The TIW Blog

Chances are (because you read this site) you agree with me most of the time on at least some of the issues we discuss. I say this so that you are not alarmed at my view that the Supreme Court of the United States has once again behaved in a most immoral manner by allowing the execution of the beltway sniper jihadist John Muhammad. I say this not necessarily because of the inherent immorality of the concept of capital punishment (although a serious argument can be constructed to support that view). I suggest that capital punishment as it is practiced in the United States of America is immoral, and therefore should not be permitted by the Supreme Court. The argument I try to make is complicated by the inherent hostile attitude towards criminals in the United States of America. In a country that has enough enlightenment to understand the environmental, social, and economic factors that tend to contribute to (and sometimes force) criminal behavior, we still have a society that seeks retribution above all social and human costs, much to the detriment of the dignity of us all. Try to put aside your hatred of Muslims for a minute. Try to put aside your hatred of killers for a minute. Try to put aside your hatred and contempt for the poor for a minute, and you will agree with me that capital punishment as it is practiced in the United States of America is immoral. Capital punishment is randomly and inconsistently administered in the United States. This has several reasons that I will only briefly enumerate. First, it is inconsistently administered based upon gender. The Susan Smith case where a mother murdered her children comes to mind as a good example from South Carolina. This woman was very cold-blooded, intentional, and selfish in her desire to destroy her children so that she could pursue love. The[in]justice system found her guilty, but did not condemn her to death, though she was very much qualified. Susan Smith’s case is not unusual when you consider that only 11 women have been executed since 1976. The following brief statistics from deathpenaltyinfo.org clearly show the gender discrimination problem:

women account for about 1 in 10 (10%) murder arrests; women account for only 1 in 50 (2%) death sentences imposed at the trial level; women account for only 1 in 67 (1.5%) persons presently on death row; and women account for only 1 in 100 (1%) persons actually executed in the modern era.

Similar statistics are available that show that blacks and minorities also disproportionately face the death penalty when compared to whites. Even more alarmingly is the modern, politically correct discrimination based on socioeconomic status. In spite of the existence of murderers at every level of our society, socioeconomic status is the prime factor (besides gender) that determines whether a murderer is executed. In the most alarming cases, those of high socioeconomic status (such as Ted Kennedy) not only avoid execution, but they entirely avoid prosecution for the murders they commit. The injustice here is the lack of consistency in the application of justice in general and specifically the application of capital punishment. The moral view of the matter is correct to suppose, for example, that the fact a poor male without a high school diploma should be executed for murder while a woman of any ethnic or socioeconomic background should not be executed is fundamentally unjust. Because of the inconsistencies (respect of persons) involved in the American [in]justice system in general, and specifically in the death penalty system, we should all be in a state of abhorrence that the Supreme Court of the United States has again acquiesced to an execution just because of his gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Americans should stand up against this injustice and demand a halt to all executions while the [in]justice system is overhauled to insure uniformity, fairness, morality, and justice.

Read more about this HERE