tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5945843206427351559.post532210013751311935..comments2024-01-25T14:51:13.377-05:00Comments on Gamso - For the Defense: Who Are Those Guys?Jeff Gamsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09869425697771419546noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5945843206427351559.post-41481954709077766272011-03-14T00:01:47.617-04:002011-03-14T00:01:47.617-04:00Didn't mean to be ungracious.
And I appreci...Didn't mean to be ungracious. <br /><br />And I appreciate your struggling with the issue.<br /><br />I suppose there are probably some cases where the confrontation with death generates an appreciation for life. (A variation on Dr. Johnson's observation that the knowledge one is to be hanged in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully.) But that isn't really what I was getting at. <br /><br />My point was that for some people, being sentenced to death leads to them getting emotional and moral support that they before received in their lives. That can lead to some positive change in their lives, although if they're executed, that might be short lived.<br /><br />For others, of course, extensive time in prison becomes a time of reflection and understanding (and sometimes sobering up). There are many many instances of prisoners (not necessarily, or even mostly, capital prisoners) getting educated behind bars and turning their lives around. You might take a like at Wilber Rideau's "In the Place of Justice."<br /><br />Prison is no hotbed of humaneness. And a sentence of death in prison is for some far more horrifying than a quicker death at the hands of the state.<br /><br />I don't advocate it in the abstract. But the criminally accused and convicted, those on death row and otherwise in prison, they aren't abstractions.<br /><br />In any case, death in prison is different from death at the hands of the state as a sentence. And that difference matters in a variety of ways.Jeff Gamsohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09869425697771419546noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5945843206427351559.post-47944189486834433002011-03-13T11:05:33.120-04:002011-03-13T11:05:33.120-04:00The choices seem to be that the death penalty, by ...The choices seem to be that the death penalty, by confronting the condemned with the imminence of death, may thereby occasion some inner appreciation for meaning and life, which I guess is ironic. The other choice - life in prison - entails a natural lifespan of languishing, waiting for the end to come on its own, never bringing anything to a head.<br /><br />Which of these is the better of a terrible situation? <br /><br />I'm not sure either choice can claim the "humane" label for itself alone. I'm leaning in the abolitionist direction, not that I think you should care. I'm not really sure why. Something to do with a categorical repudiation of killing except in imminent life saving situations.<br /><br />You know, in that comment I was just trying to make it clear that I wasn't being argumentative. I don't know when I've given the impression of being an "arrogant jerk", which you are kind of implying I am. In any case, it's not a gracious response to a request for an honest opinion on a subject I am genuinely struggling with.John Reganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14174895768769300686noreply@blogger.com