I have been promoting the notion that Julius Jones deserves the correct punishment for murdering a man in front of his family. I recently came across Connie Johnson who is trying to make a run for Governor of Oklahoma. She states that some article represents her position on Captial punishment. So, we will look at this article:
Let’s look at the article:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/righteous-indignation-over-the-death-penalty/
I have tried to make soft appeals and to be respectful. I have tried to remain logical and “neutral,” bereft of emotion.
Neutrality is a myth. In politics, people need to inform themselves with basic principles like this or they will continue to make obvious errors:
http://spirited-tech.com/2018/02/13/the-myth-of-neutrality/
He continues on:
And so, here we are in the year 2021 in the United States of America and we still have the death penalty on the books. 70% of countries in the world have seen the light and realized this is barbarism and insanity exemplified. We still have not, and continue to live in the moral dark ages. We fail to realize that the death penalty says infinitely more about the society that allows it than the human beings condemned by it. Indeed, its very existence condemns us ALL.
It doesn’t matter what most countries do. In fact, if it were the other way around and most countries had the death penalty it wouldn’t change the moral status of such a thing. Furthermore, nations 2,000 years ago would commonly rape, murder, genocide, etc on a whim. That doesn’t entail such activities were morally good deeds.
And yet, ethics, morality and logic are not strong enough arguments for you when it comes to abolition of the death penalty. When we cite countless studies about how the deterrence factor is a fallacy, it falls on your seemingly deaf ears. Constant reminders of the racist nature of the application of the death penalty appear not to move you. All too many of you are blinded by your gross and lethal misunderstanding of the Biblical idea of “eye for an eye.” (Exodus 21: 24) You have not done your homework and fail to realize that rabbinic law effectively legislated capital punishment out of existence – they made it impossible to carry out. You ignore the fact that much of the Jewish world stands against the death penalty (see also “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty” on Facebook) and that it is anathema in many Christian traditions, including Catholicism and growing numbers of Protestant denominations (see Red Letter Christians and as well as this article).
Firstly, the fact that certain racial disparities exist in those that receive the Death penalty is irrelevant to the moral status of capital punishment. It may very well be that it is a good thing that is misused. Furthermore, it may also be that certain racial groups commit crimes that warrant the death penalty more frequently. Thus also explaining racial disparities without invoking the myth of systemic racism. Secondly, I don’t care to comment on whether it is or isn’t a deterrent (I maintain that it is) but suppose for a moment that a reason it may not seem so threatening is that state officials make laws to make it extremely difficult to actually get one. Why be afraid of a penalty that certain politicians make so difficult to actually receive? Furthermore, if someone doesn’t care if they get executed, then why suppose that they wouldn’t just die in a shootout with police? How do you govern people not afraid to kill you and for them to die? You can’t. Thus it seems pointless to let them live if they hardly care about the results. Lastly, they may be conflating secular Jews with religious Jews. But even if they aren’t, that doesn’t mean they accurately represent the teachings of their religion. I am a Christian and find it not even debatable that conservative (actual) Christians must affirm the death penalty. The bible teaches this without ambiguity:
http://spirited-tech.com/2020/07/05/whoever-sheds-mans-blood/
You are at best ignorant of the fact that many victims’ families do not want state-sponsored murders to take place in their loved one’s names. This was true in the case of Quin Jones, the last to be murdered via execution in this country as of this writing on May 19th, 2021, and countless others. Or perhaps you simply do not care about the fact that state-sponsored murder retraumatizes these families?
Are families also in favor of sending their family members to beatings and rape facilities? I don’t remember prison having good reviews. Furthermore, does he take victim’s families into account? What feelings determine which course of action is correct?
You refuse to acknowledge the historical fact that the most common form of execution in our country – lethal injection – is a direct legacy of the Nazis.
This is pathetic groveling by a person pretending to be a man. The difference between Nazi usage of capital punishment and the United States is that nobody is executed because they are considered genetically inferior, it is because they have committed a violent crime and revoked the right to live. This thinking would undermine self-defense and just war theory. If the circumstances don’t make these things morally different because they can have the same result, then it seems to follow these deeds. We usually try to states that the difference is that the intentions and reason are sufficient to distinguish such. In Zoosman’s world, these things are morally identical. Is Zoosman a pacifist to that extent? I don’t have much more thoughts on the article.
The Council 