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EU Official Calls for End to Death Penalty
 European Parliament president Josep Borrell called on the 76 countries still allowing the death penalty to respect the right to life and end the practice of capital punishment.
| Has he called on the murderers and torturers to respect the right to life and put an end to killing their fellow human beings?... I thought not. |
Borrell said the United States is the only democratic state that makes "widespread use" of the death penalty and the EU has a duty to convince the Americans to abolish it.
| Maybe we could have an actual discussion on the subject. It'd be our duty to convince the Euros to reinstate it on principles of simple justice and of public safety. |
"Most unfortunately, in the U.S. the 1000th execution was carried out. The fact that it almost coincided with Human Rights Day makes this fact particularly poignant," Borrell told the EU assembly. "Luckily the death penalty is disappearing throughout the world, but the number of executions carried out is still excessively high."
The death penalty as practiced today is as humane as we can make it, virtually the same as putting down your dog. If your dog is vicious and kills people with its big doggy fangs, you agonize over it, but you put the creature down, because public safety is more important than keeping Fideau, on the off chance he won't chew your face off like he did that lady in La Belle France. By the same token, when Jean-Pierre or Fritz or Clive or Wladimir goes off the deep end and is a danger to the rest of society, he should also be removed from the gene pool. He doesn't have to be drawn and quartered, or even dragged to the block in a tumbrel while the populace pelts him with fruit â though I notice the death penalty was a lot more popular back in the days when such things happened.
No amount of incarceration short of life is equivalent to what the victims of murder lost, and while krazed killers are serving their "life" sentences the victims â remember them? â tend to be forgotten by all but their close relatives. "Life" tends to be commuted, especially as the perp ages and becomes not a young tough guy but an old man, bent from his regrets over his wasted life. So he's sprung at some point short of "life," rather than being wheeled directly from his cell to the boneyard. Yet the victims never get the privilege of becoming little old man or ladies because they're still doorknob dead.
And of course putting the bad guyz down does cut the recidivism rate to zero. |
In 2004, according to the human rights group Amnesty International, executions were carried out in 25 nations. In that year, 97 percent of all executions were performed in just four countries: China, Iran, Vietnam and the U.S. "But there is a glimmer of hope. U.S. society is changing its views on the death penalty," Borrell said.
| Actually, I'd say U.S. society's views on the subject are swinging back toward the death penalty. I'm thinking Borrell spends too much time talking only to people who think like he does. |
Capital punishment is not allowed in Europe, where no execution has been carried out since 1997. Various European institutions have pledged to fight for a "death-penalty-free" zone outside the continent. "For us in Europe, the right to life is an inalienable right. No one ever loses their right to life, no matter what they have done." Borrell said.
| Except for victims, of course. But they don't count. They're dead, y'know. |
Posted by: Fred 2005-12-13 |
