You're absolutely right but a lot of people do think this way. That regardless of crime or evidence, the state has no authority to take a life.
"Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."
Isn't that sort of what a "state" is? In the absence of a state, individual humans would occasionally have to end the lives of other humans, but if one exists it will jealously guard that prerogative for itself.
Are you saying a "state" is just something that jealously guards prerogatives for itself (love that line btw)?
I agree occasionally humans do have to kill other humans because I'm not a pacifist but I think the death penalty isn't to stop a horrible act, because the person is already caught, but to punish.
Various states jealously guard various prerogatives, but the ur-prerogative is violence. The subjects of states without violence will eventually just live how they want to live. The whole point of states was to prevent that.
Actually, it's my impression that a majority of people worldwide are in favor of the death penalty. Two minutes of googling didn't turn up a good answer one way or the other though, so it's entirely possible I'm misremembering something.
Actually, it's my impression that a majority of people worldwide are in favor of the death penalty.
wikipedia: Although many nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world's population live in countries where executions take place, such as China, India, the United States and Indonesia.[0]
there are 206 countries in the world[1], of which only 36 practise capital punishment. USA comes on the heels of the top five of China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.[2]
questions:
* if majority of people are in favor of the death penalty, where does the majority of countries abstaining from it come from? in vulgar terms: is it an illuminati-level conspiracy?
* do the countries practicing the death penalty share any prevailing traits? do the countries which have abolished it share any prevailing traits? what are they? how do those traits correlate with wealth and wealth distribution in the country?
my impression is that (outside of truly fucked-up places like China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia) capital punishment de iure is a sign of a country with a huge wealth gradient: the poorer the poor are and the richer the rich are (in contrast) the better the chance the place will have the death penalty. countries with relatively flat wealth distribution seem to be less likely to practice the capital punishment.
Unfortunately, that's not the law, and is a different debate. Articles I've seen (including PG's!) say there's no evidence but the murderer's testimony. Except the guy sentenced to death admitted he had helped hide the murder. The only thing up for debate is if he hired the murderer. It certainly should not be eligible for the death penalty in this case, but he's not innocent.
The part about what he did is completely irrelevant. Sparing a life is the point regardless of what the crime was.
This is the sort of bias you get from perspectives with a word count.