tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post3039403614745552772..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: My Own Opposition to Capital PunishmentDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-82332277400627305162011-09-24T21:43:37.635-07:002011-09-24T21:43:37.635-07:00I agree with the sentiments of this post. Keeping ...I agree with the sentiments of this post. Keeping a person alive leaves open the option of reconciliation, whereas the death sentence does not. In fact, if immortality could be bestowed on the bereaved as well as the murderer this would be ideal, increasing the likelihood of such a resolution.<br /><br />Jimf, it sounds like what you're describing is confirmation bias. As humans who dread uncertainty we're all prone to it, and it's one of the nastiest things in the world once it sets in.Lukehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03839692078152193518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-16210040467571190652011-09-22T10:51:16.051-07:002011-09-22T10:51:16.051-07:00> My primary reason for holding this view is no...> My primary reason for holding this view is not the<br />> usual one that mistaken convictions can take place<br />> and demonstrably have done, and without any possibility<br />> of a redress of that ultimate injustice. . .<br /><br />I've often fantasized about how I would feel if I were<br />sent to prison, or even condemned to death, for a crime I<br />know I didn't commit.<br /><br />Intellectually, I understand that life simply isn't fair,<br />and there's a certain "risk overhead" of living, and<br />of living in human communities -- being struck by lightning,<br />getting cancer, being injured or dying in an automobile<br />(or train or plane) accident, being killed in a war (or a<br />terrorist attack) -- even by "friendly fire", being<br />victimized by a con artist, or, yes, being screwed<br />by the criminal justice system. Those are all non-zero<br />risks of being alive, and of being a human among humans.<br /><br />What's even weirder to me, though, is the warping of<br />reality that takes place after you've been "incorrectly"<br />convicted of a crime. Even if you know you're innocent, in<br />a sense it doesn't really matter anymore -- the "truth"<br />becomes socially defined -- you've been declared to<br />be guilty by the rightful authorities, therefore you<br />**are** guilty, no matter what "actually happened"<br />(in some "scientific" sense of the phrase). I imagine that<br />after years of being told you did something, you might<br />even come to doubt your own memories of what really<br />happened.<br /><br />I've heard that if you undergo psychological "counselling"<br />while you're in prison, and you maintain your innocence<br />in the face of that counselling, you are held to be<br />"in denial" about your guilt, and that continuing to<br />claim innocence is in fact held against you in a<br />parole hearing. Convicted felons lying about or<br />denying the truth **may be the case** most of<br />the time, but when it's not, being told<br />you are is truly Orwellian.<br /><br />People use statistics (whether consciously or unconsciously) --<br />"Bayesian" reasoning, if you will -- and there are always<br />exceptions to what are statistically good guesses in<br />the absence of definitive evidence. I've been in three<br />situations in which I've been pegged on the basis of such<br />"statistical" reasoning -- all three, oddly enough, involving<br />accusations of smoking cigarettes -- once by a police<br />officer on a subway, once by my mother, and once by a<br />dentist (who got very unprofessionally pissed off at me).<br />No, I have never smoked a cigarette, so no, officer, you<br />couldn't have seen me smoking on the train; no, mom,<br />those ashes you found in the bathtub must have been yours;<br />and no, doctor, whatever staining you see is from tea<br />and/or coffee, not from cigarettes. Deal with it.jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com