Death penalty

Risky behaviours arent all prohibited as there is a line between personal freedom and security. Not to mention no one excepts yourself puts you at risk if you decide to climb that cliff. You might argue that Joe Murderer knew the penalty for his crimes as well and that his death sentence is no different thant Joe Climber falling off the cliff but I find that preposterous. A state sanctioned killing is done in total cold blood. The bastard might deserve it but there is still no justification to kill someone in cold blood ever, not in my book and not in anyones I would hope. Even if I am apparently wrong.

 

The difference is that Joe Climbers death is imminent and that cliffs are not sentinent thinking creatures that can make decisions. A court and a society can think and make moral decisions.

 

Why starting this topic anyway ? It's only about stating an opinion and seeing, that there are quite different views in different parts of the world.

It should be somehow described different -> Was it good, that most European countries banned the death penalty. What do you think about China, African countries and countries in the Middle-East, which practise executions ?

Or, should Eurpean countries extradite offenders to countries, when the death-penaltiy awaits them ? My opinion is clear. Never, never, never, never, never. Or those countries promise, that they will not use the death-penalty.

 

Screw the death penalty, just give them some good ol' Singapore style prison caning. Made famous by Michael Faye.

 

BTA:

quote: It is wrong to murder, not to kill.

Why?

quote: It is justice.

Why?

 

Blessed are you if you can make your life that simple. Allright, stop thinking. Everything is taken care of. You don't have to worry about anything.

 

Hm, one more time is the fact established that people from different societies are.... people from different societies.

Back to home and capital punishment there:

Edit: Oh, yeah, by the way. If they ever bring back death penalty back to my country, I want the old, traditional way. An axe and a head in the middle of the city on the biggest place with a huge staring crowd. That was standard procedure until the 30ies.

[ June 22, 2003, 02:06: Message edited by: Yago ]

 

BTA, you didn't understand me. I did critizise your refusal to think indepently. If you'd come to the same result, okay. But I'd ask you for an explanation all the same.

 

In an ideal world i would fully support the reintroduction of a death penalty policy in Britain, provided it was only apllied to murderers. (i do not consider rape without subsequent murder to be a crime worthy of such punishment)

However, even in the relativly fair judiciary system we have over here, there is still a substantial risk of false imprisonment.
While race hate crimes are significantly smaller in number compared to America, and quite often reversed (most murders of black people are blamed on white 20-25 year old men, almost without exception). The racial prejudices, especially those to do with illegal immigrants still worm their way into the judgement of the courts.
Many of our senior judges are prejudice against one thing or another and find their way into their position through personal favour rather than actual ability. (Like the house of Lords, Britain still suffers from a great deal of class predeujudices and 'bastard feudalism').

In fact the only true way to be sure of a persons guilt before sentencing them to death is a solid, courtroom, confession. But even this is subject to 'persuasion'.

What i am trying to say is that i agree with the death penalty for murder, but i cannot agree to it being re established in a country which still holds biase to certain groups, thus lowering the certainty of actual guilt.

Same goes for Aemrica and any other country.

 

Dam, the article I found has scared myself. But I think, that the re-introduction of capital-punishment is still impossible in any western-european country, except maybe the UK. Because, and that's more a feeling, not something which is substantiated by anything I heard or read, but there are so many groups and organisations, which have pledged to never have again, what happened, that they will do anything in their power against it.

And then, to re-introduce capital-punishment, it would need a sound majority, a really sound majority, because if it wasn't so, too many people would just not co-operate, and the whole thing would remain paper-waste.

Oh, and then the churches.

 

I'm curious, are you saying that justice is tied to the law -- that what is just is what the law says?

 

I was just curious then, does that make slavery just if it is legal? Drifting but... I suppose if 'just' just is whatever the law says it is, then using 'just' in a discussion about the appropriatness of the death penalty strikes me as somewhat circular. I'm not arguing with your definition, but I suspect that in common usage 'just' means something qualitatively different.

In D&D terms, when the evil king who sets up his evil kingdom with evil regressive taxes on the poor to pay for the rich is written about, he isn't described as just.

[ June 23, 2003, 04:12: Message edited by: Laches ]

 

I knew I said I wouldn't weight in on this one anymore, but I didn't want BTA to feel all alone!

Awhile back there was a thread that asked if we could kill someone and if so what the circumstances would have to be. I said yes, if it involved protecting my 3 little girls (all under 9 years old, emotional, yes, but sill relevant).

I stand by that statement to a greater degree. If I felt that by executing some serial killer it would be the best protection for not only my little girls, but all the little girls out there, and the big people, too, then I would do it, no question. I might have nightmares and guilt, but the guilt I would feel if that killer got one of my kids -- or anyone -- and I could have stopped it? That guilt would be 1000 times worse.

Once again, I refute the statement that it is ONLY about revenge. While I don't have a problem with revenge, public safety is a large component, and some people will not rest easy until the chance of some people re-committing their crimes is at zero. Not 1 in a million, not 1 in a billion, but zero.