Why we should enforce the death penalty

[Catwoman]

OK depmats. If I said to you - you are free to commit a murder. You can kill anyone you like. There will be no imposed punishment, jail sentence or other penalty. Go ahead.

What would you do?

[Clodfobble]

Is it possible to carry that same point back to the risks/outweighing the benefits. If i do x, and am caught there is a 60% chance i will spend 10 years in prison vs. if i do x, and get caught i WILL be executed.

No it isn't, you missed my point. What I am saying is that statistically the statement you made does NOT hold true for human psychology. Though it may make sense, it simply isn't what people respond to--the only statistic people psychologically respond to in any meaningful way is the chance they will get caught.

[depmats]

Originally posted by Catwoman
OK depmats. If I said to you - you are free to commit a murder. You can kill anyone you like. There will be no imposed punishment, jail sentence or other penalty. Go ahead.

What would you do?

Fair question - but I haven't run into a situation yet where I would really benefit yet from someone else's death at my hands. There have been people that I would have liked to cause physical harm - but in each case I looked at what the long-term consequence would be to me. Jail? there goes my career.

I know that my view of acceptable punishment wouldn't eliminate crime. I believe it would lower crime rates though. The dead cannot cause injury to another. SOMe people will be deterred by the guarantee of severe penalty. But we would definitely thin the heard of those who do commit violent crimes. Murder and rape top my list of crimes worthy of execution... But as people have pointed out elsewhere I am just a thug.

[Perry5]

Here in the fine state of Texas,U.S.A., the death penelty works just fine.

No convicted felon excecuted by the state of Texas has ever gone on to kill again.

[Happy Monkey]

What if they were reincarnated and killed again? If you keep them in prison for a couple decades, you put that off for a while!

[Perry5]

Iff a bull had calves you wouldn't need cows.


I did not believe in reincarnation the first couple of times i was here either.

[Undertoad]

Settle down, Beavis.

[MrKite]

Originally posted by Perry5
Here in the fine state of Texas,U.S.A., the death penelty works just fine.

No convicted felon excecuted by the state of Texas has ever gone on to kill again.

Rick Halperin, president of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Texas once again is inviting the scorn and ridicule of human rights observers from throughout the United States and around the world. “We have a Court of Criminal Appeals that does not even recognize the right of death row inmates to effective legal counsel during habeas appeals,” Halperin said. “We have a parole board that does not take seriously its statutory responsibility to hold legitimate clemency hearings. We have a governor who is beginning to look like he might upstage his predecessor as the state’s executioner-in-chief. We have a flawed and broken execution system in Texas, and even more tragically, there is no political will or moral leadership from either party in the state to stop and critically examine what is happening here.” - http://www.ncadp.org/html/may7.html

Sounds like you people down in Texas have everything going right for them. Since the death penalty is a state controlled policy the national government is going to let them handle it how they want to. The national government cannot take a stance because they need to be re-elected. I believe that it is morally acceptable to take the life of someone who has taken someone elses, but I would rather have the system be flawless unlike it is today. Texas is a state that seems to be doing things the wrong way, while other states like Illinois are trying to use a more intelligible approach on the subject, but then again morals and values differ for every single person so an overall conclusion that will make everyone happy is infeasible.

[Perry5]

You are correct,there is no perfection in the Texas exsecution system,on the otherhand many convicted fellons sentenced to life in prison have gone on to kill again in prison.

(Nothing perfect about that either.)

[MrKite]

Originally posted by Perry5
You are correct,there is no perfection in the Texas exsecution system,on the otherhand many convicted fellons sentenced to life in prison have gone on to kill again in prison.

(Nothing perfect about that either.)

Well if they are killing people in prison, isn't that just making more room for different criminals to come in?

[depmats]

Originally posted by Perry5
You are correct,there is no perfection in the Texas exsecution system,on the otherhand many convicted fellons sentenced to life in prison have gone on to kill again in prison.

(Nothing perfect about that either.)

So quit wasting time and wack 'em sooner. The good news is that if they kill someone in prison... I know it won't be me.

[lumberjim]

dude, don't tempt fate like that.

[MrKite]

Who believes in fate anyway?

[depmats]

Originally posted by lumberjim
dude, don't tempt fate like that.

Thanks for the warning, but if i end up there it is my own dumbass fault.

[Perry5]

Originally posted by depmats


So quit wasting time and wack 'em sooner. The good news is that if they kill someone in prison... I know it won't be me.

Perhaps not today,but who knows when some lawyer may decide to stick his finger up your ass and turn you inside out.

To the lawyer the words ill eagle represent nothing more than a sick bird and outragious fees.