Friday, October 10, 2008

Fixing the economy.. one scumbag at a time.

My political opinions tend to lean to the left as far as most issues go. Economically, I feel that the government should be fiscally conservative. The other area where my beliefs have a definitive slant to the right has to do with the death penalty. I absolutely hate that my tax dollars are spent on filling our prisons to maximum capacity. I pay for food and lodging for murderers, rapists and thieves. So do you. And the legal system pretty much allows my taxes to support the lowly existence for this sleaze indefinitely. Unless you are a wealthy criminal in which case, you can likley get off. I read an article today about a guy named Richard Cooey. He threw a concrete block over an overpass which struck a car driven by two University of Akron students. He then approached the young women under the pretense that he was there to offer help. He and an accomplice then took them to a remote location, robbed them, raped them and beat them to death. The accomplice was 17 at the time and taxpayers will pay for him to live the rest of his years in prison. This happened in 1986. For 22 years this guy has lived on our dime. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection, but then filed a motion to have a stay of execution on the grounds that he was so obese it would be impossible for a lethal injection to do it's job without causing pain since his veins are too deep. A judge rightfully told him to go fuck himself. How many times have you read about a rapist who spends years in jail, gets out and rapes again? Or how about a murderer who kills again? And there is no such thing as a rehabilitated pedophile. If they have committed a crime that is heinous enough to warrant the death penalty why do we have to wait for over a decade to end their lives? The economy would see a swift rebound if we instituted a plan of action that let the punishment fit the crime, and delivered justice more swiftly than a quadraplegic in quicksand. Guys like Richard Cooey don't deserve this much time to reflect on their deeds, certainly not long enough to plump up to the point that they come up with this last ditch effort to extend their pathetic lives. Why wait longer than a month for them to sort out their parting moments? The victims never got such luxuries. The money we'd save as a nation if we stopped paying for junior level criminals to get the prison education that develops them into career criminals would be more than enough to cover our immediate debt. The next step in my utopian view would be the mandatory placement of white collar criminals in the same facilities as sociopathic killers and thugs. If we want to truly fix this economy, we can start by putting ALL prisoners to work on chain gangs or work programs (not cruel and unusual). Prison isn't supposed to be a dormitory for crooks. And we can stop the myriad of unnecessary delays before terminating the lives of those who don't deserve to live.

11 comments:

Kup said...

The death penalty costs more than keeping someone alive by leaps and bounds. You might like the Saudi system better.

Dick Tremayne said...

I think of my little girl. And if some piece of shit did this to her. It wouldn't take 22 years if they'd just let him out for one day.

themom said...

I've never understood how the death penalty is so much more expensive than 3 hots and a cot for life...call me dumb.

alzaido alzaido said...

Doesn't seem reasonable that it could cost more to keep someone in prison for 50+ years.

The problem with the death penalty is that our legal system has major flaws. It is not unusual for innocent people to get convicted. I think of my little girl when I consider how awful it would be if I got the death penalty for a crime I did not commit.

Speaking of prison reform, lets free some of the prisoners from Guantanamo Bay that have not been charged. That way we have room to put W., administration, and friends until we solve some of our national woes. We can charge them and enforce the death penalty later. We can use the same non-torture devices that W. and gang approve.

SagaciousHillbilly said...

I am much more troubled by the incarceration of tens of thousands of petty criminals who have fallen victim to federal drug laws and sentencing guidelines. They are there as a form of ethnic clensing in America.
Anyone who has spent any time around a federal court has watched many petty crack dealers go away for 20 years while white boys dealing huge amounts of coke get 18 months at worse. Ridiculous.
If we purged our prisons of petty criminals and focused on education, housing the horrible wouldn't be a big issue.

Randal Graves said...

What sagacioushillbilly said.

Kup said...

http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-cost/page.do?id=1101084

You are the company you keep. Look at the countries that have it and the ones that don't--which are you more comfortable being associated with?

Dick Tremayne said...

What better time to change the system? Seeing as the system is what's so expensive. But it still doesn't change the way I feel. There must be SOME people who have been scientifically and legally proven to have committed heinous crimes like this guy. I will always harbor extreme feelings of hatred towards this brand of scum. I'm all for womens' rights, gay rights, the overturning of really dumb drug laws, and most other things that typically side with the left. But on this one, nope. I'm a maverick that way.

SagaciousHillbilly said...

Luckily emotions do not trump reason in legal matters. . . usually. That's not always the case even though it should be. . . capital punishment; case in point.

Michael Hart said...

The reason Capital punishment is ineffective as a deterrent and too costly to be efficient is because justice isn't sure or swift; and it must be. Once convicted, you get one fair and just appeal; you fail you die you win you fly. All prisoners should work; and work hard.
I would be among the first to stop using capital punishment— right after all the fucking murderers among us do.

Kup said...

Human reason dictates we use sound judgement over valid emotional reactions. GWB has never been able to do this, and thus he is a cancer. Think of the great men and women that have lived through the ages--how many of them do you think would support the state killing human beings? What would Gandhi, King, Jesus, Reagan....err, forget that last name, but ya catch me drift.