So should this person have fried?

No way. We can rehabilitate him. Because if he's retarded, he can do anything. [/liberals]

 

because the measure of a society is how it treats its weakest members - and yeah, mental retardation qualifies, even though he commited a heinous act

it blows my mind that the argument of sanctioned execution would come down to economics.

Americans don't need to read Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire because they are living it

 

I'm a death penalty proponent, but in this case, probably not. I mean, the guy has a mental handicap, for crissakes.

 

If someone eats another human's brain, is he not mentally unstable by definition?

Warm up the grill.

 

No one should fry.
Including that guy that got fried last Thursday for killing one of my family members and two others execution style on March 1, 2002.
But that's another story for another time.

Edited to change Saturday to Thursday for the day of execution.

 

Well, yeah. Like I said, I'm opposed to it anyway. But that argument doesn't get you anywhere with the bloodlust crowd. Pointing out that the "why should I pay to feed him" argument is bullshit ... OK, it doesn't get you anywhere either. But it's worth a shot.

 

You can have the best, most well-reasoned argument against the death penalty and most people just won't want to hear it.

 

I've slowly shifted to being opposed to the death penalty for two main reasons. I don't really give a shit if a murderer lives or dies, but I've concluded that the government has no business executing someone.

(I also find it odd that so many people home on these threads to express their horror at how depraved the killers are, then start fantasizing about horrible ways those people could be tortured for their crimes. Seems a bit contradictory to me.)

Anyway, reason one: I've sat on a jury and covered trials, and don't have anywhere near the faith in the system I need to accept beyond question that innocent people are not being put to death.

And, more importantly, reason two:

* Afghanistan
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Bahamas
* Bahrain
* Bangladesh
* Barbados
* Belarus
* Belize
* Botswana
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Chad
* China (People's Republic)
* Comoros
* Congo (Democratic Republic)
* Cuba
* Dominica
* Egypt
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Ethiopia
* Gabon
* Ghana
* Guatemala
* Guinea
* Guyana
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Jamaica
* Japan
* Jordan
* Korea, North
* Korea, South
* Kuwait
* Laos
* Lebanon
* Lesotho
* Libya
* Malawi
* Malaysia
* Mongolia
* Nigeria
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Palestinian Authority
* Qatar
* St. Kitts and Nevis
* St. Lucia
* St. Vincent and the Grenadines
* Saudi Arabia
* Sierra Leone
* Singapore
* Somalia
* Sudan
* Swaziland
* Syria
* Taiwan
* Tajikistan
* Tanzania
* Thailand
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Uganda
* United Arab Emirates
* United States
* Vietnam
* Yemen
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

 

Death penalty is just like abortion. People are set in their believe of/against it and little can be done to reason with people on the other side.

 

Fixed to reflect the views of the SJ Lefty Cosa Nostra.

 

Hey, Tony, you're perfectly welcome to start throwing out well-reasoned arguments whenever you like. It would be a refreshing change from name calling and whining that people are mean to you.

Since this is a capital punishment thread, let's start there. I used to be pro-death penalty, but I no longer trust the legal system enough to trust they won't kill an innocent man along the way. In fact, we had someone in my state released after years on death row after DNA irrefutably proved someone else was the killer. If we rushed the cases like so many would like to see, that guy would be dead. That, to me, is unacceptable.

And look at the list I posted earlier. Those are the countries that still have capital punishment. Don't you hate seeing the US grouped in with those countries? Virtually all are in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. I don't like to suggest that we should follow a policy just because certain other countries do it... but goddamn, look at that list. All of Europe, damn near all of South America, Canada, Mexico, Australia -- they've banned capital punishment. We're on the same side as Uganda, Libya, North Korea and Iran. And that bothers me.

So, there you go. Feel free to counter with something well-reasoned, or come up with something really clever like LIE-brul mafia.

 

I am against the death penalty in all cases, on moral and religious grounds.