Capital Punishment: Revisited

I am against the death penalty, period. While I have no *philosophical* object (a person can absolutely deserve death), I do not trust the system to administer it properly.

High Voltage wrote: Life in prison is a greater punishment for this guy.

I'm still against it.  Not because the guy didn't deserve it or because there is a lack of evidence, but as bri already said, even tight standards will allow some mistakes.  

brihard wrote: I am against the death penalty, period. While I have no *philosophical* object (a person can absolutely deserve death), I do not trust the system to administer it properly. It's tempting to try to establish tight thresholds, but every threshold risks incremental easing until eventually a mistake is made and the less learned the hard way. The hazard of executing an innocent person is too great. I will not accept trying to pick out specific, individual cases as exceptions. I also consider it wrong to execute the mentally ill, and I very much suspect that this is a factor in this case.

"Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer" - William Blackstone

Just as I'm not a fan of selective use of trying those under age in a separate juvenile court, I'm not a fan of selective use of the death penalty.

Therefore, because I don't support the death penalty in general because of its flaws as a system, I also don't support it here either, despite it seeming like a open-and-closed case.

And, as FE said, this guy will most likely spend the rest of his life in a high-security mental health facility. Which, from a strictly scientific viewpoint, being able to interview and behavior-study this guy about what in his mental state caused him to react violently will be a positive to society - if we can get clues as to how things like schizophrenia can turn into outward violence. 

oldpbnoob wrote:  In the long run, solitary confinement for 30-40 years is most likely one of the worst punishments one can get.

Edited by MeanMan - 12 January 2011 at 8:16pm

He will do 15 years in a asylum, and get out.

oldpbnoob wrote: impulse418 wrote: He will do 15 years in a asylum, and get out. Doubtful. If I heard correctly Arizona is one of the states that iwll accept insanity pleas, but the only way they leave the Psych hosptial is when they are deemed no longer "insane", at which time they are moved to a regular prison to serve out their term.  He won't see the outside of a state institution anytime in our lifetime.

Well Hinckley, who was tried under more lenient insanity laws, has only been allowed out of federal institutions recently.  That's close to 30 years, and he only gets it because he's spent decades as model psychiatric (rather than criminal) inmate.  I think he gets some number of weekends a month, during which he's allowed to visit his parents and do pretty much nothing else.


Edited by ParielIsBack - 12 January 2011 at 11:33pm