I've come to the realization that there's an angle to capital punishment that never comes up. For most of Western history incarceration simply did not exist. Punishment was corporal or capital* (heh, literally "body or head"). I suppose exile was a third option, but it was usually commutation of capital punishment. For minor offences such as fighting or petty theft you were beaten or put in the stocks or faced something something similar. For crimes against the lives (or property, if of sufficient value) of people you were executed. Armed robbery or assault with a weapon, for instance, has been a capital offence in most times and places.
Now a common argument against capital punishment is that it is not a deterrent to anybody. Of course its not! We only use it for the most heinous of crimes; in many places 1st degree murder is far more likely to yield a life sentence unless your particular case was especially vile. But here's the thing, outside crimes of passion, most murderers have a long list of priors, many of which would have had you in a noose prior to the 19th century. If armed robbery was a capitol offence, a whole lot of folks wouldn't live long enough to commit homicide.
What if the proper use of capital punishment actually requires us to apply it more broadly? "What about accidentally convicting innocent people?" you ask. Well, there is a reason Blackstone's ratio is 1) a ratio and 2) set at one in ten rather than one in a million.
What if the proper use of capital punishment actually requires us to apply it more broadly?
It does. Case in point: my state has a law on the books that allows you to charge horse thieves with one felony count per horse stolen and to apply for capital punishment over a certain threshold. My local sheriff got pissed off at dumbass dindus stealing cars, and directed his officers to charge car thieves under the statute.
Jayquan's eyes boggled when he was suddenly facing several hundred first-degree felonies for boosting a muscle car. A decade on, and there's almost zero car theft here.
I've come to the realization that there's an angle to capital punishment that never comes up. For most of Western history incarceration simply did not exist. Punishment was corporal or capital* (heh, literally "body or head"). I suppose exile was a third option, but it was usually commutation of capital punishment. For minor offences such as fighting or petty theft you were beaten or put in the stocks or faced something something similar. For crimes against the lives (or property, if of sufficient value) of people you were executed. Armed robbery or assault with a weapon, for instance, has been a capital offence in most times and places.
Now a common argument against capital punishment is that it is not a deterrent to anybody. Of course its not! We only use it for the most heinous of crimes; in many places 1st degree murder is far more likely to yield a life sentence unless your particular case was especially vile. But here's the thing, outside crimes of passion, most murderers have a long list of priors, many of which would have had you in a noose prior to the 19th century. If armed robbery was a capitol offence, a whole lot of folks wouldn't live long enough to commit homicide.
What if the proper use of capital punishment actually requires us to apply it more broadly? "What about accidentally convicting innocent people?" you ask. Well, there is a reason Blackstone's ratio is 1) a ratio and 2) set at one in ten rather than one in a million.
It does. Case in point: my state has a law on the books that allows you to charge horse thieves with one felony count per horse stolen and to apply for capital punishment over a certain threshold. My local sheriff got pissed off at dumbass dindus stealing cars, and directed his officers to charge car thieves under the statute.
Jayquan's eyes boggled when he was suddenly facing several hundred first-degree felonies for boosting a muscle car. A decade on, and there's almost zero car theft here.
Did they get that by saying "one horsepower = the equivalent of one horse?" Either way, that sounds amazing.
Yes.