I don't know how to feel about thisFollow

OOOO come on ... I am sure you can budget for a better hangin' then that.

I'm a fan of the death penality, not for the justice of it, but really, for the space and money factors. Off 'em quick, get the next one in his room, and lets keep the prison population down.

I don't think that someone who kills four people in cold blood is even human, so why should we treat them as such? Call me a ruthless SoB, but that's how I feel. So he saw that what he did was wrong, how lovely, good for you. Can I see your arm for a second?



We still swab their arm before we pump them full of poison. We can wash the rope after each use too.


Oh, and if we killed Hitler before he became Hitler, the great depression would have lasted much longer, Germany would have utterly collasped for WW1 repayments, and we wouldn;t have plastics, microwaves, First class airlines, and all those other goodies we got from shooting germans.

That's just brutal.

We are all still humans. Nobody is perfect. Even YOU !

Hey, I'm on your side, Lef. I was the one who pointed out that bullets were cheaper. Fender's the one who wants a cut-rate hanging to bring the rope cost down.

How about we forget the nail and just pound the bullet in with the hammer?

And yet I'd put a good chunk of money down betting that none of us have ever killed people before, let alone several.

What is prison about, anyway?

Justice? The system has given this man twenty five years of life - with a roof over his head, three meals a day, exercise, cable tv, and the chance for personal development. Prison isn't easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but I cannot help that feel his years on the inside are borne a damn bit more easily than the suffering of the families this man has harmed. He murdered four people. He founded one of the most violent street gangs in this nation. The negative impact he has had on both an individual and a societal level is phenomenal.

Even if we execute him today, the result would not be just. He's lived too long on the public dole for that. Even if we'd executed him immediately after his conviction, it may not have been just; the punishing of one for the lives of four seems weak and inconsequential.

So perhaps our system isn't about justice.


Rehabilitation? Most criminals do not rehabilitate in prison. While some do, one might question their motives (as Samira put it, it's easy to toe the line with bars and guards to help you). I appreciate that the man wrote wonderful children's novels after he murdered four people, but I don't feel his personal rehabilitation in any way should expunge or equate to the pain he has caused. The personal growth of one man cannot overshadow what he's done.

So perhaps our system isn't about rehabilitation.


Atonement? Scrap it - there can be no reckoning that will balance the scales.


I can't understand why we even bother with having a criminal justice system, or why we bother with prisons. They don't seem to fix the criminals, they don't please the victims, they're expensive and unwieldy and in all other ways a worthless endeavor.

If that's the best we can do, we're a pretty sad society.

I don't categorize myself as such. Certainly there is something that's a step up from the average Bush supporter or Moveon.org shi[/u]t eater? I don't drive an SUV and I don't plan on getting married and having kids until I am fiscally and mentally responsible enough. I am also considerably below the average debt level, meaning no debt whatsoever, actually.

I scored a 1280 on my SATs, my IQ is higher than 150, and I am a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. ***** humanity, I haven't climbed up this far just to consider myself another piece of the pile. Especially if my existence is used to make people such as yourself who lower the bar feel better about themselves.

Edited, Tue Oct 25 15:26:56 2005 by Lefein

Well, it *helps*, although fantastic wall to wall romper room love making with my beautiful, wise, and intelligent girlfriend helps too ;)

Edited, Tue Oct 25 15:29:14 2005 by Lefein

Now THERE is a punishment. I'm a 19 year old college student. I know how fuc[b][/b]king hard it is to get through to us. Imagine having to try to talk some gang members out of a gang, every 2 weeks for the rest of your life...I know there's some parents in here who know how hard it is to deal with people of my age.

I say that Jennock has a fairly good idea though. He's been through what these kids are going through. He knows what's going on in their heads, he might be able to detter them from their current path.

What gang kids really need is a good neighborhood and a decent job.

A lot of people in this thread have the attitude of "no matter what he did since." So you're saying there's NOTHING he can do that would convince you he has value to society that outweighs the value of his death?

You say he needs to be executed as a deterrent? Well what example does it show if he is executed despite rehabilitation?


I'm not saying he should be parolled or held up as a role model, I just don't see the relative value in his death.


As for the money issue, remember that the death penalty costs more than life in prison.

Do you bring the 5-year-olds, or does she?


And who wears the Mr. Do Bee costume?