Death Penalty: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03[Music]
2. 0:04as you know our show is dedicated to
3. 0:07covering the biggest news of the week
4. 0:09whatever that news may be we have a long
5. 0:12proud one week history of doing that so
6. 0:16what was the biggest news story of this
7. 0:18week we begin in Oklahoma tonight with
8. 0:21an execution that didn't go as planned a
9. 0:24convicted killer from Oklahoma dies
10. 0:26after a botched execution
11. 0:35okay okay okay I know what you're
12. 0:38thinking you're thinking wait you're not
13. 0:40you're not going to really do a comic
14. 0:42take on the death penalty right it's
15. 0:44your second episode I haven't even
16. 0:47decided if I like this show yet well
17. 0:50you're right don't change the channel we
18. 0:52don't have to talk about the death
19. 0:53penalty no one is forcing us to in the
20. 0:56application of the death penalty in this
21. 0:58country we have seen
22. 1:00uh significant problems I think we do
23. 1:03have to uh as a society ask ourselves
24. 1:06some some uh difficult and profound
25. 1:08questions do
26. 1:10we do we really have to do that can you
27. 1:13not just answer those questions for us
28. 1:15cuz I do not want to talk about the
29. 1:16death penalty and judging by the noise
30. 1:19that you make when you talk about it
31. 1:21neither do you what happened in Oklahoma
32. 1:23is deeply
33. 1:25troubling uh
34. 1:30[Applause]
35. 1:33I know that sound that's the sound of a
36. 1:36man drowning on dry
37. 1:38land desperately hoping for Biden to
38. 1:41suddenly walk out into the Rose Garden
39. 1:43in an open
40. 1:45robe oh God Joe oh Joe's here thank God
41. 1:48you're here H let's lighten the mood
42. 1:51everyone let's talk about
43. 1:53Benghazi uh okay okay so let's do this
44. 1:57then let's talk about the death penalty
45. 2:00and before you turn this show off there
46. 2:02was a YouTube video this week of tiny
47. 2:05hamsters eating tiny burritos and it's
48. 2:09as magical and as uncomplicated as you
49. 2:13think and if you make it to the end of
50. 2:15this story I promise we will watch it
51. 2:18together okay but you have to stay with
52. 2:20us you have to stay with us to get it
53. 2:24okay
54. 2:26so the death penalty
55. 2:30should it exist and what should its
56. 2:32limits be uh can someone give me a broad
57. 2:35almost infantile guideline of when they
58. 2:38think it's appropriate the Supreme Court
59. 2:40has already told us that the death
60. 2:41penalty is constitutional I do believe
61. 2:43in the death penalty but but only with
62. 2:45respect to those that are guilty of
63. 2:47committing the crime okay okay bold idea
64. 2:51we shouldn't execute innocent
65. 2:54people I think most people would
66. 2:56probably agree with that you sir are a
67. 2:58regular ataca
68. 3:01but but ex executing the innocent is not
69. 3:05really the tough question here is
70. 3:06whether we should be executing the
71. 3:08guilty and let me acknowledge right up
72. 3:10front that I come to this as a bit of an
73. 3:12outsider Britain does not have capital
74. 3:15punishment so in a way I really don't
75. 3:17know what I'm talking about but in
76. 3:20another way I really do know what I'm
77. 3:23talking about because before 1965 we
78. 3:26didn't just have capital punishment we
79. 3:28literally went Medi evil on people's
80. 3:31asses the history of capital punishment
81. 3:33in Britain is a long and bloody one
82. 3:36since the Middle Ages those condemned to
83. 3:38death have variously faced being boiled
84. 3:41alive burnt at the stake or hung drawn
85. 3:45and quartered yeah we did that we boiled
86. 3:49people and in the grand tradition of
87. 3:51British cruisine if anything we
88. 3:53overboiled them we boil them up
89. 4:01we we loved killing people so much we
90. 4:05kept coming up with new inventive
91. 4:07techniques that look like they were
92. 4:08designed by the Marquee desad and named
93. 4:11by Willie Wonker this is the head
94. 4:13Crusher the small and seemingly
95. 4:15innocuous thumb biter originates in 14th
96. 4:18century Scotland these devices have
97. 4:21almost childlike names like Penny
98. 4:25winkies that's right Penny winkies a
99. 4:29delightful English cousin of the throaty
100. 4:31tug tug and the Jolly shocky buzzbuzz
101. 4:35tickly wickly seat and
102. 4:38look I know I know that all of this is
103. 4:41still technically horrifying but that's
104. 4:44kind of the point because whether you
105. 4:46are boiling people alive or putting them
106. 4:48to sleep with a tiny injection
107. 4:51administered by a puppy dressed as
108. 4:52Winnie the Pooh in the end you are
109. 4:56getting the same
110. 4:57result and here's the thing just because
111. 5:00the British people don't have the death
112. 5:01penalty anymore doesn't mean that we
113. 5:03don't want it back recent poll suggests
114. 5:06that at least half the population would
115. 5:08choose to have it reinstated which makes
116. 5:11complete sense because the death penalty
117. 5:13is one of those things that is natural
118. 5:15to want but that you shouldn't
119. 5:17necessarily have the death penalty is
120. 5:20like the
121. 5:21MCB
122. 5:22when when you can't have it it's so
123. 5:25tantalizing but as soon as they bring it
124. 5:27back you think this is ethically
125. 5:30wrong should this be allowed in a
126. 5:32civilized society and by the way there
127. 5:35is your new slogan mcreb you are welcome
128. 5:38you are welcome you can have that for
129. 5:40free that's
130. 5:42yours
131. 5:46because because there are things about
132. 5:48having the death penalty which might
133. 5:50make you a little bit queasy what does
134. 5:53the United States have in common with
135. 5:55Iran Iraq and Saudi Arabia the answer is
136. 5:59the death penalty according to Amnesty
137. 6:00International those four nations and
138. 6:02China are responsible for 82% of the
139. 6:05world's
140. 6:06executions look this is going to seem
141. 6:09like a gross simplification but any list
142. 6:12that contains Iran Iraq Saudi Arabia and
143. 6:16China is not a list you want to be on
144. 6:19ideally you want to be on one of those
145. 6:21lists that Finland is on Finland Finland
146. 6:24is on all the good lists like uh
147. 6:27countries with the best pastries or
148. 6:30best countries to host your overseas
149. 6:31lesbian
150. 6:33wedding and I I know I know what some of
151. 6:36you are thinking but John I hear you
152. 6:38saying that most Western countries no
153. 6:40longer have executions but if someone
154. 6:42committed a heinous crime I would still
155. 6:44very much like to kill them okay well
156. 6:47let's start with if there have been 312
157. 6:52DNA exonerations in this country since
158. 6:56we've been doing forensic testing life
159. 6:58that for all how things which were once
160. 7:02considered complete uh airtight evidence
161. 7:05against somebody are now sort of being
162. 7:06viewed as junk signs isn't it
163. 7:09interesting is interesting really the
164. 7:12word that you're looking for there
165. 7:14Cooper facts found on Snapple caps are
166. 7:17interesting oh the the Statue of
167. 7:20Liberty's nose is 4' 6 in Long H that's
168. 7:23an interesting fact but but facts like
169. 7:26innocent people are potentially executed
170. 7:28by our government on a on a regular
171. 7:30basis are not so much interesting as
172. 7:33horrifying put it this way if you found
173. 7:35that on the bottom of a chabani lid that
174. 7:37would make a container of chabani even
175. 7:40harder to swallow than it already
176. 7:43is and
177. 7:46look
178. 7:48look statistics suggest that false
179. 7:51convictions aren't all that rare just
180. 7:54this week we are learning from the
181. 7:55proceedings uh of the National Academy
182. 7:57of Sciences a study that shows 4% of
183. 7:59death
184. 8:00inmates are
185. 8:07innocent I think you might be using the
186. 8:09wrong
187. 8:11tone
188. 8:134% wow the the outrage about this must
189. 8:16be off the chart I remember a certain
190. 8:18Texas governor who felt that four
191. 8:20individual cases of voter impersonation
192. 8:23in the last decade was a moral issue
193. 8:25important to address I think uh any uh
194. 8:29person who uh does not want to see uh
195. 8:32fraud uh believes in having good open
196. 8:35honest elections transparent well we
197. 8:37take it to the Supreme Court to the
198. 8:39Supreme Court over a voter impersonation
199. 8:42rate essentially close to
200. 8:450% so a potential executing the innocent
201. 8:48rate of 4% must really eat away at Rick
202. 8:51Perry your state has executed 234 death
203. 8:55row inmates more than any other governor
204. 8:57in modern times have have
205. 9:00you have you struggled to sleep at night
206. 9:04um with the idea that any one of those
207. 9:07might have been uh innocent no sir I've
208. 9:10never struggled with that at all no I I
209. 9:14never struggled with it in fact I sleep
210. 9:16great like a big muscular
211. 9:19baby 14 hours a night legs in the air
212. 9:22with a mobile above my
213. 9:26head crying when I myself I'm a big
214. 9:29baby I sleep like a
215. 9:33baby but but okay okay let's imagine for
216. 9:37a moment a magical world where you could
217. 9:39be sure of someone's guilt what are the
218. 9:42arguments for killing them then is it
219. 9:44that it's a deterrent to others there is
220. 9:47no credible evidence that the death
221. 9:49penalty is a particular deterrent to
222. 9:51violent crime although to be fair the
223. 9:53death penalty is an amazing deterrent to
224. 9:56fishing without a
225. 9:57license listen Todd I'd love to go with
226. 10:00you but is it worth it you've got a wife
227. 10:01and
228. 10:03children so what about the argument then
229. 10:06that we shouldn't have to pay to house
230. 10:08and feed a convicted killer an average
231. 10:11death penalty case cost the state
232. 10:13millions of dollars in California alone
233. 10:16since 1978 the total cost of enforcing
234. 10:18the death penalty has been over $4
235. 10:21billion that's
236. 10:23$38 million for each of the 13
237. 10:27executions carried out in fact it costs
238. 10:30up to 10 times more to give someone the
239. 10:32death penalty than life in prison so
240. 10:34what a death sentence is really saying
241. 10:36is hey this is America and the way we
242. 10:39treat the most despicable members of our
243. 10:42society is by spending the entire budget
244. 10:44of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on
245. 10:47them so what what we know now is the
246. 10:50death penalty is expensive potentially
247. 10:53kills innocent people and doesn't deter
248. 10:55crime and here is where it gets hard
249. 10:58harder
250. 10:59than is potentially appropriate for a
251. 11:01comedy show late on a Sunday night but
252. 11:04if we are going to answer difficult and
253. 11:06profound questions as the president told
254. 11:08us to the toughest one is probably if
255. 11:13someone is guilty of committing a
256. 11:14horrible crime and the family of the
257. 11:16victim want the perpetrator executed do
258. 11:19we want to live in the kind of country
259. 11:21that gives that to them I would say no
260. 11:25you might very reasonably say yes or or
261. 11:29at the very
262. 11:35least
263. 11:37but but it's a question that is going to
264. 11:40need an answer and in the meantime a
265. 11:42much easier question is do you want to
266. 11:45watch a YouTube video of a tiny hamster
267. 11:48eating a tiny burrito because at this
268. 11:51point at this point you have
269. 11:54earned it
270. 11:57[Music]
271. 12:15and that is how you end a comprehensive
272. 12:18segment on the death penalty