US state of Maryland abolishes death penalty

[Princess Luna]

Maryland has become the eighteenth US state to abolish the death penalty, replacing it with life in prison without parole.

The measure was signed in to law on Thursday by the state's Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, an outspoken critic of capital punishment.

"Evidence shows that the death penalty is not a deterrent, it cannot be administered without racial bias and it costs three times as much as life in prison without parole," O'Malley said in a statement.
Kirk Bloodsworth, one-time Maryland death row inmate, attended the crowded ceremony which repealed the law that could have killed him.

Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey met Bloodsworth, who wrongfully served nine years for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1984.

He was the first person in the US to be freed because of DNA evidence after being convicted in a death-penalty case.

After regaining his freedom, Bloodsworth campaigned for the end of the death penalty.

"If it can happen to me it can happen to anyone. I tell them my story, I was a marine with no record," he said.

"I was happy, I killed the thing that almost killed me."

Bloodsworth's case shone a spotlight on the death penalty and what his fate could have been was instrumental in pushing the repeal through.

"It would be too much of a travesty if we executed an innocent person I just couldn’t let that happen, Kirk helped me to understand that," Senator Allan Kittelman told our correspondent.

The bill will not apply to the five men the state has on death row, but the governor can commute their sentences to life without parole.

O'Malley has said he will consider them on a case-by-case basis.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/05/2013521896180295.html

[Skyhilist]

As much as I'm glad they got rid of the death penalty, I don't see how "life in prison without parole" is really going to help. Violent criminals are violent as a result if the material conditions around them. You're not going to keep people safe from this by ruining the life of criminals who only result from the world around them anyways.

[Fionnagáin]

Not that I disagree, but I think that abolishing global capitalism in its entirety probably goes a bit beyond the authority of the Maryland state legislature. ;)

[l'Enfermé]

Well this is too bad :(

[Brutus]

I'd take death over life imprisonment any day.

[Fionnagáin]

Would you be prepared to let others make that choice for you? That's really more the issue, here.

[bcbm]

Well this is too bad :(

disgusting

[Dr Doom]

Well this is too bad :(

your a sick individual bro.

[vizzek]

Well this is too bad :(

I even dont get why a communist would say something like this. i realize that a lot of angst-ridden lefties like to fetishize revolutionary violence and terror, but it's not often that you see one blatantly supporting the actions of a bourgeois state (especially something like capital punishment). let me guess: you support penal labor too?

[a_wild_MAGIKARP]

Well this is too bad :(
If it was a dictatorship of the proletariat, it would be, but this is a BOURGEOIS state. Who do you think they'd use the death penalty on during a time of revolution? hmmm.. maybe communists like us!

[bcbm]

If it was a dictatorship of the proletariat, it would be,

disgusting

[Skyhilist]

Death penalty supporter logic: we should kill that guy who killed a guy to stop killings.
Both irrationable and unjustifiable.
Just as two wrongs do not make a right, two deaths do not save a life.

[Quail]

It's nice they've decided not to kill criminals, but then life in prison without parole isn't exactly better. The whole prison system, especially in the US, is really fucked up.

[VDS]

There's no question that it doesn't SOLVE much. As others have stated, the system itself is messed up and criminals are usually so because of the conditions around them.

That being said, it's always a good thing when the state no longer has the power to decide whether or not it wants to do something reactionary and barbaric and kill you.

[Rugged Collectivist]

disgusting (In reply to MAGIKARP)


I would respond to this but I can't understand how someone could come to this conclusion. Elaborate maybe?

[vizzek]

I would respond to this but I can't understand how someone could come to this conclusion. Elaborate maybe?

Capital punishment has no place in communist revolution, the judicial system is a cornerstone of bourgeois society. kangaroo courts and shit aint gonna be in my revolution

[l'Enfermé]

disgusting
Nah, don't be a liberal.


your a sick individual bro.
Your're*


I even dont get why a communist would say something like this. i realize that a lot of angst-ridden lefties like to fetishize revolutionary violence and terror, but it's not often that you see one blatantly supporting the actions of a bourgeois state (especially something like capital punishment). let me guess: you support penal labor too?
Fuck does any of this have to do with "revolutionary violence" or "revolutionary terror" or "angst"? I don't believe that there is such a thing as "revolutionary violence", there is just violence and no violence. "Revolutionary terror" is another stupid idea. The two big famous examples, the Jacobin Terror and the Bolshevik Terror, weren't "revolutionary". The Jacobin Terror was a war measure. The Red Terror was a war measure as well. I live in Europe and I don't foresee a civil war or an external war happening here in response to the proletariat launching a revolution, so this "revolutionary terror" stuff doesn't concern me in the least.

As for why I, a communist, would say something like that, and "blatantly support the actions of a bourgeois state", well, I can gladly explain. I think the state has many useful social functions. Fighting fires, for example, or education, healthcare, whatever. Exacting justice on the likes of first-degree murderers is another one, in my opinion.

And yes, since you asked, I do support penal labour, as a part of a broader punishment-and-rehabilitation process.


If it was a dictatorship of the proletariat, it would be, but this is a BOURGEOIS state. Who do you think they'd use the death penalty on during a time of revolution? hmmm.. maybe communists like us!
That doesn't really make sense.
I) If a communist commits a crime that carries with it a death penalty, like first-degree murder, during a "time of revolution", I would support the sentence being carried out.
II) If there was a revolution, wouldn't that mean that the bourgeois state was dismantled? Who is "they", then?
III) If the bourgeois state is that desperate, do you think it would need legal sanction to kill communists?
There are more flaws in your argument but I'll just stop right here.

[l'Enfermé]

Capital punishment has no place in communist revolution, the judicial system is a cornerstone of bourgeois society. kangaroo courts and shit aint gonna be in my revolution
a) Capital punishment predates bourgeois society by thousands of years, b) capital punishment has been abolished in most of the advanced capitalist countries, so it's not the cornerstone of anything, and c) "my revolution"? Good for you...

[Sam_b]

Great example of a global mod trolling a thread here.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Great example of a global mod trolling a thread here.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that they actually think this.

[l'Enfermé]

Great example of a global mod trolling a thread here.
I'm not trolling Sam.

[Os Cangaceiros]

It seems pretty clear to me that even if one believes in the death penalty as a punitive measure (which I do not, for the record), it is an institution that has major flaws. The Innocence Project has exonerated hundreds of people, some of whom were on death row, and that's only in cases where reliable DNA evidence still exists. The governor of Illinois was so disturbed by all of this that he declared a moratorium on the practice over a decade ago, in 2000, and it was abolished in the state in 2011. So I don't know why anyone would be disappointed to see such a rotten practice ended.

[Q]

Well this is too bad :(

Disappointing.

[Nevsky]

Capital punishment doesn't have a place in progressive socialist society. It clearly belongs to older, less enlightened times. I don't see what's so wrong with death penalty during times of revolution, though. If I lead a world revolution, I would immediately round up all people like Kissinger, Brzezinski and company and execute them quickly so that they won't cause trouble any more. No need for large scale terror, just liquidate the actively and consciously criminal key figures of the capitalist system.

[Sam_b]

Users (and Moderators who should know better) should be reminded that a forum such as Politics is not for one-word posts.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Capital punishment doesn't have a place in progressive socialist society. It clearly belongs to older, less enlightened times. I don't see what's so wrong with death penalty during times of revolution, though. If I lead a world revolution, I would immediately round up all people like Kissinger, Brzezinski and company and execute them quickly so that they won't cause trouble any more. No need for large scale terror, just liquidate the actively and consciously criminal key figures of the capitalist system.

Someone needs a reality-check :rolleyes:

[Nevsky]

It should have been clear that I wasn't serious about that. I'm just saying that not all "bad people" are innocent products of material conditions. Wouldn't you kill someone like Heinrich Himmler or Klaus Barbie if you had the chance?

[RedAnarchist]

Nice to see one more jurisdiction somewhere in the world realise that killing people isn't doing the job they thought it would.

[Deity]

Someone needs a reality-check :rolleyes:

Way to be a dick.

He didn't say he WAS going to lead a world revolution (even if he did, who are you to say that's unrealistic for him?) He simply said what he would do, which could be a valid point in this situation where he is giving his opinion.

[Fionnagáin]

He didn't say he WAS going to lead a world revolution (even if he did, who are you to say that's unrealistic for him?)
Even bloody Mao didn't fancy himself "leader of the world revolution", a man who though that no building was complete without a twenty-foot picture of himself on the front, so I don't think it's quite the snobbery you imagine to suggest that Nevsky should perhaps reign in his ambitions just a wee bit short of that.

[l'Enfermé]

For fuck's sake Nevsky was clearly joking can we just move on?

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Well this is too bad :(

I am not going to join the moral outrage on this thread, but surely capital punishment is at present little more than a sledgehammer in the hands of the bourgeois state, being disproportionally applied to racial minorities and to the working classes in America?

[l'Enfermé]

I am not going to join the moral outrage on this thread, but surely capital punishment is at present little more than a sledgehammer in the hands of the bourgeois state, being disproportionally applied to racial minorities and to the working classes in America?
Well, the obvious solution, then, is to extend capital punishment to white criminals as well, instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

[Quail]

Well, the obvious solution, then, is to extend capital punishment to white criminals as well, instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water.
What baby? All I see is dirty bathwater. Why do you think the death penalty is a good thing?

[Brutus]

The judicial system is in the hands of the bourgeoisie, so it will be used to advance bourgeois class interests. How can it be a good thing?

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Well, the obvious solution, then, is to extend capital punishment to white criminals as well, instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Perhaps; but is this likely to happen under capitalism? I think not. One problem is that these proceedings are ostensively "colour blind"; the prejudice of most participants in unconscious. Short of instituting quotas, this can't be fixed immediately, and until it is fixed, the death penalty remains a weapon against the racial minorities and the impoverished.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Well, the obvious solution, then, is to extend capital punishment to white criminals as well, instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Your lack of logic is astounding.

Working person commits murder = penalty of death.

State commits murder = applause and support???

What if its a gang-related murder, and the working person is murdering a murderer? Should that be a capital crime?

Why the fuck do you support putting such power, literally of life over death, in the hands of the bourgeois state? Especially when we know that the accuracy of the death sentence is so fucking terrible, it's like saying 'yeah I know innocent people will get sentenced and probably killed but so what'.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Your're*

You're*

[Art Vandelay]

Well, the obvious solution, then, is to extend capital punishment to white criminals as well, instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

The idea that any communist should support the empowerment of the bourgeois state to kill, is so entirely un-Marxian that I can't even fathom where to begin. We've had this discussion before and I'm prepared to have it again because your logic was nothing but a bad rehashing of the slippery slope argument. Its sad seeing a comrade support the empowerment of the bourgeois state apparatus and not the opposite.

[Rugged Collectivist]

Capital punishment has no place in communist revolution, the judicial system is a cornerstone of bourgeois society. kangaroo courts and shit aint gonna be in my revolution

As someone previously mentioned the judicial system predates bourgeois society. I think the death penalty should be phased out in the long run but if you genuinely believe that power can be pried from the hands of the bourgeoisie completely bloodlessly than you're delusional.

[Fionnagáin]

As someone previously mentioned the judicial system predates bourgeois society.
Only if we treat "judicial system" as an ahistorical category, which isn't very Marxist. Pre-bourgeois judicial systems were distinct in structure and ideology from bourgeois judicial systems, and what commonalities do exist are largely down to bourgeois pretences of tradition than authentic continuity.

[Luís Henrique]

Good for Maryland.

Now, on for the abolition of life without parole.

Luís Henrique

[Luís Henrique]

Nice to see one more jurisdiction somewhere in the world realise that killing people isn't doing the job they thought it would.

And, in the avatar...


Ding-dong the witch is dead!

Errrrmmm... :laugh::laugh::laugh:

Luís Henrique

[Luís Henrique]

I think the death penalty should be phased out in the long run but if you genuinely believe that power can be pried from the hands of the bourgeoisie completely bloodlessly than you're delusional.

And Maryland State is taking power from the hands of the bourgeoisie exactly how?

Luís Henrique

[l'Enfermé]

You're*
I'm glad you spotted the joke NC.

[The Douche]

Is death as punishment always reprehensible? In what situations is it tolerable?

I'm not a "supporter of the death penalty", but I am very comfortable in thinking that some people deserve nothing more than a bullet.

[vizzek]

a) Capital punishment predates bourgeois society by thousands of years, b) capital punishment has been abolished in most of the advanced capitalist countries, so it's not the cornerstone of anything, and c) "my revolution"? Good for you...

good thing i said that the judicial system was a cornerstone of bourgeois society and not capital punishment. the point is that you're blatantly supporting the actions of the capitalist state out of some laughably absurd assumption that everyone on death row is guilty or deserving of execution. you sound like a fucking republican.

[Rugged Collectivist]

And Maryland State is taking power from the hands of the bourgeoisie exactly how?

Luís Henrique

It's not. I was responding to this.


Capital punishment has no place in communist revolution, the judicial system is a cornerstone of bourgeois society. kangaroo courts and shit aint gonna be in my revolution

This person advocates the abolition of capital punishment during a revolution. Which I think is folly. I do however support the ban in Maryland.

[bcbm]

Nah, don't be a liberal.


i wasnt


As for why I, a communist, would say something like that, and "blatantly support the actions of a bourgeois state", well, I can gladly explain. I think the state has many useful social functions. Fighting fires, for example, or education, healthcare, whatever. Exacting justice on the likes of first-degree murderers is another one, in my opinion.

you have a very archaic notion of justice. the aforementioned people on death row who have been exonerated is enough to suggest that the death penalty isn't a good idea, nevermind that the court system is heavily rigged against the poor and people of color.

beyond that death denies any possibility of rehabilitation and redemption, which i think is anathema to the formation of a true human community.

[Niall]

I think its good that the DP has been abolished there though as has been said, the whole prison system needs to be looked at

[bcbm]

I think its good that the DP has been abolished there though as has been said, the whole prison system needs to be looked at

not just looked at, abolished

[Niall]

not just looked at, abolished

Abolishing it would come after it has been looked at :D. Seriously though, I see what you mean but how likely is it to be completely abolished?

[Luís Henrique]

It's not. I was responding to this.

This person advocates the abolition of capital punishment during a revolution. Which I think is folly. I do however support the ban in Maryland.

Ah, I see.

But anyway, we don't need the death penalty to kill people.

Luís Henrique

[vizzek]

Abolishing it would come after it has been looked at :D. Seriously though, I see what you mean but how likely is it to be completely abolished?

through communism

[Niall]

^^^ could you explain that a bit?

[The Intransigent Faction]

And, in the avatar...



Errrrmmm... :laugh::laugh::laugh:

Luís Henrique

Not being sad (even being downright pleased) about the death of a terrible reactionary who was whacked by natural causes is nowhere near the same as supporting murder by the bourgeois (or any) state.

[bcbm]

Abolishing it would come after it has been looked at :D. Seriously though, I see what you mean but how likely is it to be completely abolished?

in present society? not at all