Customer Reviews

Machinery of Death: The Reality of America's Death Penalty Regime

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a must read for anybody who purports to have arrived at a conclusion regarding the merits of state execution. It is not an academic examination of the pros and cons of the death penalty in America. Rather, it is a description of state execution arranged in a collection of essays written by people intimately involved in the process. The essays describe the process of state execution from the vantage points of capital defense attorneys, relatives of the victims of capital crimes, and even state executioners. It even includes the transcript of an actual execution that occurred in Georgia in 1984.

I give this book five stars primarily because I do not believe a person should arrive at a firm conclusion with respect to the death penalty on abstact pragmatic or moral/ethical academic arguments alone. One must first understand the process, the nuts and bolts, of state execution and how it affects those most directly and closely involved in either fighting against it or carrying it out. We are, after all, talking life and death. This book serves that purpose marvelously. Nor does it hurt that it is a thoroughly fascinating read.

Happy reading.

In my opinion, heinous criminal acts must be severely punished. Crimes such as culpable homicide, rape and child molestation deserve the harshest punishment. It is vitally important that the punishment fits the crime. It follows then that crimes of gruesome nature deserve capital punishment whereas misdemeanour should result in mild punishment.
Irrefutably, the primary purpose of a given sentence is to deter people from committing criminal acts. Therefore, it is crucial that prisons act as a deterrant; otherwise the judicial system is purposeless and superfluous. Paradoxically, prisons in Sweden do not deter prospective malefactors; instead they encourage some individuals to commit crimes. This is because prisons in Sweden have frequently been likened to hotels and this is not an exaggeration. This is a fact of life. To my mind, it is preposterous to assume that these modern and sophisticated prisons manage to deter people from committing criminal acts.
A criminal has to fear incarceration, otherwise there is no point in maintaining the judicial system. Capital punishment is considered to be inhumane and ineffective. What we need to ask ourselves instead is are felons humane. Do they repent their atrocious acts? Admittedly, some felons deserve clemency due to mental disorders that may have impaired their ability to know right from wrong. Nevertheless, they should be sentenced to life without parole.
As is well known, many convicted criminals commit additional crimes upon release. Thus, given the fact that a great number of felons relapse into criminality indicates that there are serious flaws in our judicial system. There is no simple solution to this problem. However, there is no doubt that legislators need to be held accountable for making ineffective laws. Most importantly, prisons have to act as a deterrant. Vehement felons who have been convicted of odious deeds should either be imprisoned for life or sentenced to death. Abolitionists would argue that people do not commit abhorrent crimes unless they are deranged. This is true in some cases but we must not generalize. Admittedly, some dangerous malefactors had been subjected to maltreatment in childhood which later led to development of severe mental disorder in adolescence. Nonetheless, traumatic childhood does not justify psychopathy, it merely explains it. In sum, this book provides weak arguments against capital punishment.