Capital Punishment / Execution

Not much of a choice, really.

I don't agree with the death penalty - however, I do think that some crimes should be punished by life in prison without parole.

I have heard it suggested that prisoners could be given the choice of either spending their lives in prison or committing suicide. Not sure about that one.

Boodymum I'm sure if it was a family member I would be unable to think objectively.

MissAdventure

I don't see it as any more depraved than eating an animal.
I certainly don't think that makes me the equivalent of Myra Hindley, Ted Bundy or Albert Fish.

Hmmm... I've been vegetarian for 30 years.

I don't see it as any more depraved than eating an animal.
I certainly don't think that makes me the equivalent of Myra Hindley, Ted Bundy or Albert Fish.

Yes capital punishment is a depravity and totally immoral.

"Would those who do not agree with the death penalty feel the same, if it was one of their family who was tortured, raped, degraded and murdered, by such a fiend? "

Fallacious argument. I would not be able to forgive them, no. But if society was to give me the means to kill that person, it would make me as depraved as them.

Really interesting thread, I've come to it late.
I am against the death penalty in any form. We are not barbarians. To me it seems only to be revenge, and that's not a suitable basis for a legal system.
I don't understand the whole "tax payers expense" argument. Are we seriously saying we should kill people to save money?

For murderers, life imprisonment without all the comforts.
Never capital punishment.

I disagree with all replies to this thread.

The men and women who destroy a life, without any sense of remorse, do not deserve to live in my opinion.

Where there is absolute proof that a person is guilty, then their life should be taken too.

Would those who do not agree with the death penalty feel the same, if it was one of their family who was tortured, raped, degraded and murdered, by such a fiend?

Maybe you would never change your minds, but we are each entitled to an opinion and to air it here.

I'm afraid, having read how his victim suffered, my personal sympathy is non existent scant, but of course, it's right that people should be treated humanely.

The lethal injection has always been controversial.
There have been cases of people taking far too long to die, and I think one execution that had to be stopped and done again the next day.

"Lawyers: Autopsy suggests inmate suffered during execution"

"Lawyers trying to halt next week's federal execution of their client say an autopsy on an inmate put to death by a lethal injection last month shows he suffered “extreme pain” before he died"

ABC News Source

abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lawyers-autopsy-suggests-inmate-suffered-execution-72533323

I could never support the death penalty, cold blooded, pre meditated and state sanctioned are not the hallmarks of a civilised society and make no allowances for doubt when carrying out the final solution. That's not to say when reading about atrocious acts I haven't wished the perpetrators "to rot in hell" but I imagine I'm not alone in that feeling.

I admit many years ago I was one of the "flog em and hang em" brigade but over the years there have been so many miscarriages of justice I have done a complete about-turn.

Me too. But not just because of the miscarriages of justice. I also now think of the family of the person being put to death and wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

She was guilty, 1955 no thought was given to the state of mind
of a woman who suffered a miscarriage from being hit in the
stomach by the father of her unborn child.

I have never understood the fuss over Ruth Ellis. If you believe in the death penalty (which I don't), then she was 100% guilty, she freely admitted her guilt.

Chilling account ..

In his autobiography Albert Pierrepoint wrote

... is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree. There have been murders since the beginning of time, and we shall go on looking for deterrents until the end of time. If death were a deterrent,
I might be expected to know. It is I who have faced them last, young lads and girls, working men, grandmothers. I have been amazed to see the courage with which they take that walk into the unknown. It did not deter them then, and it had not deterred them when they committed what they were convicted for. All the men and women whom I have faced at that final moment convince me that in what I have done I have not prevented a single murder.

The trouble is realistically life never would mean life would it ?

There will always be the bleeding hearts human rights lawyers eager to take on a ‘lifer’ and appeal for their release.

Then the canny murderer would only have to convince a gullible psychiatrist that they have reformed and bingo, freedom.

How about terrorists?
Does anyone honestly believe they have a right to live, serve their sentence, then be released to carry on with their evil ideology?

Fortunately most either blow themselves up or are killed by the police, but not always.

I couldn't push the button, give the injection, drop the guillotine so I couldn't ask it of another person therefore no, I do not support the death penalty.
However I would like to see life mean life in the cases of child murder, murder of a policeman or any other cold blooded murder.

No, she shouldn't have been, but I can't see much in common between her and the likes of the Wests, and Brady.
It should be reserved for the most heinous crimes.

May I suggest anyone supports the death penalty read the
cases of Stephen Downing and Stefan Kiszko

And Ruth Ellis , should she have been hanged ?

BRADY. For goodness sake. My fingers went off on their own route there.

I can’t agree with the death penalty under any circumstances. But the oubliette does hold a certain appeal for the select few like Ian Bradley.