Posted 7:39 PM by Floyd

Through TalkLeft I found a link to a CalPundit post on the death penalty. He says:

The death penalty has always been a curiosity to me. I don't really have a philosophical objection to it, but let's face it: the risk of killing innocent people is a really big practical objection. If you imprison someone and later find he's innocent, at least you can free him and make restitution. You can't do that after you've executed someone.

I don't think this is a good objection. The problem is that the issue underlying the death penalty debate is what punishments to apply to those who do murder. Any mistake made -- convicting an innocent person, failing to convict a guilty person, failing to deter people from future murders -- has the potential to cause the deaths of innocent people.