A jury has sentenced Robert Bowers for the 2018 attack - the deadliest antisemitic attack in the US.
    • zooi ( zooi@feddit.nl ) 
      22·
      3 years ago

      If you think people who oppose the death penalty only do so because “criminals can’t possibly be evil enough” then you’re a bit naïve

    • mrbubblesort ( mrbubblesort@kbin.social ) 
      17·
      3 years ago

      My opinion of the accused has absolutely nothing to do with my objection to the death penalty. Actually, the fact that you brought it up is rather telling, in that what you’re advocating for simply boils down to revenge, which has no place whatsoever in the criminal justice system.

    • mitch ( msprout@beehaw.org ) 
      6·
      3 years ago

      The death penalty is not widely supported among Jewish communities — doubly so for the reform population in my old neighborhood in Pittsburgh. I agree with you that this feels right, but I can’t help but feel like this is justice delivered for people other than the affected. I miss Squirrel Hill every day, and I am not sure that the wound that this asshole created will ever heal. I think about the lost every day.

    • Addfwyn ( Addfwyn@lemmy.ml ) 
      6·
      3 years ago

      I have two major oppositions to capital punishment, and neither are rooted in the possibility of rehabilitation or not.

      1. The state is not infallible. If you put someone into prison for ten years and find out you messed up, you can at least release them. You can’t give them those years back, but you can try to do right by them as much as you are able. You execute the wrong person? You’re just a murderer.

      2. Personally, life in prison (and not a cushy wall street exec prison) seems like a way worse punishment. Even if I was only concerned with providing somebody the worst possible punishment, lifetime imprisonment would be worse.

      Mostly though for me, it is number 1.

    • heluecht ( heluecht@pirati.ca ) 
      4·
      3 years ago

      @BaroqueInMind @BrikoX I’m against the death penalty, because I don’t think that the state should have the right to end a person’s life.

      Even in countries with a more liberal legal system (like Germany, where I live), there is the possibility that the judge decides that a person is a danger to the community even after the end of their penalty. It is called “life imprisonment followed by preventive detention”.

    • steltek ( steltek@lemm.ee ) 
      2·
      3 years ago

      The death penalty does not bring peace to victims or their families. You reopen old wounds every time the media talks about a new appeal or delay. With life in prison, they stay silent and forgotten.

      This gets lost among all the other arguments: wrong conviction, costs, etc.

    • OurToothbrush ( OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml ) 
      2·
      3 years ago

      I’m generally pro killing nazis when practical concerns prevent their rehabilitation like in this situation but given the environment I worry this will just give the nazis another martyr to rally around.