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Two diet cokes isn't any good for a person who needs not worry about his diet. thats why its funny. actually, it isn't that funny, i just like making jokes about topics that others find completely serious.Quote:
Originally posted by station82o
how is two diet cokes any good... I'm all in favor of the guy who ordered 24 (24!!!!) tacos....
If the death penalty was actually "Get an Axe" then yeah, its barbaric. Lethal Injection is like going to sleep and not waking up. Sure there is the mental aspects of knowing your about to die, but you can chalk that up to part of the punishment.Quote:
Originally posted by diffusionx
The whole problem with the death penalty is that you are just authorizing state-sponsored murder. It's fucking Eye for an Eye, Hammurabi-era type shit. I thought we moved past this sort of thing. I mean, sure, it feels good to just say, "let 'em fry!", "cut their skull open with an axe!" and shit, but isn't that a bit barbaric? Do the people that the murderers killed get brought back to life after they are executed? Sure, the people committing the crimes are barbaric, but aren't we supposed to rise above the barbarians?
Most of the guys I viewed on that webpage were white.. But regardless of racial lines, most of these guys get numerious chances to overturn the conviction.Quote:
Originally posted by diffusionx
Besides, like anti-capital punishment people have said, how can we be so sure that nobody innocent has been executed? Studies have already shown that death penalty convictions are sharply drawn among racial lines, so who the fuck knows what is really going on? There seems to be a wave of court cases overturned thanks to new DNA evidence or what not, people have lost 10+ years of their lives in jail. But what if those people were killed? Then what? I guess it's an okay means to an end.
Its nothing to do with cost really, heck it SHOULD be more expensive, it costs more to dispose of garbage than to let it rot in your backyard.Quote:
Originally posted by diffusionx
And like Stone said, it ends up costing the state more to keep them rotting on Death Row than it does to keep them rotting away in prison. This is a good thing?
Consider it takes YEARS for the executions to happen, these guys are almost always habitial offenders who have shown NO respect for human life. Im not saying every person who commits a crime should be on death row like some people, The guy who accidently shoots the clerk in his first liqour store robbery or someone runs over a person in his car while drunk driving are a LOT different from a guy who shoots 3 women and rapes a 4 year old. The first two fucked up, and should spend some serious time in prison, the third has proved he doesn't have the basic concepts of humanity and no longer should have the right to breathe.Quote:
Originally posted by diffusionx
I used to be very much in favor of the death penalty (not in the same sort of flamebait/idiotic way that Yoshi is), now Im not... after I spent some time looking at the facts, really. It is, bottom line, a knee-jerk, barbaric, and grotesque solution to a problem that it does not fix (it doesn't act as a deterrent to crime, to the best of my knowledge - I believe crime rates are higher in states with death penalty than without) and does not accomplish anything. It's just a way for the state and the populace to feel good about themselves for a little while - it's masturbation. If the death penalty was really effective, wouldn't Texas, or China, be some sort of utopia?
Im not saying its perfect concept, I doubt ANY are. But don't totaly count it out because Bush and his ilk are a little to injection happy.
Nah... I count it out because it's racist (check it out, 140 whites, 302 minorities, and studies have shown that death penalty convictions are higher if the person is a minority), too expensive, and the justice system is far too flawed to be given the responsibility to put people to death. This is too many problems for a system that doesn't even really deter any crime.
BoBViLa, many, many studies have been done and they all show that the death penalty doesn't do much of anything in lowering crime. And yea, it is OLD cases that are getting overturned... but THEY ARE GETTING OVERTURNED, which proves the justice system is fallible, people are getting locked up for crimes they didn't commit. Have people gotten killed for crimes they didn't commit? Almost certainly. And that's the problem, dont you understand? How would you like to be wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, and then put to death, for shit you didn't do?
I mean seriously, people make fun of the justice system EVERY day for its problems. There are shitty, corrupt cops who profile and shit (big deal in NJ), the entire country is litigation-happy, odd laws that can't be enforced, the fact that all you need is money and a good lawyer to get away with anything, etc... this is the system that citizens allow to commit state-sponsored murder? Give me a break.
Like burgundy said, many in favor of the death penalty should just look at the facts. It doesn't add up. I am a conservative overall, but just like Stone, Im definitely not in favor of capital punishment.
In today's new cases, no one that gets captial punishment has been innocent.
"There are shitty, corrupt cops who profile and shit"
Corrupt cops can't impose the death penalty.
"Like burgundy said, many in favor of the death penalty should just look at the facts. "
I have. What's your point?
"140 whites, 302 minorities, and studies have shown that death penalty convictions are higher if the person is a minority"
You don't need a study to see that. A higher percentage of those that commit these acts ARE minorities. That's like saying "well damn, only 10% of professors are minorities"...well if only 10% of the QUALIFIED people for the job are minorities, then I'd say that's quite fair, wouldn't you?
BoBVila, I do believe the studies say:
White guy commits crime A.
Black guy commits crime A.
black guy's chance of getting the death penalty > white guy's chance of getting the death penalty. Is that fair to you?
Depends how they act in trial.
I never meant to suggest that death row inmates were anything but irredeemable scum of the earth.
However, that does not change the fact that the death penalty is fundamentally irreconcilable with Constitutional guarantees of due process.
Is that the best you can come up with? Give me a break.Quote:
Originally posted by BoBVila
Depends how they act in trial.
Well, that's how it is, pal. You want to get a better sentence? Get a really good lawyer and act remorseful. That's the way it is in the courts system.
Yea, because everyone can get a really good lawyer. Well, no, you can't, really only wealthy people can. Most wealthy people are white. See the problem here?
You just criticized the court system here in America. How can you give a court system which is so flawed the authority to execute people? Sounds kinda off base to me.