I think life imprisonment is harsher than the death penalty.
I'm uneasy with the taxpayer comment because we need to avoid putting a price on life.
Tell me how can you possibly see any other suitable solution for a worthless P/O/S like this? Prison? Feed him and house him the rest of his life at taxpayer expense? Rehabilitation? Please. Lew I know you oppose the death penalty, I would appreciate your 2 cents on this:
Scum
I think life imprisonment is harsher than the death penalty.
I'm uneasy with the taxpayer comment because we need to avoid putting a price on life.
You grow roses Reason, in your yard? When a plant is diseased you cut away the diseased part lest it destroy the entire plant. Someone like this has thrown away his humanity and the cost of his life is nothing. He is absolutely worthless. Send him to God and let Him/Her decide if he should burn in hell for a few centuries or send him back to try again (reincarnate)...My 2 cents.
<font color="#CC6600" size="1">[ October 02, 2008 09:45 AM: Message edited by: Beachcomber ]</font>
Another option I think should be offered to someone like this, death penalty (or to partially redeem his actions) allow him to volunteer for medical and or mental experiments too dangerous to be done to anyone else. If he survives, then lock him up for the rest of his life. But to just lock him up, no.
He has merely been charged and indicted. There has been no trial, evidence considered, or a conviction and sentence. Yet you want to kill him now. That's one reason why I'm against the death penalty - too many supporters see our constitutional due process as an aggravation that delays the result they desire.
On the last paragraph - indeed, this is why prison wardens sometimes house child molesters with cellmates who they KNOW will kill them.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I want his penalty, once the evidence proves his guilt, to be the death penalty. As in the case of John Couey who killed Jessica Lungsford here in Florida. He confessed, he took them to where he buried her ALIVE, they found his DNA on her and IN her. Yet he has a legal team defending his actions based on his "mental incapacity". Horse shit. Hang him from a tree until ALMOST dead and then bury the sack of shit alive like he did his victim, next...Originally posted by LanDroid:
He has merely been charged and indicted. There has been no trial, evidence considered, or a conviction and sentence. Yet you want to kill him now. That's one reason why I'm against the death penalty - too many supporters see our constitutional due process as an aggravation that delays the result they desire.
GL-
I've never once suggested that there aren't some heinous individuals out there who have done unspeakable things.
But, my reasons for being against the death penalty have more to do with the government (specifically the justice system) than they do the defendants.
There are basically two purposes to criminal justice, and some people believe it's either one or the other but not both- deterrence or retribution.
The death penalty is not a deterrent (well, it is, but only to the person who receives it). The presence of a cruiser in the median may deter you from speeding. But if you've reached a point in your life where you could take another human life (outside of self-defense), then you're long past deterrence having any effect on you. And besides, it's not like life in prison would be so appealing anyway.
So that leaves retribution. Which, ok, fine, I get that. Justice for the victims and what have you. Except, again, there are risks. As far as I'm concerned, the execution of an innocent person is the most unforgivable of all sins. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened, and as far as I'm concerned there is no "acceptable" loss rate.
And, if I can be closet socialist for a moment, it is entirely driven by class. There are wealthy/famous individuals who have done some pretty heinous things as well, but they need not ever worry about going on death row. The prosecutors in OJ's case weren't even asking for it, which to me didn't make sense; I mean, if OJ did what the State of California said he did, that was a heinous act worthy of capital punishment. Well, he was OJ so he wasn't going to have to think about it.
Now look, I don't favor babying these guys in prison. And I don't believe in parole or things like that (in these kinds of cases). But them away for life (assuming they receive proper due process, of course) and you've taken them out of society.
Now, I will add one final caveat, and this is where the LanD's of the world may call me out, but....in answer to your query about the worst of the worst, people like BTK and what have you....I do not believe in capital punishment. However, I will be the first to admit that accidents do happen, and sometimes it's a shame when they do but that's just life. So yes, I'm anti-capital punishment, but I do acknowledge that....accidents happen....
OK, that's better, but I still disagree mainly for a reason already stated by Lew.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">As far as I'm concerned, the execution of an innocent person is the most unforgivable of all sins. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened, and as far as I'm concerned there is no "acceptable" loss rate.
I concur with you and Lew on that last point. But I think we have a long enough due process and safeguards in place to prevent that (if done properly).
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