Capital punishment used be the way we dealt with our criminals, Canada became fully abolished in 1976, which is when politicians finally took it off our laws. Maybe it was for the better, but it seems to me that the facility in which we basically "Ground" adults for years at a time on tax payer dollars need a more severe punishment.
Bringing back the death penalty would be one way to do it, it could be an incentive to deter criminal activity. The only problem I have with the death penalty is if someone is charged, put to death, and later they find out that the person they murdered was innocent. Which has happened in some other countries. Let me ask this: If you murder someone, even if it is a complete mistake is it still murder? Yes. So how come nobody is charged after they kill a person and find out later that they were innocent?
With DNA testing and new forensic evidence that is used now, it's harder to make mistakes and there is more conclusive confirmation that they have the right person, but mistakes still happen. The whole reason we have laws in the first place is so the general public doesn't make false claims and accuse someone of murder based on speculation instead of fact.
At any rate we need a harsher punishment system put into place, If you are caught stealing in Saudi Arabia they cut your hand off at the wrist, if you commit and even larger crime of theft they cut your hand and left foot off which they call cross amputation. In Malaysia, they cane people who over-stay on their 90 day tourist visa. Officials use a thick rattan cane, four feet long and half an inch in diameter, soaked in water. Whipping is still used in some countries, as well as stoning.
As nasty as these punishments are, I wonder what the crime is like in these countries? What would they do to someone who cut off another persons head on a bus in front of other passengers? Say he is disturbed and needs medication and psychological help? What would they do to someone who walked into a factory and shot all the workers? Put them in a cell, feed them three times a day, give medical care, and take care of them for 40 years? What would they do to a rapist or a pedophile? The same thing as the shooter but for less time?
I don't think we need to go to the same extremes as those other countries, but we do need some sort of harsher punishment. Criminals here have almost nothing to worry about, not even a Death Sentence.
Scott Goerz
