By Nathan Barton

Death Penalty?

Tranzis, liberals, and even a few libertarians constantly harp on how barbaric the Fifty States are as we still have the death penalty, and still allow people to defend themselves with lethal force – that is, sometimes a felon is killed by his (or her) intended victim in the act of committing the felony. It is often claimed that the US is the most evil society on the planet because we execute so many people for crimes. Really?

Of course, those who really love liberty understand that this is NOT a viable position.  First, of course, taking a life in defense of yourself or others, is NOT an immoral act but rather a very moral one.  If you refuse to defend yourself or others (especially family and friends) from evil men or women attacking them to kill, maim, injury, steal and rape, then YOU are almost as immoral and evil a person as the one doing the attacking.

Second, government constantly demonstrates its incompetence and its complete inability to determine the truth of things, because of its own self-interests (that is, the self-interests of the politicians and bureaucrats, including the police forces, that control government).  Government cannot be trusted to try, convict, and execute criminals in such a manner that it deters and prevents further crimes.  There are many reasons for this, but mostly it is because government is incapable of functioning in any way that does not relate directly to its maintaining its own power over its “citizens” or “subjects.” That means that sometimes government refuses to take action against those who aggress against others, especially when those agressors are part of government (police, other bureaucrats, or politicians), while in other cases innocent people are railroaded and condemned.

The Fifty States and the FedGov are NOT alone in this, of course.  And the Fifty States are FAR from the worst across the world.  (Yes, even Texas.) Here is some data.

According to the State Department’s most recent country reports on religious freedom, at least six predominantly Muslim countries consider apostasy from Islam a crime punishable by death. Executions:  US 2013: 39 Iran 2013: 665 (373 acknowledged) of which 27 were for religious crimes. Since Iran had only 77 million people in 2013 (as compared to about 300 million in the Fifty States), this is an incredible rate of execution.  And Iran is not the only one. A 2013 execution chart from AmnestyUSA.org shows a lot more. (Although their data is flawed. The same chart that shows that Bangladesh (another Muslim nation) only had 2 executions has an article talking about 152 death sentences handed down in a single trial, has North Korea listed as having just “1” execution, and other major discrepancies.  I think that may be so that the US can be listed in the top 5 for executions.)

China executes thousands each year, while several Muslim states execute hundreds.  The Chinese executions are for a wide variety of crimes, including treason against the state, but also including theft and fraud, murder, and (ironically) having too many children.  Muslim states execute people not only for religious crimes but for others as well: murder, theft, and treason being some of the reasons.  Oddly enough, slavery and rape do NOT result in many executions that I can find.  But this lists officially-sanctioned executions only.

In reality, we see executions withOUT trials (at least not LEGITIMATE trials) in many places. In Muslim countries, imams and other religious leaders frequently approve and carry out executions, particularly of women, for reasons of “honor” (such as claims of adultery, failure to obey, or other similar “moral” crimes) under Islam or the local customs.  In India, in many castes, there are the equivalent of honor killings, again, particularly of women, approved by villages or family councils.  In many of the Fifty States, there are killings without justification by cops who judge and convict people in some bizarre mental trial, and ignore both law and morality, either because they are on a power trip or because they are so fearful that they cannot think straight.

The problem in virtually ALL these situations is that people are not able to defend themselves and their families – even AGAINST their families – in any reasonable way.  The organizations and institutions which are theoretically (in modern Liberal and Tranzi theory) intended to protect the innocent and weak against aggression are instead the very instruments of aggression OR tolerate (ignore) the aggression against the poor and weak and innocent because they gain more power by doing so.  Justice is perverted and the weak suffer.

An example of this is a federal judge right here in the Fifty States who has publicly stated that certain people should be given “rape licenses” to allow them to go out and rape someone, when the “benefit” to the rapist is shown to “outweigh” the pain to the victim.  Sick and perverted.  (Is it a surprise this court is in Chicago?)

Does this mean that the death penalty should be done away with?  Hardly, although the process is corrupt and must be replaced.  Death sentences and executions should be rare, in most cases because the intended victim has and uses the ability to defend themselves and kills their attacker.  Especially in the case of would-be rapists. But in many cases, particularly of rape, murder, and maiming,  and in the case of public officials and tyrants (assuming there is now any real difference) the death penalty is very much needed, to prevent that person from carrying out their evil acts again, and, yes, to serve as a warning.  The challenge for us is to come up with a system that does try and sentence AND execute such sentence in a timely and fair manner, and which ensures that those who are not guilty are not wrongly punished. That is not possible in the Fifty States, or the rest of the world, today.  The challenge to make that so is formidable.