Capital Punishment is NOT Barbaric

Tom Sheppard

3/19/2019

On LinkedIn, Sir Richard Branson, yes the founder of Virgin Airlines, posted his opinion that capital punishment is barbaric and should be done away with.

I disagree.  Unfortunately, the sound-bite nature of LinkedIn wouldn't admit my full response.  So, here it is.

On this point we will have to agree to disagree.  The opposition to the death penalty is typically based on a few key points.  1) the belief that everyone can be reformed.  2) the belief that all killing is wrong.  3) the belief that life-time incarceration is the ultimate punishment. 4) the notion that capital punishment is based on revenge.

The problem with these premises is that they are based on false assumptions.  1) Some people will not change, regardless of incentives.  MEP Seligman in his book Learned Optimism noted that 10% will never take the optimistic choice.  10% will always take the optimistic choice and 80% can be influenced either way.  My experience suggests that this Pareto distribution is applicable to most human behaviors.   

2)  Killing an aggressor to protect the helpless is the basis of all self-defense and the premise of the Laws of Land Warfare (Geneva Convention) which speak to a justifiable war.

3) Lifetime incarceration is always subject to being less than life time.  Judges rule that prisons are overcrowded and BANG - you have criminals of all sorts released because their civil rights are somehow being infringed by being forced to stay in a bad place.

4) Capital punishment is not done to give the family of a victim closure or peace.  Capital punishment is carried out to make society safe from the  further depredations of someone who has shown a willful disregard for the right to life of other people.

Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). 

The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

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