Happy Thoughts On Capital Punishment
379 words.
On the radio this morning, they were discussing the impending execution of Brandon Wayne Hedrick, who chose to die by the electric chair instead of by lethal injection. It’s been a big story here in Virginia for the last few days. The guest commentary on the radio show came from the leader of some group opposed to capital punishment. During the conversation, the movie Green Mile came up as an example of how horrible the electric chair is. My first thought was, “The Green Mile was a work of fiction from the mind of a horror author, so that’s not a great example.” My second thought was, “It’s supposed to be horrible — maybe after this some other punk will think twice before committing a capital crime.”
After that, I had an interesting revelation. I’ve always favored capital punishment (kind of), but I thought it should be more public so it can serve as a better deterrent. But it occurred to me that capital punishment of any kind is probably completely worthless as a deterrent, because the type of person who commits a capital crime is not going to stop and think about the ramifications of his actions. (In fact, based soley on the people walking around yelling into hands-free cell phones all day, I would imagine that the number of people who consider the ramifications of any action are steadily declining. But I digress.) That seems to leave only one reason for capital punishment: Punishment. It’s basically state-sanctioned revenge. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing — I’m not really sure what I think about it — but it makes me look at the issue a little differently.
My only other comment is: If we’re going to keep capital punishment, I wish the sentences could be carried out a lot sooner for the benefit of the victims. This guy Hedrick committed the abduction/rape/murder nine years ago. The victim’s family has had a cloud of misery hanging over them for nine years, where they’ve undoubtedly had to re-live a painful memory over and over again in courtroom after courtroom. It’s undoubtedly cost gajillions of dollars. That doesn’t seem fair at all. A quicker execution would resolve the matter and allow those people to regroup and resume their lives.
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