Two Party Opera by Brian Carroll for August 07, 2019

There’s Abraham Lincoln being the President who had the largest mass execution on his watch (though most biographies stress that he lessened the number of Native Americans hanged in that incident.)

Heck, Just ask any NRA member, and he’ll be GLAD to pop a few dozen rounds into you…

I’d prefer to be bored to death by a no-drama presidency.

As long as there is no doubt about guilt – not “reasonable doubt”, but no doubt – a death penalty is societal justice. I’ll let Mr. Carroll pick the method.

I vote for firing squad. Have the victim’s family pull the trigger, if they so incline.

I have to remember not to drink my coffee while reading this comic. Teddy Roosevelt nearly made me do a spit take.

A bittersweet memory for me. I remember at one time, being pro-death penalty and attending a rather conservative university (BYU), doing a research paper on the death penalty.

I came up with every one of the things Brian pointed out, above, all the while, I was looking for a reason to justify the death penalty.

Yes, I went in prejudiced.

And I came out humbled.

It really is the way it is portrayed above.

Racial inequality. Wrongful convictions. Cruel, though sadly, no longer unusual.

More expensive than life in prison. The argument then was, the appeals process was “too expensive.”

As I write this, my wife and I are arguing. “They don’t need an appeals process – we saw them do it!” (said of the shooter in El Paso) (What if it were someone who shot and killed your own daughter – wouldn’t you want to kill him on the spot?)

All of this emphasizing the one thing:

It really is all about the vengeance, isn’t it? It was never about justice in the first place!

Despite the death penalty being in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon (and I am a believer), I have never been able to justify the death penalty ever since.

Is that a misprint under Clinton? ‘more inexpensive than life in prison’?

As Mark Twain said, “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”

https://www.gocomics.com/scottstantis/2019/07/30?comments=visible

Interesting perspective from a conservative cartoonist (and I’m sure Go Comics appreciates the plug for another GC comic).

Background: Stantis claims to be anti- Trump and I tend to believe him. But following his dailies (Prickly City), he often comes off as “No matter how bad Trump is, Democrats are worse.”

Chinese curse revisited: I think we live in interesting times.

Capital punishment might have more of an impact if it didn’t take 20 or 25 years to execute someone. Arrest them. Charge them. Try them. Sentence them. Execute them.

Since much ado has been made about Jesus and the “woman taken in adultery,” consider:

Under the Mosaic Law, many things were worthy of death, from homosexual activity, bestiality, adultery (the situation at hand), as well as Sabbath breaking (to which Seventh Day Adventists believe all other Christians are violating) – but I digress.

John 8:1-11: Did Jesus really supersede the death penalty, as prescribed? Or did he simply deflect the accusations? It’s not clear (to me, at least) that he “got rid” of the death penalty in this case, rather, he asked her accusers to do some introspection.

Which, come to think of it, is not a bad idea for all of us.

I’m not picky about method, but whatever it is, I insist it be at the hands of a socialist medical Death Panel. I just want to know I’m getting the best care possible.

I’d go with a lethal dose of oxycontin, self-administered. Then I’d die pain-free and smiling.

Make it a game show broadcast on tv. Wheel of Death. Contestant spins, can get chouses such as torn apart by alligators, boiling oil, etc. and then carry out the execution. Think of the ratings.

from a massive heart attack from winning the largest state lottery, EVER. (after I spend it all first)

The problem with the death penalty is the who, not the how. Nearly all of the cases in which a person has been wrongly convicted of a capital crime involve at the very minimum negligence by law enforcement. Quite often the cause is deliberate manipulation to gain a conviction. Overzealous and/or corrupt law enforcement personnel wrongly convict people far too often.

I propose a new standard for all criminal prosecutions at every level. When it is proven that any member of the police, prosecution team or those handling evidence or “expert” testimony have DELIBERATELY caused or contributed to a wrongful conviction, they need to be subject to an identical penalty as handed down to the “convict”.

That means the law enforcement side will suffer real penalties for coercing testimony, lying in reports or on the stand, withholding exculpatory evidence, planting evidence, etc. Up to and including the DP.

With that said, I am quite confident that the overwhelming majority of DP cases are valid and have the correct person waiting on death row. The miscarriages of justice are spectacular and gain substantial attention, but they are a very small portion of the total. If you take a look at the details of these 5 convicts who are slated for execution, you are going to have a difficult case arguing for leniency.

It’s still state-sanctioned killing, that makes people think that killing is a good solution to their problems.

As studies show there are more Black on Black crime then there is White on black crime.

My personal opinion a person who commits mass murder such as this past weekend deserves a firing squad.

How about KINDNESS?

Death by taxes — The Republican way to kill middle america