by Wolf Bird » Sat May 16, '15, 2:37 pm
In Boston, and Massachusetts at large (where this all happened), people are generally against the death penalty. The state banned it a while ago. To get on the jury, you could not object to the death penalty, which struck me as odd from the start. This seemed far more about revenge than justice. This seems to just make him a martyr and I'm not sure this is justice.
Bad childhood defense...well, even if some people have bad childhood experiences and come out fine, not everyone does. No two people have the same experience nor reaction to that experience. A bad childhood will influence who you are as you age. I can get being tired of it, but if it's a factor, it should be considered. More and more I find trying to fit every individual into the same ideal of what a person 'should' be to be a bad idea, as it causes people to judge rather than listen and understand.
One way or the other, it seems society is trending towards (and science is increasingly showing) that retributive justice isn't too effective at preventing crime and violence. Science now shows that the human brain isn't fully developed until the mid-20s, but we still base our justice system on the age of 18 being the cut-off for adulthood, which is an outdated idea. And I think in this case, that outdated idea is contributing to us to making a poor and unfair decision.
Granted, I think our justice system is in need of serious reform, but that's a whole different discussion.
Disclosure: I'm personally against capital punishment.
Last edited by
Wolf Bird on Sat May 16, '15, 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Next Pokemon game(s): Pearl
Last finished Pokémon game: Shield
Other games: Skyrim Special Edition (Switch), Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Switch & PS4), Okami (Switch & PS4)
Other gaming goals: completing a Living Pokedex (minus some event Pokes) and going through at least 1 game per generation