death penalty?

Alan Smithee wrote: Decriminalization likely won't happen in the U.S. (but not because we're bigger than Portugal). Our drug enforcement policies have created a very profitable industry with well funded lobbies.

Unfortunately very true.

Supernova wrote: It would be fine by me. Now that I think of it, WHY is it that executions now are hidden away in a locked room in the prison somewhere? Why not a public hanging? Why not televise the executions and let people see what really happens? It's one thing to think 'oh they died' but it's a whole world of another thing to actually see what happens to them.

"The last legal public hanging in America took place in 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky. The “event” attracted 20,000 people and turned into such a sickening spectacle that many credit it with ending the practice in the U.S."

Supernova wrote:And I totally agree with that second point about letting the victims torture their rapists.

Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

Shale wrote:Here's a guy with his own ideas on capital punishment. (Also full of holes if you look at the actual studies on 'deterrent' effect)

North Carolina GOP Lawmaker Calls For Bringing Back Public Hangings, Starting With Abortion Providers
By Marie Diamond on Jan 27, 2012

The last legal public hanging in America took place in 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky. The “event” attracted 20,000 people and turned into such a sickening spectacle that many credit it with ending the practice in the U.S.

But one North Carolina Republican believes that as a country we’ve grown soft since banning public hangings and is calling for them to reinstated as a deterrent to crime. If Rep. Larry Pittman had his way, “abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers” would be first in line for the gallows:

Republican Rep. Larry Pittman, who was appointed to the District 82 House seat in October, expressed his views in an email sent Wednesday to every member of the General Assembly. [...]

“We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner,” Pittman wrote in the email. “If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.”

Occupation: Pastor, Shipping Worker, Company Chaplain

http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/members/viewMember.pl?sChamber=House&nUserID=633


I hope the people who voted for these idiots in the last election are proud of themselves.

The only deterrent the death penalty offers is for the criminal--They will never commit that crime again! I have no problem with taking a person out of existance provideing the evidence is overwhelming--and not just circumstantial--or the person is actually egotistical enough to confess.

Child killers, rapists, and others who kill for a thrill can all take a short ride on the chair of power so far as I am concerned.

wants2laugh wrote:Do you think that the death penalty should be utilized in all murders? murders which include other felonies such as rape... or others situations.

I don't think it should be utilized at all. I see it as a hypocrisy more than anything else. And admittedly, I have flip-flopped over this position MANY times and I might be more accepting of it IF our system of justice was....."better" than it is now. But the fact that capital punishment has not been proven to be a deterrent to crimes, that it ultimately costs more money to have someone put on death row in the long run than it does to imprison them for life, and the fact that people have been put to death before, only to be later found innocent after the fact kind of makes me lean in the direction against it. The death penalty is not "justice". It is a public display of a mass emotional reaction to vengence by our primitive society. MOST people who are for the death penalty want to HURT and KILL people who wronged someone else in such a way. From a moral point of view, that makes them just as EVIL as the criminal they are seeking to destroy. I believe that a truly enlightened person would adopt a philosophy of forgiveness and mercy even for someone who hasn't shown them any. Kind of like that guy who most death penalty supporters claim to follow. I think his name was JESUS or something like that.

Then there is the element of personal guilt and reflection. To me, the death penalty doesn't teach anything to the criminal. Forcing them to live for the rest of their life in prison, knowing that they will never live a normal life because of what they did seems a harsher punishment to me than just giving them a needle to put them to sleep forever. Life without parole gives the criminal time to relive in their memories the suffering which they've cause to others for the rest of their life! In that circumstance, one can either live a miserable life or turn to "God" and find redemption of some sort. Either way, as long as they are not a threat to the public, I see that as a more poetic justice.

I believe that we as human beings are uniquely unqualified to judge others in public law when it comes to deciding life or death. Our system of justice is too flawed to make the institution of capital punishment ethical. If I was on the jury for Steven Hayes or Joshua Komisarjevsky (the men who murdered the Petit family during a home invasion), I would probably vote FOR the death penalty along with everyone else in the room. Because if anyone "deserves" to die, it's those two scumbags. They raped, tortured and murdered a wife and two girls and destroyed William Petit's life forever. I hate them, and I want them to die. Like I said, it's more about the emotional need for revenge than a sense of public service. And that's exactly why there should be no death penalty! Because wishing harm on bad people is not "justice", it's hypocrisy.

^^ Yeah!