[PEN-L:3917] Re: Re: death penalty for racist beast

["William S. Lear" <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Friday, February 26, 1999 at 14:05:20 (-0800) Jim Devine writes:
>I wrote: >>is there anyone else out there who's feeling queasy because (1)
>if anyone does, John William King (and his yet-to-be-tried sidekicks)
>deserve the death penalty but (2) they have a principled opposition to the
>death penalty?<<
>
>Bill Lear writes: >Pre-meditated murder is wrong.  Nobody deserves the
>death penalty, because the death penalty --- premeditated murder carried
>out by the state --- is a barbaric act with no moral justification
>whatsoever. Why, retaining your humanity, and rising above the braying for
>blood, should you feel queasy?<
>
>because it sure looks like J.W. King deserves what he's getting. It's like
>the old mindgame: if you had the opportunity to assasinate Hitler in 1922
>(or 1932), would you?

But that's not the question to ask.  The question to ask is: If you
had the opportunity to remove Hitler from society in the most humane
way possible, would you?

We have other options besides murder.


Bill