Capital Punishment: Should the Death Penalty Still Exist In A 'Civilised Society'?

and in turn that's understandable, of course, just.... not to an unrealistic/unrepresentative extent, maybe?

Should point out i'd gleefully hang the little shits bouncing on the beds in the next room

xp to nv, that

Darragh, bouncing on the bed is actually mad good exercise in a word where kids have increasingly fewer outlets for (particularly state-sanctioned) exercise.

murder cases where no real doubt exists

this is always an intriguing notion, are you suggesting there should be two verdicts: guilty and totally guilty?

well yeah y'know

Of greater concern is the possibility that broadcasting executions could have a numbing effect. Douglas A. Berman, a law professor, fears that people might come to equate human executions with putting pets to sleep. Yet this seems overstated. While public indifference might result over time, the initial broadcasts would undoubtedly get attention and stir debate.

This is wrong, I think. I wish I thought well enough of people in general to think that broadcasting executions would make them think "this is barbaric," but within minutes of each execution animated gifs of "funny" jerks and twitches would be getting play all around the web, and it would further desensitize an already terrifyingly desensitized population.

if you'll excuse me now I'm off to listen to some goregrind

Lol

maybe they'd see that y'know it's not such a bad way to go tbf?

i mean the method isn't really the debate, or am i wrong there?

What's the point of a form of vengeance where one party is no longer around afterwards to see how badly he's been pwned after the act of vengeance is done?

Not really into the idea of the state taking vengeance btw, just saying capital punishment hasn't really been thought through from that POV.

Capital punishment is pretty draconian. At one time, I opposed the death penalty on pure 'oh noes don't execute innocents' grounds, which are valid, but now have just grown to detest the entire practice. It serves no function except to convince American citizens that the government killed the "monster in the closet". It doesn't clear out overcrowded prisons significantly, so that argument doesn't really work.

The problem with it as a deterrent is that a basic psychological tenet is that punishment is most effective when doled out immediately and consistently. If we all knew that if, after killing someone in pre-meditated fashion, we were arrested, we would be executed, say, in two days time, regardless of circumstance, race, socioeconomic status, etc...we might think twice. And there are some people out there who quite (erroneously) say we should do things like this.

But, that cuts into the accused's civil rights, and we know way too many people have been exonerated from Death Row to say "oh, nobody is ever wrongfully convicted of murder" with a straight face.

Likewise, the death penalty is inconsistently handed out, and much more likely to be given to a minority of low socioeconomic status. This is one major reason it doesn't work as a deterrent.

I do have a major issue with the State deciding it has the right to determine when someone lives or dies. Like, I will never bat an eyelid when the military commits a tactical strike against someone (say, Bin Laden) in the name of battle. Or when the police incarcerate someone. But the State condemning someone to death is them intervening on moral, and not punitive grounds -- after all, if the subject is incarcerated, for life or not, he/she is removed from society and therefore unable to commit said crime again.

I'm terrified that the state might execute the wrong person, so NO. Also I just think that flipping the switch corrupts people, it debases them. I think it debases a culture and a nation.

so much so that the Pixies wrote a song about it

but ya in all srsness, dudders to death penalty

La La 'Lectrocute You? xp

wouldve only made the album better imo

vengeance isn't for the person receiving it, tbf nick

I'm against the death penalty for people who are innocent, fwiw.

even pope innocent x?

x? is an unrecognised emoticon

"i'm pretty much down with vengeance as a motivator, i think? "

Where does it end then?

I'm cool with the government doling out whatever punishments make them feel good

oh yeah, exactly.

just govt after govt getting their kicks offing random citizens

even pope innocent x?

― MY WEEDS STRONG BLUD.mp3 (nakhchivan), Sunday, 31 July 2011 14:42 (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
x? is an unrecognised emoticon

― CH3C(O)N(CH3)2 (darraghmac), Sunday, 31 July 2011 14:44 (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://agaudi.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/300px-study_after_velazquezs_portrait_of_pope_innocent_x.jpg

pope innocent D:

Thread revive just in time for Guido Fawkes latest attempt to prove he's got a big cocktougher than the rest.

http://www.restorejustice.org.uk/

I imagine it's about whipping up Euroscepticism as much as it is reintroducing the death penalty.

I imagine it's about whipping up Guido Fawkes profile as much as it is reintroducing the death penalty.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/04/death-penalty-e-petition-commons

The e-petitions goes live to-day so I imagine Staines will be working hard to get his 100,000 signatures in fast.

cool, thks for link

No problem, I'm in favour of the debate. The Pro-death penalty lobby have had it their way too long.

LOL, I'm working at Amnesty International just now so I better follow the company line or else

Let the public decide, not many MP's killed, but many of the public are. YES 2 DEATH

finally the voice of that one guy who stands up and somehow manages to correlate littering w/the absence of capital punishment on question time has been heard

How about in the case of child sexual abuse?

well, at the very least you'd move them to another parish iirc

Breaking news:
* LATEST: Government's e-petitions website crashes under weight of calls for return of capital punishment. More details soon ...

Don't hurry to fix it guys plz

Perhaps not an unrelated story:

Public perception of crime higher despite falling figures, report says
Social Trends report shows two-thirds of people think crime is on rise, while statistics reveal it is at lowest level for 30 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/04/public-perception-crime-higher

I've been watching that story for a few years now. The optimist in me finds it heartening, a breath of fresh air, a godblessed relief. The other side of me is fairly confident that the reason the stats are dropping is that they are being systematically juked.

dara o'briain to thread

for example, Baltimore rape statistics between 1995 and 2009.

BREAKING NEWS 2009: Baltimore rape statistics at all time low

In other news 2009: Baltimore rake statistics at all time high

LOL

http://lilla.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Simpsons-rake-scene.png

I'll tell ya about capital punishment though. Nothing makes me suffer more than when a state's capital is not the most populous or well-known city. Portland isn't the capital of Oregon, you say? What's up with that?

I've been watching that story for a few years now. The optimist in me finds it heartening, a breath of fresh air, a godblessed relief. The other side of me is fairly confident that the reason the stats are dropping is that they are being systematically juked.

Pretty much any way you look at it crime has fallen (in most categories) but people are never going to believe they weren't safer back in the (g)olden days. I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I've spoken to people at meetings in villages where the biggest crime was someone stealing a bicycle that one time and they were still convinced they were lucky to get through the day without being murdered (I am exaggerating only slightly). If they couldn't think of examples of crime from their neighbourhood they would mention things in the news from elsewhere as if it had happened locally to back up their overwhelming belief that it was all GTHiaH. I can only assume that they actually wanted to be scared.

Capital punishment? OK, it's a pretty crap station but how come Magic and Heart FM get off scot free?

The scottish aren't allowed to listen to Heart FM?

They aren't allowed to work there

It's all been snakes and ladders, the career of Paul Coia.