Death Penalty

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I'm not gonna lie... I support the death penalty. As long as it is proved that the offender was not suffering (based on family history, etc) of some kind of condition that could somehow alter his reality, such as schizophrenia, the offender should be eligible to face the death penalty.

Yes and I hate how they try to dress it up as justice, when really it's just about wanting to spill blood for blood.

"Ooooh, but the death penalty protects our children!! ! The families need closure!! !" No. The families have a natural desire for revenge (most of them, some do not, look at the Amish) but the state should not give them the right to get revenge, we live in a society right? Besides forgiveness, or at least a confrontation with the killer, is as likely to provide closure as revenge if not more.

Why? Because you believe in revenge, for deterrance reasons?

Once again... yea I'm not gonna lie, for revenge. Also though considering it's a waste of money feeding someone who took another innocent life. I know it sounds morally wrong... but well that's my opinion.

I respect your opinion as long as you don't go all Dexter.

Yea no believe me I don't mean the death penalty by like sawing somebodies legs off or something =D
It should be painless... and I would argue that even American execution nowadays is still slightly inhumane.

So more just like, the way you'd kill a rabid bear? Without hate?

Yea, I guess you could say that. Most Americans hate Saddam Hussein for example, and were glad to see him die... I'm actually not American but I think that his death was taken out unfairly in that he was taunted just prior to getting hanged. I think there is something wrong with that. Execution should be a very neutral, quiet, without hate as you said process.

Oh and hanging is an awfully inhumane way to end somebodies life... especially at this point in civilization.

For violent re-offenders/ violent criminals deemed beyond reform I am for the death penalty. Keeping them alive to suffer seems petulant and expensive. Shoot them and spend the money that would have been wasted keeping them alive on education.

More to the point, like suicide by jumping off a building it is not consistently effective.

Why do we think civilization makes humanity more humane when all the evidence is to the contrary?

I don't know but I was trying to portray my support for the death penalty while keeping a somewhat neutral tone in order to not start arguments.

Well, the real issue is whether you are more interested in prevention or retribution. I think that trying to do away with the death penalty altogether, in countries that still practice it, would be as much of a wasted investment as the process of getting someone sufficiently convicted of a crime to justifiably implement the penalty.

If I were interested in doing away with the death penalty, I would do the same thing that I would do in order to reduce violent crime in general, which would be to cultivate a sense among ordinary people that violent or otherwise hurtful retribution is never the answer. It is a hollow, "wannabe" solution that ultimately leaves one feeling empty and scarred. One believes when about to commit the act of killing another being would make the pain go away, but those who do so are left bitterly bashing their fists against the ghost of an enemy they can no longer see the substance of, and they can't even look that person in the eye anymore to curse his or her existence. You can't hurt a ghost, and it has unlimited ability to hurt you.

So that's where I leave the matter hanging. It is fruitless to challenge the death penalty in a society that has not yet realized that killing is fruitless. Wherever murder is abundant, murder as a form of retribution is almost inevitable for the same reason.

hanging is a very rapid way to die. the cervical vertebra (c2) is displaced leading to complete and instantaneous bodily paralysis as well as unconsciousness that results from........ermmm hang on.
now that i think about it it may not be so humane. i am not going to edit out what i started to say.

if the body is totally paralyzed (which it is because of the disection of the spinal cord at C2), then breathing is not possible, but maybe it takes some minutes for the lack of oxygen to render one unconscious. in events like decapitation by guillotine, the sudden loss of blood pressure in the brain results in immediate loss of consciousness, but i wonder if the blood pressure in the brains of people who have had their c2's snapped by a hanging drops rapidly. i cannot see any reason why it would, so i would think it takes a few minutes for the head to lose consciousness after a successful hanging. i would welcome any speculation to the contrary because i am almost too tired to investigate the matter further.

minor quibble, although you can easily argue that at the time the USA was really controlling a puppet government in iraq, we didn't execute him - the iraqi courts did.

Only if the hangman figures the weight and slack correctly. No enough slack and the person hanged strangles to death. To much slack and it rips his head off.

ruveyn