Many countries refuse extradition to the US if there is a chance of the death penalty.
The problem is that people are scope-insensitive, and one wrongly executed person becomes a martyr for a long time. People are still angry about George Stinney’s wrongful execution in 1944.
The feeling of a lot of people is if normal people go to jail for minor things, Trump or Clinton should definitely go to jail for a long time. There is a visceral sense of unfairness that the elites get to be more vile than ordinary people who go to jail, get executed, etc. but don’t face the same consequences because they do evil legally, because there is diplomatic immunity, presidential immunity, and all this stuff that your average Joe does not understand.
If normal people who are vile get executed, then people will crave the blood of elites they perceive to be even more vile. Japan in the 1920s and 1930s had endless political assassinations because people had the system of morality where “vile people should be killed.”
Alas, you are right that we can never know which way the causality goes. I am admittedly only stating my belief without proving it.
I think Singapore actually implements a system with a lot of executions and corporal punishment which you are in favor of, and they actually do have very low crime. I attribute the low crime more to their high wealth, and their other draconian policy of overwhelming surveillance (which I also disagree with but have to admit does work, maybe you can debate it next time).
Many countries refuse extradition to the US if there is a chance of the death penalty.
The problem is that people are scope-insensitive, and one wrongly executed person becomes a martyr for a long time. People are still angry about George Stinney’s wrongful execution in 1944.
The feeling of a lot of people is if normal people go to jail for minor things, Trump or Clinton should definitely go to jail for a long time. There is a visceral sense of unfairness that the elites get to be more vile than ordinary people who go to jail, get executed, etc. but don’t face the same consequences because they do evil legally, because there is diplomatic immunity, presidential immunity, and all this stuff that your average Joe does not understand.
If normal people who are vile get executed, then people will crave the blood of elites they perceive to be even more vile. Japan in the 1920s and 1930s had endless political assassinations because people had the system of morality where “vile people should be killed.”
Alas, you are right that we can never know which way the causality goes. I am admittedly only stating my belief without proving it.
I think Singapore actually implements a system with a lot of executions and corporal punishment which you are in favor of, and they actually do have very low crime. I attribute the low crime more to their high wealth, and their other draconian policy of overwhelming surveillance (which I also disagree with but have to admit does work, maybe you can debate it next time).