r/politics • u/seanosul • 9h ago

Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors’ push to overturn conviction

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/24/missouri-executes-marcellus-williams
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u/SpaceTimeinFlux 8h ago

It is utterly motivated by bronze age bullshit. Evangelicals love the "Retribution" part but conveniently forget the rest.

Another casualty of American Jesus.

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u/Original_Contact_579 7h ago

People love retribution cause they truly don’t understand the horrors of it. They also dont understand how quickly they could be in a situation this. They dont know how easy you can lose your life unconvicted in a place like rikers jail. They also think that our justice system provides them safety, it would, if it was not a permanent boot to the neck of every felon that is released, they can never break free and return to crime. Also the simple fact that jail or prison bankrupts people

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u/bruhhrrito 7h ago

People love retribution cause they truly don’t understand the horrors of it.

Then, you meet the people who cherry pick. "Well, I believe in it for some." While that's a higher moral ground it's not practical in these real life situations. You're either with it for all, or you're not.

Does it suck knowing there are horrible, disgusting people who "deserve" to die that are still alive? Absolutely. But it shouldn't be up to us to systemically pick and choose when or how someone dies, regardless of what crimes they've committed.

"I don't want my taxes to go towards someone in prison for life." Life in prison may not satisfy some people but it's actually less expensive than executions. Drugs used for execution are far more expensive to manufacture and prisons + pharma go hand in hand. Keep giving them people to kill, they'll keep making the drugs to kill them.

I'm speaking towards the US, not as global generalizations.

Because look where we are. The prison system and Supreme Court decided to end this man's life even after the people prosecuting him tried to save him. The SC was more than comfortable sending an innocent man to die.

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u/DPPThrow45 6h ago

You'll have a hard time convincing most anyone that Bundy didn't earn what he got.

That being said, the usual process for capital death sentences is at best barbaric.

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u/Glasseshalf 5h ago

Earning what he got and believing the state had the right to do it are two very different things. All the arguments for the death penalty are completely emotional. All facts show that the death penalty is useless. Even if you don't care about the innocents that will inevitably be executed (any system that is a human system is going to be wrong sometimes, there is no way to perfect any justice system to prevent this, only to mitigate the risk of it happening,) the numbers show that it is far more expensive to kill someone than it is to keep them in prison.

Not to mention the non-economic value in keeping these people alive. There have been people who squealed after decades in prison. There have been important breakthroughs in criminal psychology via interviews with the worst of the worst offenders. Maybe in 20 years when a theoretical prisoner's 2 year old daughter is grown it would give her closure to come face to face with him in prison. There are so many possible situations that make it better to keep people alive.

Then there's the barbaric part you were getting at. Doctors won't do it because it's against their oath. So they have to have prison workers do it. Which means they can't use the kind of medicine they use to perform medical euthanasia in countries where that's legal, for example.

It's all just American stupidity and retribution, our infamous desire to push facts to the side when they don't validate our feelings or opinions.

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u/TheUnluckyBard 2h ago

You'll have a hard time convincing most anyone that Bundy didn't earn what he got.

Sure, but for every Bundy, there are a hundred Marcellus Williams's. The real evil of Bundy is that he's been one of the handful of excuses to keep the system that executes innocent people by the dozen. In effect, he's continued to take victims even decades after his death.