Streak's Take on Capital Punishment

As CP has returned in our news with the sentencing of the Beltway Sniper, Streak and I return to the topic.

I am opposed to the death penalty for many reasons. Very few of them have to do with it being cruel and unusual punishment, though I find the practice barbaric. It does put us in pretty bad company, mostly with countries that we normally don't like to compare ourselves with.

1) the racial and class bias associated with CP. Supporters point to all the white people on death row, but miss the broader point that the bias is not so much to do with the race of the executed, but the race of the victim. When the victim is of color, there is a lower instance of capital punishment.

I don't think anyone doubts the connection between class and capital punishment. If you are wealthy and can afford the representation, you have a much greater chance of beating the needle.

2) number two is actually about number one, in that most supporters actually acknowledge that race and class are factors, but still support the death penalty. That puzzles me from a moral stance. It seems to me that most people separate questions about CP into two parts--theoretical and practical. On the theoretical they ask whether the practice is moral in some higher sense. Then they talk about the practical application--difference between jurisdictions, judges, attorneys, race, class, etc. Most people acknowledge the practical problems, but have made their support based on the theoretical morality of CP and don't connect the problems with that. I don't see how you can acknowlede the biases and still support people being executed.

3) Many of those moral defenders do so based on some, in my opinion, problematic uses of OT theology. First, there are numerous sins that the Bible responds with capital punishment and I don't think we really want to put recalcitrant kids to death.

More later.