Prison justice

[Pop]

So you'd have little problems if the government in power, which you have been exceptionally critical of, started determining what "heinous" crimes are?

 

 

An interesting thing I found while looking around is that the studies have a disproprotionate amount of murder convicts that get executed tend to be both poor and from minorities.  People without high quality legal counsel (i.e. public defenders) tend to have juries and judges consider their crimes more worthy of execution moreso than those that can afford higher quality attorneys.

 

There's also the idea that the government serves as an example of the correct way of how things should be done.  In other words, an eye for an eye is perfectly acceptable.

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So a guy who kills a bus load of people, one at a time, methodically, and constantly screams that he'd do it again, and again, while in prison....should be kept alive, taking up tax dollars?

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Yes. I wouldn't give tax dollars to a state that used them to kill people, even murderers. Hence I don't pay taxes.

[Hell Kitty]

So a guy who kills a bus load of people, one at a time, methodically, and constantly screams that he'd do it again, and again, while in prison....should be kept alive, taking up tax dollars?

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And what about the guy who kills 1000 nuns and eats 2000 babies and sends perfume-scented letters to the victims families saying how much he enjoyed it and would do it again given the chance? Man, these anti death penalty people are practically advocating nun killing and baby eating!

[LoneWolf16]

So a guy who kills a bus load of people, one at a time, methodically, and constantly screams that he'd do it again, and again, while in prison....should be kept alive, taking up tax dollars?

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And what about the guy who kills 1000 nuns and eats 2000 babies and sends perfume-scented letters to the victims families saying how much he enjoyed it and would do it again given the chance? Man, these anti death penalty people are practically advocating nun killing and baby eating!

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Just saying, there are cases where it's just a waste to keep spending money...

[Pop]

You also have to take into consideration that this hypothetical guy is likely mentally ill, which opens up a whole other can of worms.

 

But staying a little more on topic, decreeing that committing a crime removes protection under the law is a little more Hobbesian than I'm willing to deal with. So a childkiller gets branded. What about a pickpocket, or a trespasser? We can't protect one in prison and not the other. You'll spend all day drawing an easily blurred line.

[alanschu]

I agree with Pop, that the slippery slope can work both ways.

 

 

I'm curious what the associated costs are between executing someone and having them serve a life sentence. I have heard that executions are not as cheap as people would like to believe, but I haven't found anything to substantiate that claim.

 

The thing is though, are we okay with killing people just to save on some tax dollars?

 

 

It's easy to throw out hypothetical examples too.

 

Say someone comes home, and finds a guy has broken into his house and his sexually assaulting his 7 year old daughter. In a rage, the guy goes beserk, attacks the man. Gets the child rapist in a situation where he's helpless. In the emotional state that the father is in, he kills the rapist...perhaps even in a rather painful, suffering way.

 

So we have torture, and we have murder. In the eyes of the law, I'd be surprised if he's not being executed.

 

See, wasn't that fun?

 

 

Or! We get the guy that was framed for someone's murder. And because we have people that want to speed up the appeal progress, and make executions more efficient (hey, we can save some $$$ here too!), the innocent man is executed, and he has less time to try to prove it as a result!!! (and no, DNA evidence is not infalliable. Even then, a creative person looking to frame someone could still plant DNA evidence).

 

Too bad he was a single father looking after 3 kids, and was well liked in his community!

 

 

(hint, hypothetical anecdotal examples are worthless. Unfortunately, they appeal to emotion and people are very easily swayed by them. It's why parents are now deathly afraid of letting their kids out alone, as the overrepresentation in the media gives the images that sexual predators are everywhere. I mean, he could get YOUR child. Do you want to take that chance!??!?!)

Edited October 3, 2006 by alanschu

[thepixiesrock]

Spot on Alan. Spot on.