Monthly Archives: September 2013

The Death Penalty

Ariel Castro, no relation to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, found dead in prison cell. He was given multiple life sentences in prison for each of his heinous crimes.

This news neither surprises me, nor bothers me. I can understand why he wouldn’t want to spend the rest of his life behind bars. But life in prison doesn’t do justice for the things he did: kidnapping, rape, abuse, murder…again and again. Someone who can so easily ignore the basic human rights of others, doesn’t deserve any himself.

This is why I’m in favor of the death penalty. Some people just don’t deserve to live.

If we as a society can take away a life through abortion, then we can certainly take away a life through capital punishment. We kill the innocent, but give room and board to the guilty. Hmm. Our sense of morality is a little out of balance.

It bothered me when the sentence was passed. A thousand years in prison? Which doesn’t start until after he has died? How does that begin make sense? Anything beyond life is irrelevant. How does adding a millenium to his sentence make a difference?

According to that logic, we would have to leave his body in a cell to rot until the 31st century. Of course, his sentence would probably be cut in half for good behavior, so his corpse would get a burial just after Mal Reynolds and the Browncoats lose the Unification War of 2506 in Firefly.

The problem with the death penalty is time. The death penalty doesn’t work as a deterrent because too much time passes between sentencing and carrying out the verdict…about 15 years (2010 average) according to Wikipedia. There is no immediacy to the verdict. No one is afraid of something that might happen more than a decade down the road. (Ask anyone who smokes.)

But my support of it is based less on deterrence than simply getting people out of this world…permanently. I don’t want the possibility that they may be paroled for good behavior or get an early release due to budget cuts. I also don’t want to pay for their lives while they’re in prison. Why should I have my taxes increased to support those who spit in the face of our society?

Every community has rules and there are consequences if you break those rules. Show us that you can’t abide by the rules and we’ll sequester you away. But show us that you can’t abide by the basic laws of human nature and we’ll take away your right to live.

Who are we to judge? We are society. And we have a right to protect ourselves.

Riddick

Despite being a fan of the series, I’m not entirely looking forward to the next installment in The Chronicles of Riddick.

The series started off with Pitch Black (2000), a survival story about about space travelers marooned on a deadly desert world. The movie was okay but not great. There really wasn’t much of a plot and it was only Vin Diesel’s on-screen charisma that made it watchable.

The second installment, which few people saw (or even heard of), is a short (35 min) animation called Dark Fury (2004). It was voiced by many of the same actors from the first film, including Diesel as Riddick. It covers the time between the first and second movies, showing what happened to Riddick, Jack, and Imam after they leave the desert world. It provides some continuity and back story that the first movie lacked.

The third installment, The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), was definitely a step forward. It delivered good action scenes, beautiful sets and visual effects, and a comprehensive storyline. This one got me hooked on the series. The introduction of the Underverse really opens up the plot and makes it much more appealing than Pitch Black.

Unfortunately, it appears that the upcoming movie, Riddick (2013), will revert back to the overly simplistic plot of Pitch Black. All we see in the previews is Riddick escaping(?) from mercenaries and killing large creatures. That sounds more like Pitch Black than a new chapter in the story. All action and no plot was fine for the first film, but it no longer satisfies. We need the story to move forward. There are questions to be answered.

For example, the last film ended with Riddick killing the Lord Marshall and assuming leadership of the Necromongers. How, then, does he end up captive in a merc ship on a barren desert planet…again? What did he do with his legion? Where are the Necromongers?

Those details aside, there are two questions I need answered for this story to be complete: (1) Will Riddick ever visit the Underverse? and (2) Will we ever see Furya restored and his people begin to flourish again? I know that he’s supposed to be one of the last Furyans, but no one’s sure. They have to finish out the story. You can’t build up a narrative in the second installment, then disregard it completely in the third. That isn’t storytelling.

Vin Diesel, in a recent interview, stated that he also has these same questions. That’s good to know. It’s always a plus for me when the actors generate true interest in the stories they bring to life.