Capital Punishment

By

William D. Dannenmaier

The Supreme Court, in its ultimate power if not wisdom, has halted capital executions while considering if death by lethal injection was “cruel and unusual” punishment.  I haven’t heard if they are considering if the murders committed were “cruel and unusual.”  Apparently, that is irrelevant. 

One argument against capital punishment is that an innocent person could be executed.  Studies of executions, however, have never been able to cite a single incident, not one, of an innocent person being executed.  There are no reports, at least no publicized reports, of the numbers of people who have been murdered by escaped or released murderers.  Tennessee had one that I was aware of a few years ago.  A convicted murderer had escaped from prison in Louisiana and moved to Memphis, where he murdered an elderly lady in a parking lot. Had he been executed, that lady would have lived.

Periodically, one hears about similar “incidents.”  No one seems to care about the hundreds who have been murdered by persons previously convicted of murder who have escaped or been released from prison because of their “good conduct” while closely guarded in prison. 

A second argument is that executing murders does not deter other murders.  This is nonsense.  A recent study, covering several decades, compared the number of executions with the number of murders in the United States.  When the number of executions went up, the number of murders went down.  When the number of executions went down, the number of murders went up.  But who cares about facts and statistics?

An example rarely mentioned (Joel Mowbray discusses it in his article “Media Silence: Islamic Terrorist Case Ignored, Townhall.com, November 15 2007), which demonstrates the effect of executions on the murder rate concerns Muslims.  Tens of thousands of innocent people – men, women and children – have been murdered throughout the world in the name of “Islam.”  Occasionally, mention of one or two of the more notorious of these is reported, as in the proud publication by Muslims of the beheading of people they deemed reprehensible or in a particularly brutal act, such as the 9/11 airplane attacks on the twin towers in New York City and the pentagon in Washington D. C., or the train explosions in Spain.  Otherwise, there is silence.

In Holland, a man who wrote an article critical of the Islamic religion was stabbed to death in the street for expressing his opinion.  One does not write critical comments about Islamic beliefs A member of Holland’s legislature, a female Muslim who was critical of the Muslim treatment of women not only had to resign her elected position, but had to flee the nation to save her life.  Islamic apostates must not be publicly critical.  The editor in Belgium who published a series of cartoons about Mohammed was threatened with death and remains protected. 

Recently, a young woman who was abducted and raped by four men in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to ninety lashes for being out without a male companion.  When she went public with this outrageous punishment, she was retried and sentenced to two hundred (yes 200) lashes for arousing criticism of Islam.

Note the silence of the editors of the famed and courageous New York Times as well as other papers concerning such “incidents.”  The editors know better.  Public criticism of Islam could be fatal.

Recently, Miller Brewing Company helped finance a gay “rights” celebration in San Francisco which included a float mocking Christianity.  That was safe.  The owners of Miller know better, however, than to finance anything which mocks criticizes, much less mocks, Islam.

Hiding behind the twin gods of Multiculturalism and Diversity, newspaper editors, judges and important politicians have little to say about the seriousness of the Muslim terrorist threat.  Even college professors are careful to avoid the topic.  One cannot offend Muslim killers: offenders – or their families – might be murdered.  I know that I have heard of moderate Muslims, but where are their voices?  Like newscasters and other prominent “leaders,” they know the penalty of criticism.

The wealthy and important can argue that capital punishment does not deter crime.  They can afford such attitudes.  Living in guarded mansions, protected by guards in their public excursions, they don’t need to walk the streets to shop or work as do most people.  They have no fear of casual muggers, rapists and murderers.  But they are careful not to offend the “radical Islamists” by caricaturing their religion – as they do Christianity – or even by reporting the deeds of Muslim radicals accurately.  They know they and their families as well as any innocent bystanders would be executed in reprisal. 

Who says capital punishment doesn’t work?