Comment by Anonymous

Entered on: 7/13/2008 9:00:28 PM

Like Mr. Renzulli, many libertarians oppose capital punishment on the grounds he stated:

"...how can anyone who pretends to understand the corruptible and inherently coercive essence of government ever defend the right of the state to kill people? ...Think about it. With our reluctance to maximize government power, the only sensible position any libertarian can take is to support allowing juries to sentence murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole."

Mr. Renzulli and others miss an equally problematic point: on what grounds do libertarians favor having a coercive government:

(1) use lethal coercive force against innocent citizens to extract tax money to

(2) keep a known murderer -- who is a danger to everyone -- alive?

As Walter Williams has clearly explained, the tax laws are enforced by threat of death. Walk through the sequence of events if you refuse to pay taxes and refuse to be dragged into custody ... and at the end of the sequence is you getting killed ... all because the government has been given the power to enforce tax laws by lethal force.

The "life imprisonment" option for murderers is what Mr. Renzulli and others favor, and that option currently is lethal-coercive tax funded.

So there is a grave moral problem of forcing -- with threat of death -- the living persons who suffer because of the murder to pay to keep the murderer alive.

Yes -- if your parent, sibling, or child is murdered, under Mr. Renzulli's regime, you'd be coercively taxed to support the murderer for life.

How is it morally right, under libertarian principles, to empower the "inherently corruptible" government to use lethal force to coerce crime victims to pay to keep the aggressor alive and well for his entire remaining life?

Frankly, I don't think it is morally acceptable under libertarian principles.

It would be morally acceptable, under libertarian principles, for Mr. Renzulli and his colleagues to raise funds voluntarily to keep murderers alive. If Mr. Renzulli is serious about his anti-capital punishment position, then to be consistent he must encourage an all-volunteer "keep the murderers alive" funding campaign.

It will be interesting to see whether Mr. Renzulli or his colleagues jump to that opportunity to convert the tax-coercive life imprisonment system into a voluntarily-funded charity.