by minimus 264 Replies latest jw friends
Only the longer hours thing, that could hurt innocent people, too.
Not really. Again, the point is that we should be sure someone is guilty before punishing them at all. The idea of putting someone in prison but giving them an easy time because they might be innocent is abhorrent. If they might be innocent, we have to let them go. If they're guilty, we should punish them accordingly. How we punish someone is a separate issue to whether we punish someone.
The Reverend Carroll Pickett, former chaplain on death row in Texas:
Ninety-five times, I personally walked a man who was sentenced to die to the death chamber in Texas. From the very first person executed by lethal injection, through 16 years of walking those eight steps from the holding cell in the death house to the impeccably clean gurney in the death chamber, I led a man - some were older, some convicted in their teens, some mentally ill, some very hardened by life and, I fully know, some who were innocent.
Each one was different. They were brought to my unit early in the morning, usually, to be held for death at midnight, so I was with them for 18 hours, and in some cases even longer if their cases went to appellate courts and stays were held until 3, 4 or 5am - or the latest which was 6.20am the next day.
More than 200 men came to the death chamber in my time as chaplain there, and of those, 95 were murdered by the state in the name of "justice", but in all reality, it was "retaliation" or "punishment" or simply "murder by law".
During those many hours I spent talking with, mostly listening to, the men who would die after midnight when needles filled with three chemicals were inserted into their bodies, there was one question that was asked by many of those waiting to die: "How can we say that killing is wrong if we continue killing in the name of the state?"
( Edinburgh Evening News, July 18, 2005, quoting The Reverend Carroll Pickett, author of Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain).
Bullshit...........no one in the States hangs people any more
Listen sweetie, it wouldn't hurt you to do a little research on you "facts".
Authorized Methods of Execution by Method (click the state to get specific information about the methods authorized)
| Method | # of executions by method since 1976 | # of states authorizing method | Jurisdictions that Authorize |
| Lethal Injection | 805 | 37* states + U.S. Military and U.S. Gov't | Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado,Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York*, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming, U.S. Military, U.S. Government * New York's death penalty was declared unconstitutional on June 24, 2004. |
| Electrocution | 152 | 10 states (Nebraska is the only state that requires electrocution) | Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, [Illinois], Kentucky, Nebraska, [Oklahoma], South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia |
| Gas Chamber | 11 | 5 states (all have lethal injection as an alternative method) | Arizona, California, Maryland, Missouri, [Wyoming] |
| Hanging | 3 | 2 states (all have lethal injection as an alternative method) | New Hampshire, Washington |
| Firing Squad | 2 | 2* states (all have lethal injection as an alternative method) | Idaho, [Oklahoma], Utah** ** Utah offers the firing squad only for inmates who chose this method prior to its elimination as an option. |
If I were sentenced to die...and was innocent...and could request the method...my wish would be...
I would want to jump off of Half Dome in Yosemite... or be strapped to the outside of the Space Shuttle during launch...
I'd also want it televised and ALL proceeds from any advertising to go to my favorite charity...
How can you find fault with that?
u/d (of the hopes he doesn't actually get his "wish" class)
Only the longer hours thing, that could hurt innocent people, too.Not really. Again, the point is that we should be sure someone is guilty before punishing them at all. The idea of putting someone in prison but giving them an easy time because they might be innocent is abhorrent. If they might be innocent, we have to let them go. If they're guilty, we should punish them accordingly. How we punish someone is a separate issue to whether we punish someone.
I agree with you again. Another idea: don't send anyone to prison who is not a violent or sexual offender. Make the thieves, etc. work to pay the victim and the government back, but not in prison.
As long as the killers are never released again then society will be safe. Executing them would make those hurt by it feel better to some degree - probably because its in line with our primitive TIT-FOR-TAT wiring, There's no real need to kill them though.However, I think a combination of FunkyDerek's and Tetra's points would make an interesting option. Make the guilty work hard just to live. The worse the crime the harder the labour and the less consideration given to them. They've lost the right to be treated humanely. But also leave a fixed rope on the ceiling of each of those murderer's cells .... much like the civilized english pirates of old who would leave someone on an isolated island with a pistol and one bullet.
They've lost the right to be treated humanely.
Agreed.
And I love the civilized pirate analogy...
u/d (of the plunder and booty class)
Sixsixsixtynine, thank you for providing that info. However, under "hangings" it says that it only does that if they can't, for whatever reason, adminster lethal injection...........how many actual condemned prisoners have been hanged since 1976?
This debate could go on forever........I noticed that you didn't make a response to my questioning about the double standard of your claim that you'd kill someone in self defense, but you don't think it's okay to execute someone who already has committed murder.
Everyone's entitled to their opinion and I don't think either side is going to convince the other that they're right..........as for me, I believe in the death penalty......if someone else doesn't, there's nothing I can do about it...........
I noticed that you didn't make a response to my questioning about the double standard of your claim that you'd kill someone in self defense, but you don't think it's okay to execute someone who already has committed murder.
I never said that, but I'll reply anyway.
That's not a double standard, self-defense and premeditated, planned killing are not the same thing.
how many actual condemned prisoners have been hanged since 1976?
Bill Bailey.............................Jan 25th 1996..........Delaware
Wesley alan Dodd.................Jan 5th 1993..........Washington
Charles Campbell..................May 27th 1994.........Washington
