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<DIV>Joe,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Couple good questions, here we go.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The logic that the death penalty does not deter violent crime because
America has capital punishment and also has high rates of violent crime, ignores
2 important points. 1) This country has no realistic program for
capital punishment. Offenders languish on death row for more than a
decade in many cases. Were justice rendered more swiftly, we might see a
corresponding decrease in violent crime. 2) Your argument sounds
awfully close to an ad hoc ergo prompter hoc fallacy. Could there not be
other factors at work in this scenario?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Regarding my comparison between lives saved by capital punishment verses
the elimination of an occasional inappropriately applied execution: It is
just inconceivable that the very small number of innocents executed by the
state could possibly come close to the number of future victims of predators
spared execution. It is silly to demand studies in support of the
blatantly obvious.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You misquote me when you say that I regard it as "OK" that an occasional
innocent should be executed. I of course never said that. I regard
it as a tragic but unavoidable consequence of the administering
of justice by fallible human beings.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>With regard to my Mom's money, I spent it pursuing something far more
important than logic: Booze and broads.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Making Mommy proud, --Tony</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>