According to Ernest Van Haag, it does not matter if there is discrimination among who is executed or if a few innocent people are wrongly executed because for those who are actually guilty receive their retribution. Haag states that “[e]ven if poor or black convicts guilty of capital offenses suffer capital punishment and other convicts equally guilty of the same crimes do not, a more equal distribution, however desirable, would merely be more equal” (Haag 231). It would not make the death penalty any more just, only equal, and justice is more important than equality. As long as guilty people are being executed, it does not matter if others who have committed the same crime are. Even though some innocent people are executed along the way, the advantages outweigh the costs. Haag also argues that the death penalty works as a deterrent to some prospective murderers who are not deterred by imprisonment because the death penalty is irreversible; once you are gone that is
According to Ernest Van Haag, it does not matter if there is discrimination among who is executed or if a few innocent people are wrongly executed because for those who are actually guilty receive their retribution. Haag states that “[e]ven if poor or black convicts guilty of capital offenses suffer capital punishment and other convicts equally guilty of the same crimes do not, a more equal distribution, however desirable, would merely be more equal” (Haag 231). It would not make the death penalty any more just, only equal, and justice is more important than equality. As long as guilty people are being executed, it does not matter if others who have committed the same crime are. Even though some innocent people are executed along the way, the advantages outweigh the costs. Haag also argues that the death penalty works as a deterrent to some prospective murderers who are not deterred by imprisonment because the death penalty is irreversible; once you are gone that is