The Death Penalty

[Matt1735]

To get this discussion away from Anne Pressly's thread:

Points to consider:

• So when is the death penalty appropriate punishment?

• Should there be inmates sitting on death row for 10 or 20 years appealing every possible technicality (all at the taxpayer's expense)?

• If it's not a good method of punishment for a crime, what is a deterrent for society's worst?

Hopefully, that gets the discussion started.

 

[DemoChristian]

1) It is never an appropriate punishment in a modern society.
2) It does seem we could we could speed up the process, but I don't think it's worth risking killing innocent people to do so.
3) There is no deterrent for people who are crazy enough to kill. They obviously don't think about consequences of their actions, so there is no consequence that will stop their actions.

 

[WaylonJennings]

To get this discussion away from Anne Pressly's thread:

Points to consider:

• So when is the death penalty appropriate punishment?

• Should there be inmates sitting on death row for 10 or 20 years appealing every possible technicality (all at the taxpayer's expense)?

• If it's not a good method of punishment for a crime, what is a deterrent for society's worst?

Hopefully, that gets the discussion started.

1. Never. Unless you count an action when someone is in imminent danger - i.e. a police officer shooting and killing someone in the middle of a rampage or something along those lines.

2. I guess my answer to 1. makes No. 2 moot. Economics should not be part of this equation. We laugh about how tiny a percentage of earmarks that John McCain's "wasteful government spending" is? I can't imagine how tiny the percentage going to appeals processes is. I try not to question people's motives too often, but sometimes I feel like this argument is just a smokescreen for bloodlust. Plus, some people enjoy showing as little mercy as humanly possible. Makes them feel strong, I guess.

3. Fixing society is the answer, not harsher penalties.

Also, and I hope this doesn't come off as really, really callous, but living with some crime is the price we're always going to pay for our many freedoms. We have to, of course, minimize it. But I think that's done on the front end, through things like early childhood education, etc., not harsher penalties on the back end.

 

[Chef]

End well, it won't.

 

[WaylonJennings]

End well, it won't.

I think people have gotten better about these discussions, though. Let's see if we can take emotion out of it and have a reasoned debate.

 

[JR]

Thread 1,456 on the topic.

Most western countries resolved this issue, oh, forty or so years ago.

Every so often a politician up here will raise the subject and most people will look a the person like they just sprouted an extra head.

 

[WaylonJennings]

Thread 1,456 on the topic.

Most western countries resolved this issue, oh, forty or so years ago.

Every so often a politician up here will raise the subject and most people will look a the person like they just sprouted an extra head.

Like gun control, it's an issue that Dems are scared ****less to touch.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Thread 1,456 on the topic.

Most western countries resolved this issue, oh, forty or so years ago.

Every so often a politician up here will raise the subject and most people will look a the person like they just sprouted an extra head.

Like gun control, it's an issue that Politicians are scared ****less to touch.

fixed.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

If you kill a policeman or a child, you deserve to die.

 

[WaylonJennings]

If you kill a policeman or a child, you deserve to die.

Maybe so. Not for us to decide, though. Certainly not for the government to decide.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

If you kill a policeman or a child, you deserve to die.

Maybe so. Not for us to decide, though. Certainly not for the government to decide.

Should we flip a coin?

 

[WaylonJennings]

If you kill a policeman or a child, you deserve to die.

Maybe so. Not for us to decide, though. Certainly not for the government to decide.

Should we flip a coin?

So much for the intelligent debate I predicted.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

For cop killers or child killers...

Heads they die, tails they die painfully.

 

[Goldeaston]

If you kill a policeman or a child, you deserve to die.

Maybe so. Not for us to decide, though. Certainly not for the government to decide.

Should we flip a coin?

So much for the intelligent debate I predicted.

Did you also predict a Bengals Super Bowl victory this year?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Lions-Bengals ;D

 

[harbinger]

Few say it better than Leonard Pitts:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008308425_opin26pitts.html

From the column:

Understand: I oppose the death penalty for many reasons.

In the first place, it is biased by race: Offenders whose victims were white are more likely to be put to death than those whose victims were of some other race.

In the second place, it is biased by gender: Male offenders are more likely to be put to death than females who commit similar crimes.

In the third place, it is biased by class: Those who can afford high-priced lawyers are more likely to escape execution (paging O.J. Simpson) while those who can't are more apt to wind up in the death house.

In the fourth place, it has no deterrent effect.

In the fifth place, it is more expensive than the alternative: Life in prison without parole.

In the sixth place, it is wrong — and not just wrong, but crude, cruel and immoral. No government should arrogate unto itself the right to put its citizens to death.

But you know what? Put all those reasons aside. Because the thing that troubles me more than all of them combined, the thing that makes Davis' case an abomination, is the simple possibility, indeed, the likelihood, that we will get it, have already gotten it, flat-out wrong.

 

[DemoChristian]

For cop killers or child killers...

Heads they die, tails they die painfully.

Honest question -- why should killing a cop be any worse than killing a non-cop?

 

[spnited]

For cop killers or child killers...

Heads they die, tails they die painfully.

Why is a policeman's or child's life worth more than yours or mine?

 

[slappy4428]

It isn't. But is also shows that if the killer will kill one of them, he/she will kill anyone...

 

[DemoChristian]

It isn't. But is also shows that if the killer will kill one of them, he/she will kill anyone...

Yes, but you could argue that about any murder. Killers are killers, I think. If you are crazy enough to kill someone (unless it is self-defense), then you are crazy enough to do ANYTHING.