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RE: THE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT CONTROVERSY - PART 1: THE EFFECT OF DETERRENCE
Good point. Like the commerce clause the "cruel and unusual" thing has been beat to death. Punishment SHOULD be uncomfortable. Right now prison life is better than being homeless....or poor, elderly and out of work.
The thing about the death penalty is NOT deterrence . It more like "people who would do what you did don't deserve to exist, so therefore we're eliminating you. "
If there's any deterrence effect that's just a bonus.
If we accept the fact that punishment is the best method to potentially prevent someone from breaking the law again, then you are right, it should be uncomfortable - otherwise the brain won't perceive it as a 'punishment'.
That's a moral statement. Moral values vary enormously from individual to individual. You may believe that people who kill deserve to be 'eliminated'. But someone else might believe that people who steal deserve the same. So where do we find a common ground? I will talk about the morality of capital punishment on my next article.