viscousmemories

I agree that there are problems with the death penalty, and in particular in how it is effected within our already completely screwed up legal system in the US.

However, to me the death penalty shouldn't be thought of as a deterrent for potential criminals or as a punishment for offenders, but as a cost effective method of removing a tumor from society.

If someone confesses to wounding a 10 year old child and stabbing a 3 year old baby to death in retribution for an argument with the childs mother, and all the evidence (including the testimony of the girl) points in that same direction, I think it would be foolish to presume that the person may still be innocent and put them somewhere (at the expense of taxpayers) for indefinite storage.

I'm not talking about an eye for an eye. I'm talking about putting down a rabid dog as opposed to keeping it chained up in your basement and feeding it until it grows old and dies naturally. Frankly, given the extremely poor quality of life people have in the prison system, I suspect those that will spend the rest of thier life behind bars would be better off dead.

Sorry to sound so cold on this issue, but I have absolutely no pity for violent people who come to a violent end.

Godbert

yes, me (I'm from Germany)

lunachick

I have a death penalty question over in MF&P, if anyone is interested.

It's here:http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...threadid=43945

BigBlue2

Yes, I support it in cases of multiple murder where guilt is established beyond any doubt.

Australian examples where the death penalty would be appropriate include cases like Martin Bryant, who was responsible for the Port Arthur shootings or Ivan Milat, the backpacker killer.

fuct_okc

Those teens must have played too many video games!

Yeah I know.. it's not a joking matter. Shame on me.

Regardless, it's completely fucked up that this kind of stuff actually happens. I've always been highly interested in the incredibly irrational thought process that goes through these peoples heads... I mean, it would be very difficult for me to stab someone even if my life was threatened. How do things go *THIS* far? I wonder.....

I'm very anti-death penalty, but in cases like these... my views tend to shift.

DarthMom

well lucky for us, you and yours don't make the law. Someone hurts a child fuck em. death isnt good enough. torture em. i want them to suffer. Instead of spending time feeling pity for the bastard who coud stab a little child to death, why don't ya think about what kind of person could do this.
hey save the tax payers money, let me at the fuckers. dont need to waste the electricity on em. Personally i believe the parents of the victims should be allowed to pull the plug.
why the hell is susan smith still alive??? my problem is that the death penalty isn't used enough.

end rant.

RoddyM

You will always have circumstances that satisfy that little pointy bit at the left hand side of the bell curve. If you have defined the circumstance in advance and then connect a person with the circumstance and have a death penalty then...

You just sit and wait. Someone "offends" and you kill'em. Are we impressed?

pz

One of the culprits in this crime is a 16 year old girl...legally, she's a child. That makes your fantasies about torturing her a bit ironic, don't you think?

I'm with Ju'iblex. The death penalty is always wrong and should never be implemented. Even if there were some magic way to guarantee that only those who 'deserved' it were punished, I'd still be against it because of the barbarism it inspires in ordinary citizens -- barbarism like that in your post.

pz

Germany? Oh, well then...that's persuasive. That's a nation that would never ever abuse any policy of state-mandated murder.

RoddyM

A sensible state would lock apparently dangerous people up until it was felt that further imprisonment would serve no purpose. It would also ensure that the conditions of imprisonment were humane, in that the only practical reason for imprisonment was to keep the person away from law abiding society.

It would definitely not deal out revenge.

I think that people who, in the comfort of their armchairs, seek peculiar revenge on peculiar offenders are fucking sicker than the offenders themselves.