Capital Punishment

[Teejay]

I am a great believer in capital punishment (although with caning or flogging for various offenses like they have in Singapore). I believe crimes like murder and treason should be capital offenses and appeals be restricted as much as possible.

Some would say my views are cruel, but personally I do not care, I strongly believe in true equal justice instead of mercy. We need to restore faith in the law enforcement and judical system and being extremely tough on criminals, putting lots of police on the streets is the only possible way to do that.

Believe me very few innocent people, if any are executed even now, well outside dicatorships like Iran and China.

[purposefulinsanity]

Believe me very few innocent people, if any are executed even now, well outside dicatorships like Iran and China.

Do you actually have anything to support this statement or do you just believe it to be true?

Some interesting reading for you if you honestly believe that statement:

http://www.quixote.org/ej/grip/reasonabledoubt/index.html

Another interesting fact for you- By 1999, out of 23 people given the death penalty in Illinois since it was reintroduced in 1977 10 people were later released. That's almost half!
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1999/350/350p16.htm


The fact is people have lost faith in the justice system because it has proven to be corrupt time and time again.   With witness statements and confessions being coerced out of people, evidence being surpressed, poor legal representation for the defendent, etc, etc.  Until the justice system is sorted out I don't know how anyone with good conscience could support the death penelty.

[QuirkyCarla]

What about people who are executed that turn out to be innocent? :-|

[purposefulinsanity]

What about people who are executed that turn out to be innocent? :-|

Exactly- although I was simply trying to illustrate to Teejay,who believes that very few innocent people are executed, that simply being given the death penalty doesn't actually mean you are guilty, since he believes that appeals should be restricted for those convicted.

[QuirkyCarla]

True, and though being on death row would be scary, I think it would be preferable to a lifetime in prison in a way.

[McGiver]

wanna know what i think is funny?

the right to lifers (ie: anti-abortionists) are always the ones on the opposite side of the capitol punishment fence.
they always say, "an eye for an eye."




that's all.

[Teejay]

wanna know what i think is funny?

the right to lifers (ie: anti-abortionists) are always the ones on the opposite side of the capitol punishment fence.
they always say, "an eye for an eye."




that's all.

I do not see opposing abortion and supporting capital punishment as hypocritical, they can claim what did the fetuses do to get aborted apart from their mothers not wanting them, while murders being executed did kill people. IMO, I am not fond of abortion and very much for capital punishment of murders and tratiors (I do not see the point of executing people for other crimes).

[McGiver]

wanna know what i think is funny?

the right to lifers (ie: anti-abortionists) are always the ones on the opposite side of the capitol punishment fence.
they always say, "an eye for an eye."




that's all.

I do not see opposing abortion and supporting capital punishment as hypocritical, they can claim what did the fetuses do to get aborted apart from their mothers not wanting them, while murders being executed did kill people. IMO, I am not fond of abortion and very much for capital punishment of murders and tratiors (I do not see the point of executing people for other crimes).

except they call themselves right to lifers.


and the bible (their guidbook) clearly states that though shall not judge.  judgement is reserved for God.


Now, they also believing in saving as many people as possible from the damnations of hell.  because a human being judges another worthy of death and follows through with it, then the person having been put to death has little time to make right with god.
simply put, jesus walked with the lepers, tax collectors and prostitutes.
his example is that no-one was beneath saving.  why do religious fundamentalists draw a moral line in the sand and say that this type person does not deserve life.

[purposefulinsanity]

Teejay- did you not think the question I asked you about your stance was worth answering then??

[Silk]

I'm for capital punishment, but our courts need to take some more serious measures to make sure they have the right culprit. There are quite a number of death row inmates who were later released. When it's someone poor or has committed other crimes before, no one makes an effort to do a thorough investigation. If this were to change then murderers would not be sitting on death row for decades. If an investigation has been properly performed, and the murderer is guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, the person needs to be put to death right then and there. Additional money does not need to be spent on an electric chair and death by lethal injection. The person is dead either way, and it would be a hell of lot cheaper to shoot them. And then we wouldn't postpone executions for someone like the piece of work in this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Morales

[Teejay]

Teejay- did you not think the question I asked you about your stance was worth answering then??

As I said earlier even if appeals were curtailed, the number of wrongful accused people would be very little. I just have a cheaper attuite to human life than lot of others I guess. I will admit that.

[purposefulinsanity]

Teejay- did you not think the question I asked you about your stance was worth answering then??

As I said earlier even if appeals were curtailed, the number of wrongful accused people would be very little. I just have a cheaper attuite to human life than lot of others I guess. I will admit that.

Do you think that almost 50% (as was the case in the Illinois figures I quoted) of people being wrongfully convicted could be any stretch of the imagination be classed as a 'very little' amount?

[Merry Widow]

i think the most significant flaw in capital punishment is that many people who commit serious crimes are suicidal anyway; one only has to look at the recent massacres in america to see evidence of this. Ian Huntley (british serial sex offender and convicted child-killer) has also been in the news a lot recently for attempting to commit suicide.

if someone committed a serious crime against me, or someone i cared about, i would rather that person was forced to spend the rest of their life in prison (at least until they were physically incapable of posing a threat to society) than for them to be executed and not have to face the consequences of their actions.

plus, another good reason for keeping these people alive is so that psychologists can study them and work on identifying those who are prone to criminal behaviour and try to prevent them from developing in to offenders.

[duncvis]

Why are you posting here, Omega? I thought you wanted to see Intensity² shut down?

[Merry Widow]

although there are many things that i think are at fault on Intensity, there are few things that i like too.