Death Penalty?

And just who should carry out the executions? There's no procedure which wouldn't involve somebody pushing at least a button to say, electrocute the criminal.
Who would have to become a murderer to kill someone 'in the name of justice'? I can see some people would happily volunteer to do that, saying that they're actually protecting the society, children, etc. But then again, they're close to being just as psycopathes as the ones condemned, aren't they?

 

I'm neither for it or against it. Just keep the trash away from me and my loved ones. I don't particularly care if that is accomplished by a cage or death, just prevent the trash harming those I care about.

 

:eusa_clap i have to applaud you for bringing troy kell up because he's one of the posterboys to why it's hard to defend certain people against the death penalty. by all accounts, that man is a monster. watching that documentary about him where you get to see a sociopath at work where he's painting himself as this innocent guy that making some big mistakes along the way when he's basically a homicidal maniac who acts on impulses with no remorse really makes it hard to feel sorry for somebody like him.

the man tried to kill somebody while he was on death row too. the guy that he almost killed sued the doc and won a million dollar lawsuit against them. the guy is a danger to anybody he comes across. it's even scarier to know that he has a group of supporters that feel sorry for him and back him up when he blames his victims behind his actions.

like i said, i'm against the death penalty but for some people, i can't say that they shouldn't be there.

 

Again, hard cases make bad law. The sort of facilities we use to execute people today are not supportable for executing only the extreme cases where the death penalty might be warranted (no chance of innocence, person poses a clear and obvious risk to anyone s/he encounters). And to be honest, I don't trust US prosecutors to only push for the death penalty in those cases. At all.

 

well, that's the problem. it's going to be a situation where it's a win and a lose but i think there's less to lose with no death penalty though. i think that an inmate with a life sentence with no possibility of parole might start to look at their way of thinking being that they're going to be free again more so than a death row inmate that has nothing to lose. then again, it depends on the person. someone like troy kell probably wouldn't care regardless because sociopaths can't be reformed.

 

I'm completely against it. One, if someone did something so horrible (serial killer, etc...) getting killed in the easy way out. Going to jail for life is much more of a punishment. Plus it's inhumane to execute someone on purpose under any circumstances, except in protecting someone. And for the person who had to perform the death penalty, they may feel guilty for it, it affects their life too. And the family/friends of the accused. I couldn't deal with knowing my loved one was getting killed, and not doing anything about it. And what if the jurisdiction was incorrect, and they were innocent? Then an innocent person is getting killed, which is completely horrible.

 

i figured that since this happened 25 years ago and the documentary came out shortly after it happened, that i would post a video to this. this is a documentary from bbc about a guy that was executed in mississippi's gas chamber in may 1987. it shows his last days alive, how the staff, the other inmates, and how he deals with his own death. it's sad really. it goes all the way to the point where he's in the "waiting room" where they're doing the final preparations to the gas chamber and then it cuts off where the director and film crew say their final goodbyes to the soon to be executed inmate and shows the press conference with the warden which obviously looks disturbed and sickened being that he has a hard time answering questions. the main theme is basically a possibly innocent inmate being executed.

[YOUTUBE]rhHutCNkjEc[/YOUTUBE]

there is a followup to the documentary that came out a year later after this one. it's on youtube somewhere. it shows his lawyer doing an independent investigation on the case where he meets the other prime suspect who pretty much implies that he has something to do with the murder the executed inmate was convicted of. i'll post it if i could find it.

 

There are so many people who are against the death penalty, I notice. For me, I am for the death penalty. I should probably go register so I can vote when the time comes.

I was brought up in a country that has the death penalty. Keep in mind that the death penalty is first and foremost a deterrent and not a punishment. The law is there, firstly, to deter people from committing acts that bring harm to others. In order to prevent crimes from happening, punishments are put in place.

However, the question for us to consider is whether or not the death penalty is enough of a deterrent to stop people from committing heinous crimes. In many US states, it is not. The country that I grew up in, Singapore, it is. We have to take into account the justice system and the legal process. The US has a pretty, you have to admit, sucky judicial system. Would implementing the death penalty really work?

That said, however, I would still be in favor of the death penalty. I have seen how law and order can be achieved with that in place. What I am not pleased about is how justice is carried out here.

 

Keep in mind that every study shows that it fails to be effective as a deterrent.

Precisely.

Exactly how does a death sentence trial and possible appeals work in the U.S. and what is the form of execution used there?

 

In states that have the death penalty, it is applied after a trial by jury, and may be appealed to a higher court. The appeals process can go as high as the Supreme Court, although it will usually only go that high if there is a Constitutional issue in question (sentences and guilt are supposed to be decided by the lower courts). Due to the length of the appeals process, inmates may spend years or even decades on death row. After the appeals process fails, there is usually an effort to convince the governor of the state in question to commute the death sentence to life. Execution methods vary, but the most common is lethal injection.

 

I think the death penalty is good in principle and there should be more crimes that make you eligible to die. Like rape. However, in practice, the death penalty has been very problematic because the justice system as a whole sucks so fucking bad.

As a practical matter, I guess I'd say I am against it except for military crimes.

 

My apologies, I meant to say Singapore, no the U.S., I make some silly mistakes sometimes.

 

On point one: I know it practically does work that way, it's impossible to escape the emotional implications of crimes for any judge. But i think where justice is concerned, as a people we should be constantly striving toward objectivity, and the least objective person of all is a living loved one of a murdered person. I'm not saying the impact on loved ones should not be considered in the judgment on severity of a crime and its severity of punishment, but as for them 'having a say' in the punishment an offender receives, i think that goes against the whole objective spirit of the justice system.

On point two: Prisoners become further corrupted in jail. It's a terrible place, i think the description of them as 'reform' centres is unrealistically optimistic. I'm just referring to evoking their negative image in support of the death penalty. I have a problem with:

It may be your experience, but it's describing the entire prison population in a very negative light, to promote termination of a small percentage of extreme offenders and justify it. I can't agree with that part alone, but the practicality is that it's more expensive to operate a death row and all involved with capital punishment than life imprisonment is anyway, but that's been discussed elsewhere.

---------- Post added 4th May 2012 at 06:58 PM ----------

Oh, and sorry but i don't dig with the argument from authority either.