<html>
<body>
Hi Kai,<br><br>
Let me be very clear: I, along with hundreds of millions of people around
the world, believe that the death penalty is immoral and that under no
circumstances does a government have the right to kill another human
person. <br><br>
Let me just clarify for consistency something I've said on this list many
times: I do not consider the human fetus a legal and moral person until
25 weeks, and I argued for this position at
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/abortion.htm" eudora="autourl">
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/abortion.htm</a>.<br><br>
Nick Gier<br><br>
At 10:53 AM 12/17/2007, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Nick, You've posted many times
about DNA exonerating people. What if DNA, along with other evidence,
proves them guilty? Would that be enough to allow execution, or is DNA
not conclusive enough for that? ----- Original Message ----- From:
<nickgier@adelphia.net> To: <vision2020@moscow.com> Sent:
Saturday, December 15, 2007 12:34 PM Subject: [Vision2020] New Jersey
Soon to Join the Civilized World > Greetings: > > All that it
now needs is the signature of a pro-abolition governor. I will > cheer
the day when the U.S. can be removed from a list of countries, such >
as Iran, North Korea, and China, who believe that they have the right,
> regardless of the reason, to kill human persons. > > Nick Gier
> > December 15, 2007 > Editorial, The New York Times > A
Long Time Coming > > It took 31 years, but the moral bankruptcy,
social imbalance, legal > impracticality and ultimate futility of the
death penalty has finally > penetrated the consciences of lawmakers in
one of the 37 states that > arrogates to itself the right to execute
human beings. > > This week, the New Jersey Assembly and Senate
passed a law abolishing the > death penalty, and Gov. Jon Corzine, a
staunch opponent of execution, > promised to sign the measure very
soon. That will make New Jersey the > first state to strike the death
penalty from its books since the Supreme > Court set guidelines for
the nation’s system of capital punishment three > decades ago. >
> Some lawmakers voted out of principled opposition to the death
penalty. > Others felt that having the law on the books without
enforcing it (New > Jersey has had a moratorium on executions since
2006) made a mockery of > their argument that it has deterrent value.
Whatever the motivation of > individual legislators, by forsaking a
barbaric practice that grievously > hurts the global reputation of the
United States without advancing public > safety, New Jersey has set a
worthy example for the federal government, > and for other states that
have yet to abandon the creaky, error-prone > machinery of death. >
> New Jersey’s decision to replace the death penalty with a sentence
of life > without parole seems all the wiser coming in the middle of a
month that > has already seen the convictions of two people formerly
on death row in > other states repudiated. In one case, the defendant
was found not guilty > following a new trial. > > The momentum
to repeal capital punishment has been building in New Jersey > since
January, when a 13-member legislative commission recommended its >
abolition. The panel, which included two prosecutors, a police chief,
> members of the clergy and a man whose daughter was murdered in 2000,
cited > serious concerns about the imperfect nature of the justice
system and the > chance of making an irreversible mistake. The
commission also concluded, > quite correctly, that capital punishment
is both a poor deterrent and > “inconsistent with evolving standards
of decency.” > > By clinging to the death penalty, states keep
themselves in the company of > countries like Iran, North Korea and
China a disrreputable pantheon of > human mistreatment. Small wonder
the gyrations of New Jersey’s Legislature > have been watched
intently by human rights activists around the world. > > Spurred in
large part by the large and growing body of DNA-based > exonerations,
there is increasing national unease about the death penalty. > The
Supreme Court is poised to consider whether lethal injections that >
torture prisoners in the process of killing them amount to >
unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment, an exercise bound to put
> fresh focus on some of the ugly details of implementing capital >
punishment. > > In a sense, the practical impact of New Jersey’s
action may be largely > symbolic. Although there are eight people on
New Jersey’s death row, the > moratorium was in place, and the state
has not put anyone to death since > 1963. Nevertheless, it took
political courage for lawmakers to join with > Governor Corzine. Their
renunciation of the death penalty could prick the > conscience of
elected officials in other states and inspire them to muster > the
courage to revisit their own laws on capital punishment. > > At
least that is our fervent hope. > > >
======================================================= > List
services made available by First Step Internet, > serving the
communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>
<a href="http://www.fsr.net/" eudora="autourl">http://www.fsr.net</a>
>
<a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com" eudora="autourl">
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a> >
======================================================= > Kai Eiselein
Editor, Latah Eagle
======================================================= List services
made available by First Step Internet, serving the communities of the
Palouse since
1994.
<a href="http://www.fsr.net/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.fsr.net
</a>
<a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com" eudora="autourl">
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a>
=======================================================</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the
application of it to human affairs."<br>
--Ralph Waldo Emerson<br><br>
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings
who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."<br>
--Mohandas Gandhi<br><br>
"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot
be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each
part by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on
the interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our
intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science,
religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its
various parts." --Ma</font><font size=1>x Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/home.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/home.htm<br>
</a>208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/ift.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/ift.htm<br><br>
</a></body>
</html>