Death Penalties - Are they ever justified?

Barclay (Dark Angel) said:
As for victims and rationality. I once thought of doing something very stupid after something very terrible happened to my family. I even tried to rationalise it. Thank god I didn't. That's the point. I would have had to live with my action/revenge for the rest of my life.
Yes, that is a very good point. In the heat of the moment it is almost impossible to see past the moment of taking revenge, and to foresee how you would actually feel afterwards. "No better" would probably be the most you could hope for.
 
CariFairy said:
Floaty wins the cleverest person on the thread award - AGAIN.

:P
When did I win??? Why wasn't I notified? More to the point, do I get a prize? :P

Warwick Bassmonkey said:
What? With a name like "floatyhippyflower"? You're shitting me. :Wink3:
Well I could be fooling you! Just because my nickname is a little on the fluffy side...
*coughdareImentionMarjorycough* :runsmile:

WB said:
Splendid idea. To cross threads again... there's currently around 10 Megawatts of potential pedalling power currently banged up in prison, and a looming energy shortage...

Now you see that is a splendid idea.
 
Warwick Bassmonkey said:
Yes, that is a very good point. In the heat of the moment it is almost impossible to see past the moment of taking revenge, and to foresee how you would actually feel afterwards. "No better" would probably be the most you could hope for.
The question for me is something that we rarely address in our society. This is the differences between reaction and proaction.

We generally react to situations in relation to what our ego drives us to do. What we need to do is to have distance from situations and to almost witness what is happening. When we have this latter perspective then we will realise that the act of ending someone's life is not the best solution. Working with people to realise that they have committed a crime and rehabilitating them is the way ahead. People are not born, IMO, inately evil and as such I see any crime that someone commits as a failing in their family structure and the environment (inc. the society) in which they live...

:ismile:
 
Most killers believe at the time of their action that it's justified. The justification probably won't make much sense to anyone else, and may not even make sense to the killer 10 minutes later. But when they make and carry out the decision to kill, they're clearly convinced. Just as we might be convinced of the rightness of killing someone who we believed had carried out certain abhorrent acts or posed a threat to people about whom we care deeply.

If we allow the government or judiciary the freedom to decide that it is, in certain cases, justifiable to kill a person, what basis do we have for trusting them to make the right decisions? Especially given the current trend towards holding trials in secret and allowing certain witnesses (generally those employed by the government) immunity from cross-examination.
 
warm hunger said:
If we allow the government or judiciary the freedom to decide that it is, in certain cases, justifiable to kill a person, what basis do we have for trusting them to make the right decisions? Especially given the current trend towards holding trials in secret and allowing certain witnesses (generally those employed by the government) immunity from cross-examination.
As Plato so eloquently put it: "Who will guard the guards?"
 
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