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- Paul O'Neil

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Execute Andrea Yates
Countering Simplistic Arguments

An editorial in my local paper today made the usual simplistic argument against the death penalty. The editorial staff, however, made the mistake of trying to use Andrea Yates to illustrate the argument. "If we give her the death penalty," the column read, "the body count goes from five to six. Killing begets more killing."

This, of course, is simplistic and irrational. The usual (and equally simplistic, when you come down to it) argument to counter this line of thought is: "If kidnapping is wrong, are we wrong to imprison kidnappers to teach them a lesson?"

The death penalty is not a deterrent. The death penalty is, quite simply, a means of removing from society -- permanently -- those human beings who have proven themselves unfit to live within it. Furthermore, it is a means of removing those individuals from every society, preemptively. Obviously, we must not administer it lightly, for the mistaken application of the death penalty is a permanent and unforgivable error. If I was in charge of these matters, I would never apply the death penalty in cases that rest entirely on circumstantial evidence. For that reason I actually oppose the death penalty, philosophically, as it is generally applied within our legal system now.

The Yates case -- and many cases of Capital Murder -- is not a case of circumstantial evidence, however. That she methodically drowned her children is a matter of record and not in dispute. If she is "insane," or was "temporarily insane" at the time, treating her to "cure" her would be both risky and cruel. If we did cure her, a "sane" human being could never live with the crimes she has committed. And if we cannot "cure" her, she remains little more than a rabid animal -- an unpredictable creature who cannot be trusted, ever, for there is no telling what other inhuman acts her mental instability might prompt her to commit.

The death penalty, in cases of horrific crimes such as those of Andrea Yates, is a matter of both justice and remediation. It eliminates from society those who have proven themselves too monstrous to exist within it or any other community.

If it was up to me, I would execute Andrea Yates.