{"id":190,"date":"2010-09-10T19:52:31","date_gmt":"2010-09-11T00:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=190"},"modified":"2010-12-06T14:01:30","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T20:01:30","slug":"fawkes-lee-ryan-opposes-capital-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=190","title":{"rendered":"Fawkes-Lee &#038; Ryan Opposes Capital Punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>by Marty Ryan<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There are seven primary reasons why the death penalty is an outmoded method of punishment.<\/p>\n<p>The death penalty is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Discriminatory in its application<\/li>\n<li>Immoral<\/li>\n<li>More costly than life in prison without the possibility of parole<\/li>\n<li>Cruel and unusual punishment<\/li>\n<li>Susceptible to mistakes<\/li>\n<li>Not a deterrent<\/li>\n<li>Contrary to most mainstream religious beliefs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The death penalty is a gruesome means of punishment that has outlived its place in today\u2019s jurisprudence.\u00a0 Iranians still stone people to death in public; Saudi Arabians continue to practice beheading by the sword; and some jurisdictions within the United States use hydrogen cyanide gas to choke the defendant to death.<\/p>\n<p>No matter what method is used, government killing of people is not humane.\u00a0 No more than 150 years ago hanging, gutting, and quartering in the town square was abolished as a punishment in England.\u00a0 The process of executing human beings has evolved over the centuries.\u00a0 However, the final chapter is always the same \u2013 the defendant dies. \u00a0\u00a0Does it make any difference how the government carries out this barbaric means of punishment?\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to note that governments that practiced drawing and quartering as a means of punishment did not execute women in that manner.\u00a0 Women were burned at the stake.<\/p>\n<p>Iowa\u2019s Governor Vilsack once said that Iowa has a death penalty \u2013 it\u2019s the sentence of prison for the rest of an individual\u2019s natural life on earth, without parole.\u00a0 Iowa has over 600 lifers in the Corrections system today.\u00a0 California has close to 700 inmates on death row, and California has executed 13 inmates in the past 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>The growing number of inmates living on death row awaiting execution is another reason why this manner of punishment is beyond rationale.\u00a0 It\u2019s impractical to believe that all will die according to their sentence.\u00a0 Some victims and victim advocates argue that the death penalty provides closure.\u00a0 What it does cause is the grief of another family, one that is usually below the radar screen of public sympathy.<\/p>\n<p>America needs a system of punishment that homicide victims\u2019 families can rely upon to swiftly mete out justice, find closure, and prevent the financial and emotional strain of going through the frustrating appeals process associated with capital cases.\u00a0 Society can offer better alternatives, and Iowa has it \u2013 committing \u201cthe defendant into the custody of the director of the Iowa department of corrections for the rest of the defendant&#8217;s life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2010 Fawkes-Lee &amp; Ryan.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The death penalty is a gruesome means of punishment that has outlived its place in today\u2019s jurisprudence.   <a href=\"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=190\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,17],"tags":[27,30,54,53,15],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-penalty","category-issues","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-cruel-unusual","tag-death-penalty-2","tag-vilsack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}