🚀 go-pugleaf

David Buttery wrote:

> Dr. Yacub wrote on 16 Dec 2000:
>
> <snip>
> >> Democrats are prochoice, but disagree with the Death Penalty.
> >
> >Kill the baby...save the murderer.
> <snip>
>
> If there was some evidence that the death penalty worked as a deterrent,
> or that it helped to reduce crime, you might have a stronger argument.
>
> On BBC Radio 5 Live in the UK last night, there was an interview with a
> journalist (sorry, I forget who), who had been speaking to the French
> Justice Minister recently. The Ministers comments went along the lines
> of: "you Americans have been great at helping eradicate torture over the
> years, but the US can hold a man in a tiny cell of over a decade with
> very restricted access to any sort of stimulus or personal contact, and
> then stick a poisoned needle in his arm - and that's not torture!?"
>
> The fact is, although many people in Europe are still pro-death penalty,
> there is no chance of it ever returning (one reason Turkey is having
> trouble with its EU application is that the EU will not allow it in if it
> keeps the death penalty - including in the case of Ocalan). Parliament
> has had free votes on the issue for 30 years - all negative by a large
> margin. And, even though opinion polls show large numbers in favour, I
> doubt that majority would remain if there really was a referendum.
>
> Even some people who are in favour (in the UK) recognise its barbarity.
> In the US, this journalist explained, those who are against it are mainly
> using the same arguments that caused the morotorium in Illinois - that it
> isn't foolproof. Far fewer Americans than Europeans are against it simply
> because of the feeling that it is barbaric in the modern world.

Since America IS the modern world, nothing we do here can be barbaric. By
definition.

I shall now (carefully) remove my tongue from my cheek. However, considering
how little news we get from outside the US, however, I think it would be fair
to say that the view of the rest of the world really is of very little
importance here. Many of the same people how espouse the death penalty are
the people who want the US to get out of the UN and kick the UN out of New
York. They tend to be zealots, and have made it difficult to get elected to
high office if you oppose the death penalty.