20-Year Delay in Execution. Yesterday's news carried a report that Tuesday Ohio executed, by lethal injection, a man who murdered a prison guard 20 years ago, by stabbing. That passes for justice.
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The murderer in question was already in prison when he committed the crime for which he finally, after two decades of a life of leisure at taxpayer expense, was executed.

He had been awaiting trial for a killing in Cincinnati when Hamilton County jail officials received a tip that Zuern had a weapon in his cell.

When officers arrived, Zuern stabbed Pence in the chest with a dagger he had fashioned out of a metal bucket handle, officers said.

Gov. Bob Taft on Monday denied clemency, saying Zuern never showed remorse for the stabbing and had committed other crimes during his incarceration.

Notice that he had already committed a murder and was already in jail when he committed another murder! So much for incarceration as a cure to crime.
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Bleeding hearts who feel pity for heartless beasts in prison should have to pay for the incarceration they want the rest of us to pay for, and be the ones staffing the prisons so that when a guard is killed by a repeat felon, it will be one of those bleeding hearts who is killed — and who might truly bleed from the heart after being stabbed there.
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Prison is a very poor form of punishment that affords prisoners a worry-free life of leisure — as punishment! No rent or bills to pay. No worry about going hungry. Clean, solid housing; three squares a day. There are millions of people in the Third World who would literally kill to live in such luxury.
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While incarcerated, many prisoners continue their life of crime. They steal from, beat, rape, and even murder other prisoners. Some even manage to continue to run, thru couriers, criminal enterprises outside of prison. Sometimes prisoners riot, and burn down at least portions of the prison that houses them so gently, and kill guards. Some prisoners escape, and while out, rampage thru society, stealing, maiming, and killing. When caught, they are merely returned to the same situation they escaped from, where they can continue to be supported by taxpayers and continue their life of crime, victimizing everyone around.
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The prison system of this country is insane.
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To be effective, punishment must fit the crime. Imprisonment fits only a crime of imprisonment, and how often does any such crime occur?
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Violent offenders need violent punishments. Only counter-violence will make a real impression. They don't care about freedom! Many are in prisons of their own creation, prisons of the mind where they will always be captive to insane impulses.
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The conditions inside prison are for most hardened criminals far more pleasant than those they lived thru on the outside, which is why so many are glad to return to prison after release. They can't make in on the outside, and prefer prison. I seriously doubt, however, that they would prefer being flogged or having their good arm chopped off by guillotine and then being returned to society to fend for themselves, with, for repeat offenders, everyone around them being warned of their criminal predilections by a tattoo or brand prominently placed on their forehead!
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We have created a society that is so relatively easy to live within that violations of basic standards of decency should be punished with extreme severity, not thru imprisonment, which means nothing to many prisoners and enables all too many to continue their criminal ways inside and to escape to victimize innocents again, but thru physical punishments. Aside from making more of an impression, physical punishment is cheap. Flog and release — no costs for years of housing and guarding.
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The human species is an animal species. Animals learn by punishments and rewards. Prison is a reward. Flogging is a punishment.
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 12:47 PM