The Death Penalty

[KOAB]

You guys hear about the guy who killed an 8 year old because he was defending his sister from getting raped? That guy should probably die.

Put him on death row for a decade until we get 100% evidence and at least a dozen witnesses saying what he committed was a cold blooded murder.

 

[MFer]

http://www.freep.com/article/20140703/NEWS02/307030093/

This is the type of thing that gets me back on the pro-death penalty side. The problem is that no matter what happens to him, he will never know the true meaning of suffering.

 

[NoCalMike]

This is one of those issues that while I am not necessarily philosophically opposed to the idea, I also recognize that our system is way to fucked up to be relied upon to hand out the death penalty fairly and unbiased, so because of that I more times then not fall on the side of "No"

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/arizona-prison-chief-parts-of-botched-execution-went-perfectly

Wood lay dying for nearly two hours in what his lawyers said should have been a 10-minute procedure. The lawyers also said Wood was "gasping and snorting for more than an hour" during the execution.

But Ryan said that so far there was no evidence to support the "premature and erroneous conclusion" that the execution had been botched.

10 minutes...2 hours what's the difference? Doesn't sound botched at all!

 

[Incandenza]

Slowly killing someone doesn't become torture until the three-hour mark.

 

[MFer]

"Rabble rabble....the bastard deserved that and more...rabble rabble....who gives a fuck?"

 

[bps21]

Can't we just katana their heads off or something? This can't be as hard as they make it. You want a humane way to kill...because apparently that's a sentence that makes sense...put them under and choppy choppy

 

[Broward83]

Under BPS' idea, the first guy to imitate undergoing the Quickening should be made a National hero..

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

His statue should be him holding his own severed head.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/02/scalia-death-penalty_n_5756362.html

A North Carolina death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence on Tuesday was once held up by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as an example of someone who deserved to die.

When the court declined to review an unrelated death row case out of Texas in 1994, Justice Harry A. Blackmun issued a dissenting opinion arguing that capital punishment is cruel and unusual, and therefore unconstitutional.

Scalia answered back with an opinion of his own:

"For example, the case of an 11-year-old girl raped by four men and then killed by stuffing her panties down her throat," Scalia wrote in Callins v. Collins. "How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that!"

He was referring to Henry Lee McCollum, who at the time had already been on death row for 12 years. McCollum's conviction was overturned on Tuesday when DNA evidence implicated another man in the case.

McCollum had been on death row for almost 30 years.

Superior Court Judge Douglass Sasser also overturned the conviction against McCollum's half-brother, Leon Brown, who has been serving a life sentence in connection with the case.

Scalia also of course believes no innocent person has been executed in modern times despite this having been proven.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/scott-panetti-execution-activists-in-lastditch-bid-to-halt-death-of-mentally-ill-killer-in-texas-9896706.html

This week, the state of Texas intends to execute Scott Panetti, who in 1992 shot dead his mother-in-law and father-in-law in front of his estranged wife and their three-year-old daughter. That Mr Panetti, now 56, committed the murders has never been in doubt; he admitted as much at his trial in 1995, when he defended himself while dressed in a purple cowboy outfit and attempted to call more than 200 witnesses, including John F Kennedy and Jesus Christ.

Long before it became clear from his courtroom antics, Mr Panetti had been diagnosed as severely mentally ill, which is why his impending lethal injection – due to be carried out on Wednesday – is opposed by not only his lawyers and a familiar collection of human rights groups, but also by an alliance of conservatives.

Among those protesting against Mr Panetti’s death sentence are more than 50 leading evangelical Christians, seven Methodist bishops, 10 Texas state politicians and the libertarian former presidential candidate Ron Paul. Mr Paul, a former Republican congressman who once backed the death penalty, wrote last month to Rick Perry, the Texas Governor, to appeal for clemency in the Panetti case. It is thought to be the first time he has publicly opposed an execution.

When even Ron Paul is opposing an execution...

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/exonerated-after-execution-judge-tosses-teens-murder-conviction-n270176

Seventy years after South Carolina executed a 14-year-old boy so small he sat on a phone book in the electric chair, a circuit court judge threw out his murder conviction.

On Wednesday morning, Judge Carmen Mullins vacated the decision against George Stinney Jr., a black teen who was convicted of beating two young white girls to death in the small town of Alcolu in 1944.

Civil rights advocates have spent years trying to get the case reopened, arguing that Stinney's confession was coerced. At the time of his arrest, Stinney weighed just 95 pounds. Officials said Stinney had admitted beating the girls, 11 and 8 years old, with a railroad spike.

In a 2009 affidavit, Stinney's sister said she had been with him on the day of the murders and he could not have committed them.

Stinney was put on trial and then executed within three months of the killings. His trial lasted three hours, and a jury of 12 white men took 10 minutes to find him guilty.

He is often cited as the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th century. At the time of the crime, 14 was the legal age of criminal responsibility in the state.

another one for the pile.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Not specifically Death Penalty related but has to do with exonerations and prisons so I think it fits the thread:

http://gawker.com/the-more-we-look-the-more-innocent-people-we-find-in-p-1682068575/+hamilton_nolan

Six defendants who had been sentenced to death were exonerated in 2014, the most since 2009.

Do not get in trouble in Harris County.

 

[Skywarp!]

All I've noticed about this debate so far is that it's really hard to find someone who is both for abortion and the death penalty.

::Raises hand::

I guess that makes me weird. I often sit in traffic and get concerned about overpopulation (not that these two acts put a noticeable dent in that). I guess I'm a bit selfish in that regard.

 

[Skywarp!]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/arizona-prison-chief-parts-of-botched-execution-went-perfectly

Wood lay dying for nearly two hours in what his lawyers said should have been a 10-minute procedure. The lawyers also said Wood was "gasping and snorting for more than an hour" during the execution.

But Ryan said that so far there was no evidence to support the "premature and erroneous conclusion" that the execution had been botched.

10 minutes...2 hours what's the difference? Doesn't sound botched at all!

It's almost another example of the banality of evil. There are no standards or procedures in place for someone to just step in and end it if it's going awry and no one wants to make the call to violate protocol without consulting a superior because it's their job (and possible criminal charges) on the line. Even when people are suffering, no one will step outside the chain the command until all the proper documentation's been passed back and forth, like the medical and insurance industries. So, the only thing they can do is just stick to the script, even though the script ain't working here. Just keep pounding that square peg into a round hole and shrug until your supervisor tells you different. That way, your ass is covered.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

All I've noticed about this debate so far is that it's really hard to find someone who is both for abortion and the death penalty.

Death penalty doesn't help you get it in.

still as clever as ever.

I'm still firmly against the death penalty, but I wonder how many in here who are on the fence or would allow for it to be utilized in the most serious cases would want the Boston Bomber to get it. Interesting to read through old posts in here.

 

[ViciousFish]

I'm Pro-Choice and for the death penalty.

Women's bodies are their own fucking business and some people deserve to die, though I do think keeping them in prison for life is way worse.

 

[AA484]

I think in certain situations it is warranted. Obviously, there have been a lot of cases where DNA evidence has exonerated innocent men so maybe there can be some type of evidential drawing line, although that may be too ambiguous as far as men's lives are concerned. One of those things that there just isn't a good answer for.

 

[ViciousFish]

Child molester? Death.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Serial rapist? Death.

 

[tekcop]

I mean, sure, there are lots of people who don't deserve to live, but once you start deciding you get to pick and choose who gets to die, you're going to start killing innocent people. It's inevitable. My "need" for truly evil people to die doesn't surpass my fear that any one citizen of my country might be killed by the government for something he or she did not do.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

I can completely understand that. I don't think the death penalty should be reserved solely for "eye for an eye," but if there's absolutely no doubt about their guilt, as in the case with Tsarnaev or people caught on camera murdering in cold blood, then fry the bastards.

Signed,
A pro-choice liberal dickhead

 

[ViciousFish]

You'll never convince me pedophiles shouldn't just catch a bullet in the back of the head.

 

[Precious Roy]

One good thing about sending child molesters/rapists/killers to jail is that they get eaten alive in gen pop. some of those guys are probably begging for a bullet to the back of the head after a couple months inside

 

[devo]

You'll never convince me pedophiles shouldn't just catch a bullet in the back of the head.

Please tell me that you're making the silent distinction of someone actually having committed a crime and not advocating the summary execution of people with mental health problems.

 

[ViciousFish]

I can accept people have the thoughts and not act on them. It's sick but they're not technically hurting anyone.

Rape a child? Boom. Headshot.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Video evidence isnt enough on its own because it still only tells part of the story. It has a start and end point that doesn't necessarily match up with the full event and it doesn't explain motive etc. Also the Boston Bomber is guilty of the crime but the jury could still decide his brother influenced him and decide to give him life. Seems like that was his defenses plan.

The death penalty doesn't work and it is inhumane. There are always going to be some people that need to locked away for the safety of society but they don't need to be killed or tortured and its a lot less than we put in prison now. We've created a self sustaining system of abuse.

 

[Smartly Pretty]

I think it's silly to grant your government the right to possibly kill you.

 

[tekcop]

Nobody thinks they'll be the one accused (falsely or otherwise) of a crime that could sentence them do death.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Nobody ever thinks they're gonna get caught, either.