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December 12, 2007
Media wonders "what if we can no longer obsess about the death penalty"
Perhaps because there have not been any executions to write about for nearly three month because of the Baze lethal injection litigation, the AP today has this somewhat amusing new story headlined, "If Death Penalty Abolished, What Next?"
More than at any time over the past 30 years, the future of capital punishment is in limbo. The Supreme Court will hear arguments next term in a momentous lethal injection case. While it's widely expected that executions will resume in some form following that case, the moment gives Americans a chance to contemplate what would change if they stopped for good.
I think it might be more accurate to say that this moment gives members of the media a chance to contemplate what other (more important) issues it would have to obsess over if executions stopped for good.
December 12, 2007 at 05:39 PM | Permalink
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Comments
On the other hand, maybe we would just get more coverage of Britney's custody dispute.
Posted by: Kent Scheidegger | Dec 12, 2007 10:29:30 PM
The position attributed to me in the story is incorrect, as explained at Crime & Consequences.
Posted by: Kent Scheidegger | Dec 13, 2007 11:38:00 AM
The only thing that would change is that we'd have politicians foaming at the mouth promising to appoint/get appointed new judges to the Supreme Court that will reinstate the death penalty. Oh, and we'd also get fake statistics to show how crime rates have skyrocketed since the abolition of the death penalty ("Murder rates have increased 450%").
Posted by: bruce | Dec 13, 2007 7:37:47 PM
They will yell about it for a month then quiet down when all the 'voter pleasing comments' are exhausted, then 3 years from now some sexual crime will happen that involves murder and they will use that as the excuse they need to bring the whole issue back up. When in doubt wait til something comes along with sex and happens and surely everyone will run to vote in favor for it.
Posted by: Mark | Dec 14, 2007 8:32:56 AM
Mark: yes, I agree. As long the news can report about swarthy, smelly poor people kidnapping, raping, and killing little cute white girls with blond hair and "hug me" blue eyes, the death penalty will be justified by the masses, all rational arguments against it being ignored.
Posted by: bruce | Dec 14, 2007 1:36:11 PM
