Death Inc.
G’day my Kittens.
As regular readers of the all mighty and powerful Keep Your Coins, I Want Change blog you will no doubt know that we have been tangling with some fairly heavy subjects lately. Our look at Russian ice skating bears that go on killing sprees and try to eat their captors and slave masters who are then shot dead for their example comes to mind. It raised many interesting questions. Should an animal who was raised in captivity and then forced to perform circus tricks for a blood thirsty audience who enjoy watching a bear ice skate around a little bit for their amusement be condemned to death after it has quite enough and lashes out at it’s captors?
I suppose the only one of us who has the answer to that question is the bear, and he’s dead so we will never know. Well, that and if he was alive we don’t speak bear. Or Russian. Or Russian bear. Either way, you get the point. Ahem.
So Kittens as your fearless and intrepid scribe I thought that perhaps today we should lighten up a bit and just enjoy some nice old fashioned chuckles. You know, to relax and just be entertained for entertainment sake. With that in mind today’s lesson shall be about something lovely and non threatening…..death. Actually more to the point, the death penalty.
Before we begin Kittens I must confess that I am not in favour or against the death penalty. It is one of the few major issues in the world I don’t and probably won’t have a side to team up with possibly because I am not currently on death row, a religious person, a politician or even Texan.
If some countries or states want to kill some people who have been convicted beyond the shadow of a doubt through vigilant police work, indisputable forensic evidence and absolute undeniable all encompassing proof, then let them have at it. As long as there is no doubt, scientifically through DNA or otherwise and all evidence has been presented then kill ‘em all and let their god sort them out. Or not. Who really cares anyways?
My country doesn’t have the death penalty and it doesn’t seem to effect us much. We’re a bit too passive to run around killing convicted criminals anyways so I doubt it will ever see the light of day, even if the public wanted it, it isn’t a very Canadian thing to do. We keep the peace, we don’t kill for biblical revenge.
Since we don’t feel the need to exact some manner of ancient fairy tale wrath of the great bearded old invisible man sitting on a cloud divine justice on our criminals I have to say as a citizen who doesn’t really care either way if we did or not, I have to believe that the death penalty is a bit soft.
The idea of having your life taken away from you and spending the rest of your days trapped in an iron box alone with only a bed, toilet, sink and once a week they bring you a colouring book and no crayons to contemplate your crimes for years and years until you die sounds far worse than the sate cutting your sentence short by killing you off. Spending a few years on death row as a prison celebrity, and then getting a bunch of people to come to your final moments on earth as witnesses and protesters on both sides of the argument sounds like a favour and ot a punishment. People who live 50 years in jail and die there from natural causes don’t get a big send off or any hoopla. Even their last meal is purely coincidental and never a requested fancy one either. A death row inmate can order lobster and San Pelligrino if he wants. A man who just dies in prison gets macaroni and cheese and Kool Aid. If you don’t believe me Kittens, here is a brief list from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice of a few of their recent executees final meals.
Hayes Larry 999358 09/10/2003 Two bacon double cheeseburgers, French fries, onion rings, ketchup, cole slaw, two diet Cokes, one quart of milk, one pint of rocky road ice cream, one pint of fried okra, salad dressing, tomato, and onion
Janecka Allen 684 07/24/2003 Chicken fried steak, gravy, French fries, ketchup, salad, blue cheese dressing, iced tea with lemon, two sodas, rolls, and butter
Black, Sr. Christopher 999277 07/09/2003 One steak (medium well), fried chicken (wings and thighs), French fries, mushroom gravy, mixed steamed vegetables, chocolate fudge cake, peach cobbler, sweet tea, bread, and chef salad with Italian dressing
Crawford Hilton 999200 07/02/02003 Twelve beef ribs, three enchiladas, chicken fried steak with cream gravy, crisp bacon sandwich, ketchup, a loaf of bread, cobbler, three Cokes, three root beer, French fries, and onion rings
Johnson Kia 999319 06/11/2003 Four fried chicken breasts, onion rings, fried shrimp, French fries, fried catfish, double-meat cheeseburger with grilled onions, strawberry fruit juice, and pecan pie
Jacobs Bruce 876 05/15/2003 Whole fried chicken, twelve buttered bread slices, fried onion rings and okra, six RC colas, one large bag of Fritos corn chips, two tomatoes, salt, and pepper
Cook Bobby 999094 03/11/2003 Double meat cheeseburger (with jalapenos and trimmings on the side), vanilla malt, French fries, onion rings, ketchup, hot picante sauce, vanilla ice cream, two Cokes, two Dr. Peppers, and a chicken fried steak sandwich with cheese pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, and salad dressing
Collier James 999190 12/11/2002 Thirty jumbo shrimp, cocktail sauce, baked potato, French fries, ketchup, butter, one t-bone steak, one chocolate malt, one gallon of vanilla ice cream, and three cans of Big Red
Not a bad way to go out don’t you think my Kittens? If you are going to have a last meal any of those looks fairly decent and far better than Spam with gravy. Not to mention the fact that you are spared that while annoying lifetime in a cell slowly going bat shit insane and your only friend is your favorite toe. That is assuming you haven’t chewed it off yet because it was giving your least favorite toe “the eye”
Chances are Kittens all of this doesn’t seem too terribly bad because if you have somehow found yourself on death row and are going to be killed by your state then chances are you have done something magnificently naughty and you probably deserve a really big spanking. A spanking so glorious in fact that it doesn’t just exist to teach you a lesson, but to teach other people a lesson as well. You know, the people who haven’t actually done anything yet, but just might so the state wants them to know they if they do something really quite bad then they will receive the same treatment of they are busted and convicted. It’s called deterrent and many people claim it works, but does it?
Okay so maybe not. But since graphs don’t exactly tell the whole story then why aren’t people who live in places with the death penalty as deterred as they should be. Sure the meal sounds nice, and so does all of the fame that you would receive as a prison celebrity. Not to mention you would probably get the juiciest newbies to pass the time away with all of that glamorous prison sex. It’s that icky “death” bit that harshes the death row mellow that for many wouldn’t seem like such a bad option.
Since most of the convicts on death row haven’t exactly shown a great respect for human life, which is usually why they are killers the notion of a death of their own isn’t a big deal. If you take a gang banger who pretty much expected to end up dead on the streets anyway and threaten him with death to deter him from killing people then chances are you better get your over mits and apron ready because you will be cooking him a last meal eventually.
Today in Virgina a man named John Allen Muhammad is going to go a meet his namesake at the ands of the state. Perhaps you remember him. In 2002 he converted his car into a killing machine and thought it would be fun to shoot 10 people;
Washington sniper’s killings were a smokescreen for murder of ex-wife
THE witness room on death row at the Greensville correctional centre in Virginia will be crowded for John Allen Muhammad’s execution on Tuesday, writes Tony Allen-Mills. But his former wife Mildred will not attend the final act in the life of the Washington sniper.
Muhammad, who randomly murdered 10 people in 2002 during a 23-day shooting spree, is scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Muhammad, an African-American convert to Islam who toured the US capital in a battered Chevrolet with a teenage sidekick, Lee Boyd Malvo, claims he intended to demand a $10m ransom to stop the shootings. But his ex-wife has written a book in which she puts forward a different motive.
When the couple’s marriage broke down she won custody of their three children and, in her book, she says her ex-husband warned her: “You have become my enemy, and as my enemy I will kill you.”
Mildred Muhammad’s belief that the sniper killings were a smokescreen that would have led to her front door is supported by Dr Park Dietz, a psychiatrist who examined Muhammad. “The other shootings were designed to provide him cover so that he wouldn’t be suspected when she became a victim,” he said.
There you have it Kittens. Clearly John Allen Muhammad acted like a total asshole, randomly killed several people and today he get’s a hot sleep injection.
So is justice going to be served?
Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows? Do you? What will it be served with as a last meal anyways?
The thing is Kittens, people fight about this issue endlessly. Each side says they know better than the other side because they have an opinion. The truth is and this is why I have no opinion on either side is because justice is nebulous. My justice may be different from your justice and different from somebody elses justice. The best we can manage is that the will of the people is excersicised and if the majority are in favour or not in favour of the death penalty, then the will of the people is carried out.
Some people who still believe in these things are always going to want some pound for flesh on flesh action. Many victims want to get their eye for an eye and in many ways who can blame them. They have suffered things that hopefully we will never have to live through and it is easy to understand anyone who wants to taste the blood of somebody who has committed the ultimate crime.
The thing is though Kittens, they never really get it.
Their victims are never given years of time to wait out their demise with the benefit of many appeals for their lives, religious or spiritual consultation, education and a team of supporters including family and activists. The victims never have the benefit of a handful of do-overs. People on death row have all of those things as well as something else their victims never have, a humane ending.
There are also the people who believe the notion of killing a killer is hypocritical and not the place of elected officials to judge and that they should be kept in prison for the rest of their lives until they are dead.
This presumes that there is sanctity in life which is a belief not shared by the person who did the killing so why should the same equally nebulous dogma rooted in ancient religious nonsense be extended to them?
It also presumes that a murderer deserves things like books, television, exercises, stimulation from human interaction and senses of accomplishment. The convicted criminal sure didn’t feel that his victims deserved any of these things so do they deserve a free pass, three meals a day and a prison bitch to dress up and name Peaches?
The one interesting thing about the death penalty and justice in general is to whom it is dispensed to and how.
It is generally believed that a murderer or drug dealer should either be killed or locked up for life in a maximum security prison for life until it either ends on its own, or by the state.
Since the main goal of the death penalty is to act as a deterant and doesn’t actually do anything to deter violent crime against the people commiting it, then shouldn’t it be extended to the co-conspirators in those crimes as well? The people who didn’t actually pull a trigger but at the very least coluded in it and at the most facilitited it?
By these people Kittens I mean shouldn’t the death penalty be extended to the bankers and money launderes who have just as much blood on their hands as their gangland partners?
Bernard Madoff just robbed a bank. Big deal. The thing is though Kittens, he didn’t just rob a bank, he robbed his bank for several years for billions of dollars and fucked thousands of people while doing it. He also spend millions on drugs, whores and other vices that are associated with violent crime. For all of the drugs that he bought over the years you can be sure a few bullets found their mark getting it to him.
Is justice being served by letting him sit in Club Fed eating quiche for lunch and discussing modern art and the good old days over a bottle of smuggled cognac from a bent guard?
If some states want to deal out death, or not shouldn’t the same rules at least apply across the board to felons of every economic background, and based on the vastness of their crime?
Since justice is nebulous, and my justice may not be your justice we will never really grasp whether or not we should kill murderers or not.
My justice thinks that giving a person the death sentence for an atrocity is a bit too kind. A few years in jail, a gaggle of prison man-whores, several appeals, books, television a nice last meal and the opportunity to turn to religion for the promise of life ever after when they finally snuff him out humanely just doesn’t sound all that bad
Spending the rest of your life in a grey concrete box with no books, no Wheel of Fortune, to cell mate to bugger, no basketball, a walk in the yard alone once a week and no more contact with humanity ever again until you finally die alone, forgotten and insane sounds like an over achievers true damnation. I am not saying it is justice, or a better justice, but certainly more severe.
I don’t know which would be worse but if anything is going to keep me from going on a killing spree it is the fact that I really don’t want to spend my life in that cell.
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