtail their representatives, since the senate no longer answers to anybody, this is the exact sort of knee jerk legislation to which the country is subjected to.
Why we are where we are.
Mr Jacob, You stated “There have been far too many wrongfully convicted innocents.” I disagree with you regarding captial punishment, but if you have the statistics to back up this statement, I’d like to see them.
Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty.
Lance:
You might check out the Innocence Project.
Citing the “Innocence Project” for wrongful executions is like citing Amnesty International regarding U.S. “War Crimes.” You cannot believe everything you read on the web — or in the commie-lib-media. Please recall that the moonbat left believes that “Mumia Is Innocent!”
I usually agree with you on most things. Not this. Most death penalty cases are overturned on the basis of technicalities, not fact. .Death Penaltiy cses have become a treasure chest of income for attornies, not unlike class action suits. They milk it to death.
No, if the killer has his day in court and an appeal, that’s enough. Justice delayed is justice denied. The victim continues to be a victim forever it seems.
Lance — Fair enough.
The recent case of the West Memphis Three comes first to mind.
http://www.wm3.org/
But their release, after what I believe to be a horrible miscarriage of justice that put one of them on death row and another in prison for life, required them to plead guilty.
I believe they were innocent. But what say Rebel66? Murray? Lance?
In addition to Mark Read Pickens suggestion (rejected out of hand by Rebel66, unjustifiably I contend), I’ve merely scratched the surface with a number of links. It seems difficult to claim that no one is ever wrongly convicted and, if someone is, that casts some serious doubt on a process as final as capital punishment.
Whether an innocent person has been executed is open to debate, though I’m convinced many have — TOO many. But there is no reasonable doubt that innocent people have been found guilty and sentenced to death. There is no legal process to find someone “innocent” in a court of law who has been executed.
Here are a few links:
http://web.archive.org/web/20100627053204/http://www.law.northwestern.edu/wrongfulconvictions/issues/deathpenalty/Executinginnocent/
http://forejustice.org/wc/ray_krone_JD_vol2_i9.htm
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/99nov/9911wrongman.htm
http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/deathpenalty/
http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/Browse-Profiles.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_execution
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-penalty
http://web.archive.org/web/20070804222621/http://capitaldefenseweekly.com/innocent.html
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/After_21_Years_in_Prison__including_16_on_Death_Row__Curtis_McCarty_is_Exonerated_Based_on_DNA_Evidence.php
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executed-possibly-innocent
http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-two-nc-men-found-innocent-of-murder-after-guilty-pleas-20110922,0,4182526.story