Some people deserve to die

"And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

(Thanks, Prof. Tolkein)

I hardly know where to start in my response to Lynne Cohen's article in the Citizen today, aptly titled "Some people deserve to die". I have rarely read an article I disagree with so thoroughly. So let me work my way through some of the highlights (or lowlights, if you prefer)

For 13 years, I have been a true crime buff, reading some 35 books a year -- most of them American -- on a variety of terrifying factual situations, from serial murder and child rape to greedy black widow killers and gang slayings. As a lawyer and journalist, I am fascinated by detective work and how the culprits end up paying for their misdeeds. There is nothing more satisfying after a gruesome murder and fair trial than to see the killer get the death penalty.

Let's start with this. Ms. Cohen is basing her argument in no small part on her desire for narrative closure in her true-crime novels. I would submit that ending a real live human life requires a little more justification than that it's narratively "satisfying".

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has come out so strongly in support of clemency for Smith, you'd think he was the guy's wife.

That's a nice little jibe, isn't it? Dion (and, by extension, anyone who thinks we shouldn't be endorsing the killing of Canadian citizens) is effeminate; real manly men (thump chest here) are in favour of killing people at every opportunity.

The only worthwhile argument against capital punishment is that irreversible mistakes can happen. This only means we have to be ultra careful applying it.

Uh-huh. Because that worked really well in the case of, say, Stephen Truscott -- didn't it?

To date, and to my knowledge, there has never been a proven case of mistaken death by execution in the U.S.

Forgive me if I'm skeptical.

Remember Clifford Olson? Remember what he did to those 11 children? Why go into the details when the ending is soul destroying?

It's possible that Ms. Cohen's view is skewed because she spends too much time reading true-crime novels, but cases like Olson's are very much the exception, not the rule. Someone like Olson or Pickton gets lots of media attention simply because their crimes are so unusual. We can't make policy based on these very exceptional cases.

Do you appreciate that Willy Pickton is only going to get the harshest sentence available in Canada? That would be 25 years in prison before he has the chance for parole. OK, there is a good chance he will be found to be a "dangerous offender" and have to spend the rest of life in prison. Is that justice?

Um, yes. It is. He's never going to be free again. He's never going to have the opportunity to hurt anyone else. What more do you want? What does capital punishment accomplish that life in prison and a dangerous offender designation doesn't? Other than Ms. Cohen's satisfaction, of course.

it makes us weak, offering a safe haven to murderers.

I'm not sure what Ms. Cohen is implying here. That murderers move to Canada to commit their crimes because they think they'll get off easier? That more Canadians commit murders than Americans? That's patently untrue. The deterrent effect of the death penalty has been repeatedly debunked, and Canada is one of the safest countries in the world, with a murder rate considerably lower than the United States whose penalties Ms. Cohen so admires. It seems to me we ought to be more concerned with results than with a perception of "weakness" on the part of a rather bloodthirsty columnist.

I've no doubt that Ms. Cohen would dismiss everything I'm saying here as the ramblings of a soft-hearted opponent of capital punishment who just doesn't understand the real world. The words "hug-a-thug" would probably be worked in there somehow. And by her standards, I supposed I am all of those things. I don't think we should be killing people to demonstrate the sanctity of human life. I don't think revenge is the proper purpose of the justice system. I don't think it's effective, and I don't think it's justified. If that makes me a wimp, so be it.