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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ted Moffett wrote: <FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>"The death penalty in any nation is a tool that
can be used to impose tyranny, even if it exists within a system that at this
moment appears to respect justice, fairness and the rights of the
individual."</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Ted, why
can't liberals apply this same logic to the most innocent, the
unborn?</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Dick
</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=starbliss@gmail.com href="mailto:starbliss@gmail.com">Ted Moffett</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=ToeKneeTime@aol.com
href="mailto:ToeKneeTime@aol.com">ToeKneeTime@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, May 04, 2006 12:30
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] Re: Only the
short sighted think Death Penalty MustBe Aboli...</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Tony et. al.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Anyone who has committed a crime deserving of the death penalty can be
given life in prison without parole instead. So then there is no
recidivism, unless it occurs in prison, the prisoner escapes, or somehow the
laws change to allow the prisoner out. And please don't carp about the
costs of life imprisonment... if dollars and cents quantified justice we'd let
MBAs from Harvard determine who gets a quality trial and who does not, based
on how much media time could be sold for the trial coverage. And death
penalty cases are very costly with the appeals process, etc. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>With life imprisonment without parole, if a mistake was made
there is time to correct the injustice. With the death penalty enforced
if someone is later found innocent...</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Justice is not cheap. If you want cheap justice, move to
China. You might find that your Christian beliefs (aggressive
public opposition to forced abortions) and lifestyle draw the attention of the
Chinese Communist Party, who can have you executed in short order (trumped up
charges?), with minimal rights to a fair trial or access to an appeal, etc.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The death penalty is a prime symptom of a dictatorship...Or is it one of
the prime tools of a dictatorship? Both?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The death penalty in any nation is a tool that can be used to impose
tyranny, even if it exists within a system that at this moment appears to
respect justice, fairness and the rights of the individual. This
potential for abuse alone justifies banning the death penalty. I don't
trust the state to determine who gets to live or die based on a flawed legal
system, nor do I trust that in the future the state may not have the machinery
of the death penalty high jacked for the sake of
military/economic/political/ideological "special interests." </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Support for the death penalty is symptomatic of those
who, despite any appearances as critics of government
regulation, are authoritarians at heart, who think the government should have
the ultimate say in the life and death of human beings. Talk about an
egregious overextension of government power...!!!! I can't imagine any
power more egregious. Well, OK, Winston (1984) was crushed as a human
being by the state to make a statement that the state has the power to destroy
(as in destroy the spirit, beliefs and love a human being followed) a human
being who opposes said state, while they are alive, the point being this
is worse than having the state simply execute its opponents, because it is a
destruction of the very freedom seeking individualistic humanity in the soul
of a human being that constitutes the essence of the opposition of the
individual to the power of the state... </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You might want to consider the decision by former Illinois Republican
Governor Ryan regarding the death penalty in Illinois, and also the work of
the Innocence Project:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june01/penalty_5-10.html">http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june01/penalty_5-10.html</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.innocenceproject.org/">http://www.innocenceproject.org/</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ted Moffett</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 5/3/06, <B class=gmail_sendername><A
href="mailto:ToeKneeTime@aol.com">ToeKneeTime@aol.com</A></B> <<A
href="mailto:ToeKneeTime@aol.com">ToeKneeTime@aol.com</A>> wrote:</SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<DIV style="DIRECTION: ltr"><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>ACS,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>No, no, you misunderstand. I did not say that executing the
innocent was justified as a deterrent. I was simply pointing out that
any system administered by fallible humans is going to result in some
percentage of errors. I don't believe that we should respond to this
unavoidable consequence by dumping the entire program. Your
inclination to do exactly that is understandable but potentially VERY
costly. I believe that the end result would be a far GREATER loss of
life do to recidivism. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Hope this sheds more light on my position.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Best,
--Tony</DIV></FONT></DIV><BR>_____________________________________________________<BR> List
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