Should we have the death penalty?

Thumperfive · Mayor Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 222

nope - there's always a chance, no matter how thin, that they could be innocent.

having said THAT, I do believe that they shouldn't get cable, weight rooms and maybe if they're good a radio in their cell. All this nice crap doesn't make them suffer at all!

Dolly · Mayor Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 247

There has just been too many mistakes for me to vote, yes.

We gave it up here in the 60's, I think. So many cases had been brought to light where the wrong person had been killed.

Saying that, I do think prisons are too cushy. Particularly over here!

Nogard · Mayor's Aide Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 130

Thumperfive, if we let all the muderers live in prisions for life, they will just help over populate a prison. What do you think will happen in 25 years from now if prisons were over populated? You think they will start letting people that do petty crimes off the hook? Would there be more petty crimes?

Dolly · Mayor Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 247

We let all our murderers live in prisons.

At least I hope they are all still there!

Shouldn't we actually be looking at what society could do to limit this violence in the first place?

Nogard · Mayor's Aide Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 130

Sometimes it's not society's fault. Look at Jack the Ripper, what made him kill. Boston strangler, what made him kill? Some times it's a mental thing. There was a lot of murderers that just have a mental problem and they ended up killing. Some of them hear voices, how you going to help someone that don't tell you they hear voices? I say we hang all the murderer and rapists and leave it as that.

Dolly · Mayor Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 247

Well, you have gone a little to the other extreme - picking out notorious serial killers, I mean.

Most murderers, in our prisons anyway, are one off jobs.
Crimes of passion, things like that.

Normal people who for whatever reason, snapped at some point.
One woman who came on a course that I was on had murdered her husband. Stabbed him with an apple corer.
Mind you that was only after she'd taken 20 years or so of beatings and the authorities had done nothing to help her.

Yes, sometimes it is societies fault. The systems we put in place, fail and fail dismally and nobody cares because it doesn't affect them directly and they can just sit in judgement.

The guy over here that shot a burglar, would by your rules, have been hung. Yet he'd been burgled that many times it had nearly driven him to distraction and the police had done nothing.

You can't afford to make such snap, ill-informed decisions. Remember, next time it could be you.

Thumperfive · Mayor Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 222

there's literally thousands of miles that are uninhabited and away from civilization - dump them all on an island and wish them the best.

but don't kill them because it's convenient!

Dolly · Mayor Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 247

Aren't we just making sweeping statements here though?

It's like me coming on here and saying all Americans are obese, loud and wear bermuda short and Hawaiian shirts.

Or you lot thinking that all the brits go around in pin stripes and bowler hats and talk like Bridget Jones. I wonder what you think the women wear?

Each case is different and sometimes the law gets it wrong. Doesn't it bother you that innocent people, like you and me, could die. Or do you think their lives are worth the sacrifice?

Nogard · Mayor's Aide Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 130

If they are willing to kill, why can't be willing to die? If a women get beat by her husband, she can always go somewhere to get away from it. There's legal things she can do. What makes her god to take another life? Doesn't the bible say "do unto others as done unto you". So if she kills some one she should be killed by the electric char. I know I sound harsh but it's true.

Dolly you said I only brought up serial killers, that's true. But what about the gang bangers that kill for the "you killed my homie thing"? Is society putting the gun in their hands and saying pull the trigger? It's we society on everything nowadays. Society is to blame because a person is made at his boss so he kills 25 people. Society is to blame because a kid gets a bad grade at school and shoots up the who school. We can't blame society on everything bad that happens.

The death penalty has been around since man. It worked in the past, it can still work now. Light up the electric chair and toast some bad people.

Dolly · Mayor Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 247

Ooh, how did I know that you were going to say she should have turned to the authorities. Laughing

Like I say, she did. No good.

And of course, you would kill the guy would shot the burglar, wouldn't you?

He was only defending his home and property and not his physical being, so really he deserved it more.

My guess is that you can relate more easily to the guy who shot the burglar - he would have had more of your sympathies because you would want to defend your own home.

If you had a daughter that was being beaten by her husband and she retaliated would it be OK to hang her?

Each case is different, and has to go on its merits.
Yes there are some truly vicious people out there - but we are given the choice to utilize humanity and to grow from it.

I don't believe in god so I can't go with the eye for an eye statement, but I don't think he condoned killing. In the bible only the bad guys killed.

Nogard · Mayor's Aide Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 130

I have a daughter and if she was beaten by a man, I would bring my daughter home. It would be that simple. I wouldn't kill the guy but I would beat the crap out of him. But if my daughter killed someone in cold blood she would have to pay for what she did.

If someone killed your best friend in cold blood, you would change your mind. I was walking down the street with my best friend. Some idiot drove by us. We he turned around and drove by again, someone hung out the passenger side and shot at us. A bullet hit my friend right in the head. Another one glazed my arm. I had to watch my best friend die over a gang initaion. Was it fair that my friend had to die at a young age? Hearing the killer tell my friends family he was sorry just didn't cut it. I wanted to see him die for killing my friend. So, after you see someone close to you die, you won't understand how I feel about the death penality.

Dolly · Mayor Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 247

I may understand a little more than you think about personal involvement.

But, you still have to stand back. No matter what.

Some people don't have dads like you to come and rescue them. Some people have bad dads.

It's why I mentioned the burglar chap. Most people can relate to him.
You can feel your temper rising and empathise with him.

He went to jail for 6 years I think. That was an abomination. People were up in arms about it, but not enough to actually do much (as usual).
To have killed him would have contradicted our very humanity.

In this case, it should have been the police that were prosecuted. Not only did they fail him, but they failed the rest of our society as well.

Thumperfive · Mayor Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 222

I think people get upset when they see these prisoners with cable, earning university degrees and the like - if life sentences were bread and water with no extras, it'd be a bit more cruel than seeing some jerk bulk up in the weight room.

Nogard · Mayor's Aide Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 130

If someone breaks into a house with a gun and the owner of the house shots them, that's fine, that's self defense. I think the cold blooded killers should be put to death. If it's self defense that understandable and should be dealt with accordingly. But most of the people that kill others and that got to prison as cold blooded killers. Take that lady that killed her children, Paula Yates, what did the children do?

Dolly · Mayor Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 247

Oh, but it's not self defence if you retaliate when getting seven bells beaten out of you - Laughing

I don't understand the comment about Paula Yates, Nogard. The only one we have over here committed suicide - she didn't kill her children. Perhaps you have a different Paula Yates in the US?

Yes, people do get upset about conditions in prisons, Thumper. We do over here.
No responsibilities and access to gyms etc.
The official line is that the punishment is the withdrawal from society. The actual stay in prison is meant to rehabilitate.
I don't think most people see it that way.