India sentences four rapists to death. We should do the same.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

31. No, we should not do the same.

I am absolutely opposed to the death penalty - not because I'm sympathetic toward criminals or "soft" on crime, but because our justice system (along with everybody else's) is imperfect and the death penalty can't be reversed. And there's something wrong with the notion that the state should commit murder, ever. Rapists and others who commit terrible crimes shouldn't escape punishment but nobody should be executed, ever.

Mr. Blunt & Cranky (with whom I have often agreed on other things) says: "Because our “justice” system constantly sends the message that rape is no big deal by handing out little or no punishment for crimes of sexual violence, men think it’s OK to rape. Our smirking, winking, jocular, nudge-nudge cultural attitude towards rape is also a part of the problem." That may well be true, but the cure is not the death penalty; it's changing our cultural attitude toward rape.