Failure to Kill

SteynonLine ^ | October 16, 2026 | Barbara Kay

[Twotone]

The U.S. is one of the few western countries where execution remains the punishment for heinous crimes. About sixty percent of the states and the federal government have retained it, but roughly two-thirds of executions since 1976 – when new death penalty laws were affirmed by the Supreme Court – have occurred in six states: Texas, Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Like euthanasia enthusiasts, death penalty abolitionists argue for their cause as a matter of "human rights." I have no use for that sanctimonious bundling. The 1948 Declaration of Human Rights deliberately avoided condemnation of the death penalty, except in the case of juveniles, pregnant women and the elderly.

All human rights are contingent on boundaries of one kind or another. The human right to life is like the human right to freedom of speech. Just as some forms of speech are incitement to violence and prohibited, some violence is so terrible in motivation or victim numbers or in grotesque accompanying torture that the person who commits it forfeits his or her own human right to life.

Those who insist that there is some inherent right to life for everyone, even depraved monsters who can never be rehabilitated, are simply lazy thinkers who can't be bothered to do the hard work of moral triage to find the red line between long imprisonment and death.

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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: execution; firingsquad

[Rummyfan]

Those who insist that there is some inherent right to life for everyone, even depraved monsters who can never be rehabilitated, are simply lazy thinkers who can't be bothered to do the hard work of moral triage to find the red line between long imprisonment and death.

Indeed.

[oldplayer]

For Freepers who might find the article in the “too long, didn’t read” category, this author wrote a reasoned and coherent piece in support of the death penalty. It was not an emotional appeal for vengeance, but a thoughtful discussion. The part regarding livestreaming is still well thought out, even in now moot.

[TStro]

Have to love Mark Steyn
Problem with death penalty is it takes WAY too long to carry it out in most cases

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I have had to deal with people who claim my support of the death penalty is "blood thirsty" or that I just want vengeance.

No. I want justice. There is a difference.

I get no pleasure in the death penalty.

I get no pleasure when mucking out the pig pen either.

They are both just jobs that have to be done if you want to live in a civil society.

And, while most people don't want to see it happening I also think it is important that it not be sanitized and hidden away. If something is being done in your name you need to look at it.

People who kill other people outside of a few very stringent cases have a kink in their think that puts everyone else at risk.

The "lock them up for life" people do not understand that to do that you are putting guards and other inmates at risk.

Lots of murders happen behind bars.

[oldplayer]

Michel Faucault, the way, way left post-modern French philosopher (responsible for much of the degradation of universities through post-modern elites’ goofy ideas), had interesting things to say about capital punishment. Sorry, I can’t immediately put my finger on the quotes, but . . .

He argued that as society became more powerful and controlling, it could dehumanize capital punishment. No longer would a criminal be subject to a gruesome public beheading, quartering, hanging, or flaying. Gradually the State was so powerful it could kill you in private. This happened in stages over time. The audience would shrink and shrink, until the execution by gas-chamber or poison was just a routine act that no one even noticed. The criminal would have no part to play and would lose any remaining dignity or humanness in this way. His death would signify nothing. And he was nothing. (So take THAT!)

Over the years, I have enjoyed comparing Faucault’s views with my own contrasting views. I remain unconvinced, but it is an interesting point to ponder.

[Libloather]

Tennessee has a 50/50 pass/fail rate.