Reason +1; NM abolishes the death penalty.Follow

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008883826_apusdeathpenalty.html





It's good to see that people are wising up to the obvious fact that the Death Penalty accomplishes nothing.

been playing FFXI too long . . .

I read that as "Notorious Monster" at first.

It may not stop people from committing crimes but at least it helps guarantee a nice room for them when they get caught.

Citing individual cases to appeal to emotion isn't much of an argument.



Oh jeeze, I can feel a 5 page thread coming on.
Maybe I can derail it into another pun thread. Those are a gas!

This is true; mostly because our judicial system takes years and years to move forward with anything. It isn't a bad thing, since we do want to make sure we put the bullet to the right head; but I freely acknowledge a great deal of streamlining is required.

That said - why is it again that the death penalty accomplishes nothing? What does letting that kind of scum live accomplish?







You're an idiot. Can you figure out why?



Edited, Mar 19th 2009 1:01am by KinleyArdal

Ummm...

Are you sure you want to go there, what with that affront to all things intelligible, and all?

I'm just going to parrot what has been said several time over in this forum. If I had the search feature I'd kindly go dig you up the citations, but perhaps someone else would be as kind.

1. Capital punishment is not more effective as a deterrent than life imprisonment. Jophiel brings the statistics up so often that I really should have the pages bookmarked by now. Even without the statistics can you see why this makes sense? Housewives angry at their cheating husbands are very rarely legal experts, they don't take the time to google "murder punishment in <state>" before they off the guy, and they probably don't care at the moment. Murderers tend to not be the most rational of people. They don't sit down doing hedonistic calculus before chainsawing a man in half.

2. Capital punishment is more expensive than life imprisonment. Again with the Jophiel and the citing. The appeals process isn't cheap. I believe the average for the state of California was around $100,000 to $200,000 more to legally kill a person than to imprison him/her for life, but don't quote me on it.

3. False positives are far more severe with capital punishment. The appeals process is so lengthy because we like to know we're getting it right when we sentence someone to death, but we still get it wrong some times. It's not fun being imprisoned for life for a crime you didn't commit, but it's even less fun dying for a crime you didn't commit. At least in the former case there is chance for new evidence to exonerate the accuse, however late it may be revealed.

4. This should be obvious, but just in case, as far safety to the public goes, capital punishment and life imprisonment are equivalent.

Edited, Mar 19th 2009 12:43am by Allegory

I'll respond in order to your points

1) Then stop thinking of it as a deterrent and start looking at is as the punishment it is intended to be.

2) If we eliminate most of the stupid-assed appeals and started hanging people in the public square again, it would be a moot point. Do it right and it's not an issue.

3) Sh;t happens.

4) It's not a public safety issue any more than it is a deterrence issue. Hang 'em high. Death by hanging is not cruel and it is only unusual because we no longer do it enough. Do it more it ceases to be unusual.

I don't understand what kind of f'ucked up world view someone has to have to believe that it's wrong to inflict the ultimate penalty on a person who deprives, intentionally or with special circumstances attached, another person of his or her life, of his or her parent, child, sibling, loved one or random fellow human being. Some things just shouldn't be tolerated.

You don't have the right.



I can't really understand the fucked up worldview of someone who has a god complex large enough to believe that you have any business owning another person's life. Punishment should never be the goal of justice.

Edited, Mar 19th 2009 4:09am by Pensive

Emotional attachment.

I'm with Pol, corperal punishment back definately at schools and Capital punishment for extreme murder cases that are beyond ANY doubt.

And contary to popular belief alot of murder cases are beyond ANY doubt, 1 trial, 1 appeal against sentances, chair in 6 months end of problem.

You can have scarlet D's if I can bring back Dunce hats and shaming of students!

If the murder is beyond doubt, the murderer will plead guilty, and will in all likelihood NOT get the death penalty. If he doesn't plead guilty, it's very rare for there to be absolutely 0 doubt.

You guys are taking the most simplified and extreme (fictional) examples and using them to define a general policy. Between Moe and his Iranian style executions and Kinley and his retarded logic, I'm glad twats like you have nothing to do with the justice system.

Seriously, if the problem was simple enough for you two to figure out, othersp would've figured it out ages ago. Pobably around the Neanderthal period.


Edited, Mar 19th 2009 12:18pm by RedPhoenixxx