virus: capital punishment (was FAQ)

David McFadzean (dbm@merak.com)
Wed, 08 Nov 1995 10:41:33 -0700


At 01:28 PM 11/7/95 MST, Joel Bradford Klammer wrote:

>The value of a human life doesn't have to be infinite, it need
>only exceed the social benefits of capital punishment. Thus, the

I agree (but that's not what you were saying before).

>proponents of the death penalty must demonstrate *unequivocally*
>that its benefits outweigh the near-certain cost of committing an
>occasional atrocity.

What do you mean by *unequivocally*? What if it turns out that the state
causes more innocent people to die by releasing known murderers than
by executing them accidently? (I'm not a proponent of capital punishment,
I'm just playing devil's advocate to bring the relevant issues to light.)

--
David McFadzean                 dbm@merak.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.merak.com/~dbm/
Merak Projects Ltd.