Just Desserts

Just Deserts

The very meaning of "just deserts" means just that; a reward or punishment in turn for a deed good or bad. In this response, the criminal acts and the punishment, or lack of is what the discussion will be about. For centuries there have been criminals and when caught, these criminals have had some form of punishment. As the world has progressed, in many countries the punishment no longer fits the crime. "Upon a pillory - that al the world may see, a just desert for such impiety."( www.phrases.org.uk) This is an old English phrase, origin unknown, from around 1599.

Just desserts means a person receive reasonable consequences for your actions. Is our justice system set up to give reasonable consequences? It depends on the crime, in some states a drug dealer gets more time in prison than does a child molester or rapist. Just desert in this case should be that the sex offenders be sterilized then spend the next 50 years in the shoe with a 400 pound homosexual predator.

What must be considered is whose motivation is it to punish those who break the law. I for one can understand the need to punish someone for their actions but what if the individual is mentally challenged and not aware of the repercussions of his or her actions? This is a small percentage of offenders, but if the person is clinically proven incompetent should the punishment fit the crime? That is a hard call to make and I would be hard pressed to make a decision in a case like that. The death penalty is the only penalty for any person who willfully takes the life of any other human being. There are those that oppose the death penalty, and in very few cases of mental illness I can see their point. Amnesty International is one of those organizations who coddle serious offenders like murderers and sexual predators, this is some of their rhetoric: "Horace Dinkins Jr. was electrocuted in Alabama on July 14, 1989. He had an IQ of 69". (Carmichael,1996) What is not stated is who gave this IQ evaluation, so we do not know for sure if he was competent or not.

"Consideration of the crime itself has been at the root of the justice approach to punishment through the contemporary debates. In this view, punishment is justifiedÐ'--indeed, requiredÐ'--precisely because a crime has been committed. The purpose of punishment is to seek payment for the crime and thus secure justice, the good of society. Most justice theorists believe that the duty to punish comes out of the law's basis in higher principles of morality; these principles are a guide to punishment of improper behavior."(Petrito) It is a proven fact that for every rehabilitation success story, which the liberal media glorifies at every turn, there are 1000+ failures where the offender repeats the crime. Offering someone life in prison in today's justice system means offering them a life of free food, shelter, medical care, education, and the ever-present chance to escape and do it again. The death penalty insures without a doubt that they will never do it again.

The ACLU has their own view of rehabilitation. "Contrary to uncritical popular belief, punishment, and retribution are not foremost in most Americans' minds," said Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU. "In fact, this new study shows our nation to be