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[talera]

I just read a poll that shat me cranky. It wanted people to vote if they believe the death penalty should be used for convicted child killers. Of course the majority answer is yes. Now I remember a time not too long ago when Australia was cranky about one of our own being put to death OS and how death penalty was wrong blah blah. Two points

Comments

[jmitche4]

I see two reasons for the change of heart:

1) There's a difference between potentially causing someone to die from a drug overdose, and actually killing a kid.

2) I think a lot of people reacted the way they did to the overseas case because they thought it was unfair that they had no control over the fate of one of our own citizens. How dare some other country apply their legal system to one of our own? You know, that sort of thing.

Besides which, msn polls are intentionally alarmist. Note that it was death penalty for child killers, rather than just a question of whether you supported the death penalty generally. Tugging at people's heart-strings always yeild a different result than you may otherwise get.

I didn't vote.

[talera]

Oh I know why people voted they way they did and that the poll means nothing, but it just shits me that people can't see the obvious similarity instead of reacting in a knee jerk manner.

As for your first point, there is no way to prove that it was your drugs that killed the kid in most cases, but the kid killing aspect was still a reason provided for the severity of sentences for drugs and we shooed it.

Furthermore, what about parents who accidentally kill their child (sometimes through negligence - note not neglect) but still have to face charges. Often these parents are found not guilty, but have to face a harrowing experience as well as dealing with the detah of their child and any self-blame. The notion that killing a chil puts death penalty on the table gives me the shivers for mental damage done to parents in these situations.