Crossfire with Jeff Cohen and Robert Novak, January 1996: For Vengeance.
Check out AlterNet's full interview with author and commentator Jeff Cohen: Cable News Confidential.
Novak: I don't know whether capital punishment is a deterrent. I don't much care -- what it is, it provides vengeance against some of these brutal killers, and maybe countries that don't provide this vengeance are just over-civilized.
Cohen: But, Bob, you're sounding like the ayatollahs of Iran. I think the death penalty is not a deterrent; it wastes money, because it costs more money to execute than it does to do life imprisonment. It's racist, it's immoral.
Novak: Vengeance! Do you deny vengeance?
Cohen: Yes, I am not for vengeance.
Novak: Wow.
Cohen: From the left, I'm Jeff Cohen. Good night from "Crossfire."
Novak: From the right, for vengeance, I'm Robert Novak. Join us again next time for another edition of "Crossfire."
Deanna Zandt is a contributing editor at AlterNet.
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