Hedwig

That news story is absolutely horrible. I can't even begin to wrap my brain around being such an incurable druggie that you would harm innocent children because you were duped by their mother. One child dead and another one severely injured over a measly hundred twenty-five dollars.

I'm against the death penalty in all cases, though. So I say lock them away for the rest of their lives. Living in any society where the government has the right to take away the lives of it's citizens scares the hell out of me. Besides, killing the killer to show that killing is wrong makes absolutely no sense. All you're doing at the end of the day is victimizing one more family.

ju'iblex

lucky for whom? those of you who want to wreak needless revenge, or the innocent people who are wrongly killed?
oh thats beautiful. your passion about this subject doesnt do your argument any good. You come off just as bad as all those child killers when you advocate torture, and not only that, but killing them yourself! Is the irony of this apparent to anyone else?

and you say youre all lucky people like me arent the ones running the system. I would hate to think what would happen if i let you in to a prison.

viscousmemories

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was you that earlier referred to the "sanctity of human life", right? I think that may be the biggest point of contention between us on this issue. I am saying that I don't care if one or more innocent people dies during the enforcement of the DP, because, well, shit happens, and I don't think that human lives are sacred.

The legal system has many flaws, not the least of which is the fact that we can't be absolutely, positively, 100% sure of anything. So, we have what they call "reasonable doubt". You have to prove in a court of law, beyond a reasonable doubt, that someone did what they have been accused of doing.

You seem to be saying that this system is sufficient to determine whether or not to incarcerate someone for the rest of their life, but insufficient to determine whether or not to put someone to death. I disagree.

As a bit of a segue, I think you'll find that if you examined the criminal history of someone who has been sentenced to death, even wrongly, the majority of them are repeat violent offenders. I'm not claiming that there's research to back that up ('cause I don't know of any) but from my own personal experience I'll wager I'm right on that.

The Naked Mage

Yes, I had considered that option, but I'm afraid I concluded that the issue is no laughing matter.

viscousmemories

This is along the lines of the "Tasteless Jokes" discussion. I agree that capital punishment isn't a laughing matter, but that doesn't mean that referencing Buffy the Vampire Slayer in my argument isn't funny. It really is. Think about it.