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On the death penalty............ - Posted on 2006-10-12 12:55:51

The_Reverend
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Joined:
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Posts: 1078
Location:
Coventry: Why?
United Kingdom

I listened to the program "Genius" on the radio last week and a rather spiffing idea was put forward. We hold a referendum on the death penalty and, if the death penalty is reionstated, all those who voted in favour have their name entered onto a database. Now comes the clever bit; if someone is executed and later found to be innocent, a name is picked at random from the database of pro-hangers and that person is executed as a way of saying sorry to the family of the wrongly convicted person. What do you say folks?

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	On the death penalty............ - Posted on 2006-10-13 11:56:23
The_Reverend 1300cc Superstar Joined: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Posts: 1078 Location: Coventry: Why? United Kingdom	Fair points all if it were not for the fact that society spends far more locking people up than it spends in addressing the causes of crimes. Interesting point about "lawful" killings. I refer you to the point above regarding stoning adulterers to death; that's a lawful killing in that country but I doubt you would approve of it in the US. Many years ago it was lawful to kill someone for strealing to feed his/her starving children, we realised that this was wrong and changed the law. It was once lawful to hang a child for theft, we realised that this was wrong and changed the law. It is still legal in some parts of the world to hold someone in solitary confinement for many, many years while lawyers argue (at great expense) over procedural issues. One day people in these places will realise that this is wrong and change the law. Have you ever read Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast"? In it he puts forward the idea of a society where "an eye for an eye" is taken to its obvious extreme; if you club someone to death, you are clubbed to death; if it took them five hours to die, then you are kept alive for five hours (no anaesthetic). Regarding your notion that harsh punishments prevent crime do you really believe that the risk of having your hand cut off deters theft in Saudi Arabia? That beheading in public prevents murder? And isn't it true that states with the death penalty DO NOT have lower rates of murder and violent assault than those without? Bleeding heart liberals rule OK! (If that's alright with you)

	On the death penalty............ - Posted on 2006-10-13 13:31:19
bear 1300cc Superstar Joined: Friday, October 29, 2004 Posts: 5790 Location: cumbria United Kingdom	i dissaprove of the death penalty on a few points. 1) two wrongs do not make a right 2) the punishment may fit the crime but at the end of the day i would sooner the criminal was locked away forever for his crime after all that person will allways want to be free and will suffer accordingly (ian brady for instance... he wants to die but is kept alive and so his "suffering" continues.... which i think is a good thing all in all). the judicial system is far from perfect as the wrongfull conviction cases in recent years have shown..." better 10 guilty go free than one innocent put to death". DNA actually dosnt prove anything other than your dna was found at a crime scene.It is purely circumstantial. like wise with fingerprints... Even eye witness accounts can vary so much as to make them useless as evidence. And so onto the point in law that convicts, a person is convicted when there is no reasonable doubt in the evidence (summat like that anyway) but at the end of the day juries can get it wrong as can the police etc. i do however believe that life should mean life behind bars ie to the end of their natural days. at least if it becomes apparent that the convicted person is innocent they get to go free, rather than the postumous pardon from the state. lawfull killing is still a premeditated act and as such is murder. did you know that hangmen in the UK were fined one shilling (or there abouts) for every hanging they carried out....(the law required a punishment for the killing , even when at the states behest.)

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