We can have endless discussions about each aggravating factor and whether it should qualify to make a murder punishable by death.
But there is something certain, it is that there are at least three factors that should always be in the statute:
– Multiple murders, including previous convictions.
– Murder involving rape or torture of the victim.
– Murder of a child.
What is shocking is that many death penalty-states lack one or more of these three factors, and at the same time provide other factors that are grave but less horrific, such as robbery-murder.
Another nonsense is that several states provide some of these crimes but add a supplemental condition: Oregon requires a child murder to be premeditated, Texas requires two murders to bear some relation between them, etc.
Texas also requires any convict to be a "future danger" to get the death penalty, which is also indefensible, since incapacitation is not the sole purpose of the death penalty. Deterrence and catharsis are legitimate public interests as well.
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