Hi, I was just wondering something today. Maybe some of you from the U.S. can help me out. I know that America has some states whereby Capital Punishment is carried out lawfully. However, could someone please tell me why you have to have so many methods of execution? Isn't one enough? Couldn't you "lethally inject" the to-be executed? Why make a nice range of methods, it seems to be it's making a game out of it by having so many. Or is there a system which determines who gets what? Hmm, how many actually are there? Off the top of my head I can name: Electric Chair, Injection, Hanging?, Shooting Squad?, Gas Chamber? - Do they still do the latter three? Also, would you care to share your opinions on Capital Punishment? A penny for your thoughts?
No method of execution is perfect. Since the times of Napoleon, even, man has tried to make executions more efficient and painless. (Well, most humane countries have) - lethal injections has problems in the sense that sometimes the needle comes out of the arm of the subject. Gas is very dangerous (even today) and very expensive. Electric chair, when it first was being invented and used, required 3 or 4 shocks to one guy to kill him! (This was when AC/DC generators were just coming out) Even now, electric chairs aren't always effective the first time. Other methods have their ups and downs... each state prefers their own allowable methods, depending on their stance.
Hmmm I still think with all this technology and scientific knowledge, that we can create a way of killing someone in the most painless and quickest way. However, I must say that I'm 100% totally against Capital Punishment - Just in case you were thinking that I'm Pro.
If we convict the right person 100% of the time , then maybe executions would reasonable but since we don't, I cannot see any valid reason for them essentially being pro-death penalty is being pro killing some poor soul who did nothing but was in the wrong place at the wrong time and couldn't afford a lawyer
I think every state that has capital punishment use lethal injection only with the exception of one state which still uses the electric chair (I think t is Nebraska but don't quote me on that). Hanging, firing squad, and the gas chamber are no longer used.
Every fibre of my being wants my own hands around the son of a bitch that would kill one of mine. I would feel no more remorse than putting out a fly. But, after the fact, I wouldn't have that right. I live in society, and murder is murder, however we shroud it in state ritual. Now, if I have to murder to effect the saving of my life, or the life of one of mine - then and there - I wouldn't hesitate. But once incarcerated - put them in a hole, and let them rot. This is my view.
I still think it wouldn't be reasonable. That's interesting. I try not to have hatred against murders and people similar. This is because I believe you're not born a murderer. Why should we blame people who have killed, if they are, and it's scientifically proven, not sane? I believe that someone who has killed, premeditated or not, must have had some drastic malfunction in their life, through no fault of their own. Remember, you take a baby, what is it? It's just a mass of living cells; an organism. This being will absorb everything around it, so something must have happened to him/her.
But two babies, under the same social conditioning, will not necessarily do the same thing. I will be honest, and deeply personal: I grew up under a hailstorm of violence, the kind that many offer as reasons for Killer A's nefarious actions. But I have no desire to take it out on society. In other words, I made choices along the way. I know of few circumstances where such choice, somewhere, could not have steered to a different path than murder.
I understand what you say. But, I bet the murderers have had experiences so bad that they're unable to make choices. For example, if you've had these experience from a very, very young age, and have continued to do so until your teens, how are you going to distinguish between right or wrong? Brutal Primitive tendencies will most probably be allowed to surface, compared to when they would have been subconsciously suppressed and controlled under the right environment and upbringing.
No, that's my point - "if you've had these experience from a very, very young age, and have continued to do so until your teens" - I did. I am not telling you this to blow my horn - I am saying that even under these circumstances, choices can be made. I left home at 15, finally, to sleep on the side of freeways and scratch my way back, until I ended up as an honors grad student at UC Berkeley, respected Chef, father, husband. Summer, 2001, I think it was. Irish guy visiting Andersonville, Chicago. Gets blown away on a drive by. Later turns out, this was a rite of initiation for the murderer, in order for him to enter his gang. My wife was held up at gunpoint. I stopped pukes from assaulting passengers on the "L" (they assaulted by randomly spitting in passenger's faces as the moved forward through the cars). I confronted them, one of them brandished a gun at me and wished he hadn't. On and on. I have seen a good deal. Tough times, yes - but choices. This doesn't mean I disagree with your general bent. Once incarcerated, put him away, for good. Don't murder him in state-ritual. But neither excuse his abrogation of civil life by leaning on "bad beginnings."
Actually, alot of people that murder don't even get the death penalty. It depends on the circumstance. Usually they reserve the death penalty for particularly gruesome crimes. I cannot remember all the exact details but I read about this case where this guy had lended out some kind of xbox-playstation-video game and then wanted it back. I guess the person didn't want to give it back, but the lender demanded it back. So, the borrower was in such a rage later that night he took two friends to the lenders house and killed his whole family. It was an extremely brutal murder where they killed 5 people and the familys pets, I think mainly with baseball bats. Honestly, I don't really care what kind of life they have had or if they were abused or whatever. I think for people like that I support capital punishment all the way! I think as a society we should look at trends on what factors may contribute to someone being violent and offer measures to help. But in my mind, once someone has killed a family of five, raped and murdered a little girl etc. then they have crossed a very big line and I don't care if they suffer a little while they die. That may sound harsh but that is how I feel.
Capital punishment is Draconian and I am also 100% against it. It does not work as a deterrent. Capital punishment laws in the hands of a Government that holds people in prison without a common law right to trial is a worry.
I'm torn on the Death penalty... One one hand, I see the need for it for reasons like protecting society, lowering the overall cost of our prison systems (who wants to pay the taxes to house someone who killed their loved ones??), etc. However, I also think that it is extremely horrific for the person being executed, knowing they will die, when, how. Imagine the absolute terror that person feels? Good or bad (person), it's not something we as a society should do. but again, that said... If you harmed my child, I would hunt you down and murder you slowly, painfully. I think, in a pro death penalty frame of mind that the family of the victim should have the say over if the person gets executed, how..and if so inclined, be permitted to partake in the execution. like I said, I'm torn.
Brum, we have several different methods because we have several different states.. Not every state has the death penalty, not every state has several different methods. Some states still have things like firing squad and hanging on the books, but they are rarely if ever used. For the most part, lethal injection seems to be the most popular. As someone who is for the death penalty, I can tell you that I personally did not like giving a prisoner the "option/choice" as some states do, and I certainly did not care for lethal injection. I assumed it was way too easy on them. However, after watching some shows on the issue, and talking to people involved in the process, I have found that lethal injection is likely the most "technically inhumane" forms of execution. That makes me all the more for it. They don't just go to sleep.... I do not believe the death penalty is a deterrent. What it does (and the reason I am for it) is it insures that the person that committed murder will NEVER be able to commit murder again. Frankly, in many cases it's not used enough.
This is a nobrainer, but wouldn't it be cheap and painless if the murder(I hope this only applies to murders of some kind) took a pill of death?
How about for little babies? Is it cool then? We know 100% they are guilty of nothing more than having selfish and irresponsible parents. Can we apply that same logic to murdered babies? So let me get it straight...killing babies for lack of personal responsibility, babies with heartbeats, with life, is cool? No crimes against anyone. Innocent as can be. But the murderer, rapist and pedophile should be kept alive at all costs? Help me understand the mentally unstable rationale that forms this backwards thinking.