I can definitely look at crimes and evidence and say, “Yeah, this dude deserves to die.” However, the crime needs to be particularly heinous and the evidence overwhelming. Even then, I’m not really OK with the government killing people.
Based on how the death penalty has been used, I don’t trust society with that power. I’m opposed to the death penalty in all cases.
The verdict in this case was “life without parole”
The government shouldn’t be in the business of killing. I don’t support the death sentence for anyone, but I especially struggle with it in situation where the perpetrator was a minor.
Rehabilitation seems unlikely, so life seems like the most appropriate sentence for this person.
A few years ago I attended a discussion led by Sister Helen Prejean (the author of Dead Man Walking) - she convinced me that the death penalty should not be used on anyone, especially for young people.
I listened to an episode of Criminal where she was on. Very moving.
Ok, I thought you were speaking in general, but yeah I think “without parole” does actually mean what it sounds like it means.
In theory there is always the possibility that all prisoners will be eligible for parole somewhere down the line, but I probably won’t be alive to see that happen in the US.
take out “authorized” (whatever that means) and it happens every day.
It’s a key word for me, where authorized would mean as a society we accept it as just, or otherwise give permission via the government, etc.
societies, govts, morals come and go, but human barbarity has been constant
What are morals, governments and societies but a reflection of evolving people? We may be barbaric but we’re working on it!
i hope we evolve too but it seems like a never ending cycle. Need to change our genetic code if we really want to change.
I thought the cost of carrying out a death sentence was similar to roughly 10 years in jail. Or maybe it takes 10 years on average to execute someone thanks to all the appeals that take place.
Anyways mass shootings are starting to get out of hand. I think we should implement cruel and unusual punishment for mass shooters until this craze dies down. Cut their hands off and render them useless. I’d be pretty pissed if I got clipped in a mass shooting along with a bunch of other people only for the shooter to get to live out the rest of his/her life in jail getting 8 hours of sleep a night.
I am also in full support of executing murders regardless of mental status. I’m more hesitant to release a mentally unstable murder than just a murder
Capital punishment hasn’t been shown to have a deterring impact on crime
I say we bring it back. Plenty of people kill themselves but very few people chop their own hands off intentionally (directly or indirectly with indirectly being scrtenced to having your hands chopped off for committing murder).
Are there still countries where they do this?
I’m sure this type of punishment has little weight for heat of the moment murders/crimes but hopefully it can tamp down on these premeditated mass shootings. Because we know stricter gun control is not gonna be a thing in the US
You’re assuming that making the punishments harsher would reduce the frequency, but there have been loads of studies on the relationship between executing criminals and the propensity to commit those types of crimes and they never find any evidence that it reduced the person’s willingness to commit the crime.
I thought @BigBlackBen was advocating for cruel & unusual punishments, which isn’t necessarily capital punishment.
I’m not sure if societies that cut off your hands for stealing do have low levels of theft though. I would think it would be pretty effective if people thought they really would suffer that consequence if caught.
I’m not sure what other cruel & unusual punishments we could devise, but I’m sure creative folks can come up with some.
I think we have gone too soft on criminals in America with plea deals, lazy/overworked prosecutors, and forgiving legal system.
The paper above indicates that cruel and unusual punishment can serve as an additional deterrence especially once the life sentence limit is reached
A paper analyzing cruel and unusual punishments written by a Canadian!?
It’s a pretty econ-undergrad level argument, hinging on typical assumptions of perfectly competitive markets (full information and rational buyers/sellers)
“Consider an economic agent faced with the possibility of securing a gain, the expected
size of which depends upon the seriousness of the crime s/he is willing to commit”
I’d challenge both of those assumptions for anyone making decisions that land them at risk of capital punishment