[lbo-talk] Death penalty (was: Singapore)

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Thu Oct 4 06:45:19 PDT 2012


Andie: "I'm not a principled abolitionist. I don't think we can have a fair death penalty under present circumstances. But if, hypothetically,we were to execute war criminals and criminals against humanity under Nuremberg principles

[WS:] This very closely reflects my own position on the subject. I think that the likes of Breivik should be executed, but otoh capital punishment is applied too liberally and unfairly in the US.

What I find difficult to sympathize with is the hysteria of certain types of death penalty opponents. While I agree with Marv's view that for many (most?) liberals and lefties opposition to death penalty does not overshadow their opposition to other form of injustice, some of them react to it in a hysterical way.

To be sure, there is psychological justification of such an exaggerated reaction in the context of imminent execution, as vivid events pertaining to single individuals tend to command far more attention than abstract statistics pertaining to groups. The imminence of one person being put to death is far more vivid than, say, a high likelihood of death from preventable diseases of many children in low income families. This is how our brain tends to operate.

On the other hand, I also see the focus on death penalty as a form of knee-jerk anti-statistm that permeates the American popular culture. Death penalty seems so objectionable to these folks, because it is a drastic action taken by the state. The level of hysteria subsidies when death is inflicted not by the state but by private individuals.

So while I am generally opposed to death penalty, except in justified cases of mass murders etc., I do not want to have anything to do with opposition to it that seems anti-statist in nature, at least in this country.

-- Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list