return of the electric chair

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ya got a point there

A big deterrent is always needed. If the "social reaction"/punishment to horrible crimes, especially murder, becomes something manageable, then it will happen. There's no sense of reality in thinking all humans on the entire planet will live together without -any- kind of conflict. Since death is something we can't stop from happening and is part of nature/common knowledge, permanent and removes someone's ability to be part of society, it will be used to solve even the slightest disagreement.

There's a star trek TNG episode where they visit a planet where -any- crime is punished by death and although "on tv" everyone there lives together happily without any kind of crime, the flaw is apparent in that they have no opinions of their own and are basically extremely dumb clones all doing the same thing. Which can never be the solution you hope we "social engineer" ourselves too (not to forget about how evolution -will- make us different unless we go beyond scary in manipulating -all- factors of our lives to be exactly the same.) We can't all think the same about everything, and even in such a "way beyond scary" world where the only difference in people is for example their preference of room temperature, then people will start switching it to their own, and if the punishment on breaking the agreement of how to handle this isn't harshly enough, people will keep changing it to their own preference. Causing conflict and opposition between those people.

"Bad" is relative within any society, and death/harsh punishment will always be critical part of deciding that. We have free choice to go beyond the boundaries of what "we all" think should be the limit of this free choice (besides perhaps the criminally insane who have something scientifically wrong with them (I won't go into how that is of course relative too). And the only thing we can do is look at majority opinions about the "level of offence" things people do differently gives us and punish them accordingly (or preferably not all to give as much free speech/opinion) to try to get -everyone- to stick to them.

Aren't costs mostly related to the time in history they were invented? (I'm suuureee the special drugs they use are very expensive and therefore a big reason politicians lobby to have them used). So a big boulder on the head I think would be the cheapest thing possible (beyond throwing them off a cliff and letting a law of nature do the trick or using your hands). Especially if you look for already in place ones on ridges/mountains. I was thinking maybe making them walk into the ocean and drown themselves, but then you'd need a pointy stick to "make them" and then you may as well just use the pointy stick. And.. would it take longer and more energy and thus more "costs" to find strong enough sticks and make them pointy, and then use them, or finding "high enough" places that have "big enough" rocks that will do the trick. You'd need something to keep them in place (or good aim) but you could use it many times.

I am surprised how difficult it seems to be to kill someone. Why not just go with heroin. That couldn't be that unpleasant.
It's almost as if the beurocracy that is intended to keep the penalty humane, is actually making it less so.

Pushing them down mountains is not an options. What about people who are walking who suddenly stumble upon them? People should be able to walk around the the nature without finding dead bodies everywhere.

Drowning people would also be bad simply because people don't belong in the ocean. And the decomposition of bodies could be dangerous to the environment ( not sure about this though. )

Pointy sticks are no better than shooting. And who in their right mind would want to shove a pointy stick into someone? Whoever does it is bound to end up with severe physiological issues. I suppose one could invent a machine that does this, but someone would still have to watch to make sure everything goes to plan.

Bottom line : execution is bad. Both to the executioner, the people paying the bill, morale and, of course, the person being executed. There is no good way of doing it. And it's not a good solution.

They give dogs an overdose of morphine, and that's painless.

I'm a Democrat and a liberal and I have no problem whatsoever with the electric chair. People aren't going to it for having kittens lick their victim to death you know.

So much this. There's never just cause for a state to sanction murder. It doesn't solve anything. It doesn't bring the victims back. Maybe if this country focused more on income inequality, rehab and mental health more than prosecuting drug possessions, etc., then we would see a decreased murder rate.

this country is done. stick a fork in it. we are on borrowed time.

I agree. I studied history in college and one of my favorite subjects was the Byzantines. They took centuries to crumble and disappear, but their power and causes of decline are nearly identical. I approached my professor one day and discussed my awareness of the parallels between the two states and he just shook his head and said something along the lines of "I know. It's crazy isn't it?"

The problem is that the average 'murican is too dumb or attached to crap like Duck Dynasty that they won't even know when end has occurred. Even then they'd just deny it and say "this can't happen to us. We're the greatest country ever invented. We're 'muricans!!"

or as Jefferson said, "freedom and ignorance cannot coexist."

Why do all that?

Why not just use the guillotine? Same idea- seperates you from your head- but does so even faster and cleaner than all of that.

Agree, and in general 1st world countries did away with the death penalty long ago. As far as I can make out it's only USA and Japan that still have it.
The very idea of living in a state that reserves the right to end my life under certain circumstances (some of which could be disputed/mistaken/errors) is just plain scary.

Looking in from the outside I agree. It's inevitable.
But then I'd argue it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing for America. Being the top dog and having the most power doesn't necessarily make things 'better'.

I agree. One of the things I loved about England when I lived there, is that the people/culture seemed to be more like people in their 30's (calmer and more mature), while I feel like Americans are permanently stuck in their late teens/early 20's. Obviously, this is a blanket statement and their are good and bad people in both states, yet the generalization is widely accepted worldwide.

Why not simply give condemned inmates a massive dose of heroin? -- It can be supplied readily enough from siezed evidence