Alaskablawg

Alaska and the Death Penalty

We in Alaska are fortunate to not have the death penalty. We have not had it for about 50 years. I am glad we don't have it. While that may seem obvious as a defense attorney, I can say that I grew up a strong believer in it. However, day after day working in the criminal justice system has shown me what a lot of people already know: there are a great many problems with the death penalty.

Now, though, Alaska appears to be re-opening the debate. This year, a legislator has introduced a bill to allow the death penalty for certain crimes.

I understand on a gut level the idea that someone should have to pay for certain crimes with their life. However, that argument is essentially an emotional, instinctual, retributive reaction. Aristotle said that law was reason without passion, yet can anyone imagine circumstances in which passions are inflamed more than in the decision to seek death?

The problems with the death penalty are legion: it is applied disproportionately upon the poor and minorities; it has no deterrent effect; police and prosecutors do not always play by the rules; mistakes have pointed to innocent people being convicted of crimes; it is prohibitively expensive, etc. A great resource for those interested in this subject is Gerber and johnson's book The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths. In this book, the authors go point by point through the arguments in favor of the death penalty and show how truly flawed it is.

I would also point to the dissent of Justice Diaz in a recent Mississippi post-conviction petition in a death penalty case. It begins at paragraph 48 for those who are interested. Justice Diaz's dissent should be required reading for those who support the death penalty.

I have some optimism that this bill will not be enacted. There is actually a fair amount of resistance to the death penalty among a number of legislators and even in our own Department of Law. While I would like to think that our legislators will examine the issue 'without passion' and decide that the errors, the irrational disparities in application, and other well known problems are sufficient for Alaska to reject implementing the death penalty. But I think that it is more likely that legislators will see the bill. And when they see the price of Alaska oil, they may decide that they just cannot afford it.

New TV Show

So, I'm watching bowl games and see that ABC is going to be starting a show about Homeland Security. I wonder if they are going to give the real story of the TSA. Somehow, I doubt it. I would bet that Homeland Security, as part of the agreement, demands reviewing the scripts of the show. And so its doubtful that they will show, say, TSA needlessly requiring someone to remove nipple rings in following asinine policies.

Somebody might think that the above comments are the height of cynicism. What could potentially make someone think that the government would want to influence TV show scripts to ensure broadcasting of government-approved messages? Oh, maybe history.

I wonder if Homeland Security will show drug searches and raids on innocent people.

I wonder if the show will demonstrate that the drug war might be something other than a complete success.

Somehow, I doubt it. Instead, the show will show us the 'heroes' that keep us 'safe', unquestioningly glorifying governmental power.

New Year's Eve

Had a great time on New Year's Eve last night. New Year's Eve in Alaska generally means two things: cold temperatures and fireworks. On July 4, it is usually too light to see fireworks, although some people whoot them off around 1:30 or 2:00 or so. So we usually wind up setting them off on New Year's Eve.

The sky is clear and the rockets reflect off the snow. And this year did not disappoint. It was about -25º. We set off a lot of mortars and multi-shots. After a while, my fingers did not want to work as well. We only had one potential mishap: One of the mortars was stuck in the tube and it exploded in the tube. Fortunately, the tube held and there were no injuries, although old frostbite injuries were re-frozen.

There are a lot of places throughout south central Alaska that prohibit the possession or use of fireworks. If I'm correct, much of this comes from a large fire about 10+ years ago. While the fire had nothing to do with fireworks, people were concerned that fireworks could start another fire. That may make sense in, say, June or July, which are typically dryer months. In case nobody noticed, though, December and January are usually a) cold, and b) snow-covered. We've gotten a lot of snow this year, which makes for some great sledding and other winter fun. It also would seem to make it really hard for fireworks to start a fire.

Based on that, the rules have been officially relaxed in the Valley for some time. Even before that, though, setting off fireworks on New Year's was an offense that was extremely unlikely to get a ticket. Most of the time, cops either turned a blind eye or they were keeping an eye out for potentially intoxicated drivers.

So we had a good fireworks celebration and everyone involved woke up this morning with the same number of fingers as they had yesterday. Good food. Good drinks. Good friends. Good fireworks. Great way to start a New Year.

Return

As you can see, I took a bit of a break. Why so long? Why return now? Good questions.

Part of the delay came because I got really behind at work after the surgery. Once you get out of the habit of blogging, its hard to get back into the habit. I could come up with all sorts of reasons to postpone it.

So I'm resuming now because New Year's seems like a reasonable time to start. It's not really a resolution, but it seems like a good time to start.