My Unpopular Opinion

They ran the Boston Marathon again today, two years after the bombing.  And the jury in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving and convicted bomber, begins the penalty phase of its deliberations.  They will almost certainly decide to fry his ass.

How do you feel about that?  Me?  I'm in the minority.  I oppose the death penalty, even for this rat bastard.

• Capital punishment changes nothing, solves nothing.
• It is simply eye-for-an-eye vengeance -- understandable, but not a manifestation of our "better angels". 
• If killing is wrong, society should not engage in state-sanctioned killing as a punishment.  It's the proverbial "two wrongs." 
• It has obviously never been a deterrent.
• It can clearly be cruel and unusual.  Botched, prolonged executions are common throughout history.
• Capital punishment is final, but not foolproof.  The FBI admits to errors in evidence analysis in 268 cases which were decided in the prosecutor's favor, some of which were capital cases in which the defendant has been executed.  The Innocence Project has used DNA evidence to reverse the convictions of over 300 prisoners, many of whom were on death row.  There are more reversals to come.  Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is opposed to the death penalty for this reason.
• Although a slim majority of Americans still approve of capital punishment, approval has been falling steadily for decades and is now just barely above 50%. 
• Several victims of the Marathon bombing, including the parents of the young boy who was killed, have asked that Tsarnaev be imprisoned, not executed.
• There is no excuse for what they did, but Tsarnaev was 19 years old in 2013 and heavily influenced by his older brother.  (See the link below.)  

Yes, it's true that the death of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be no great loss for the world, but that's no excuse either.

If you're still into punishment for its own sake, consider that if this guy is really the radicalized Muslim terrorist he's supposed to be, then death is what he wants.  Martyrdom, 72 virgins, and all that shit.  Get your revenge by withholding what he wants.  Maybe that would be the real "Boston Strong."

http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/2013/07/jahars-world.html