Death Penalty

Are you for or against the death penalty?

  • Yes, I am for it.

    Votes: 9 40.9%

  • No, I am against it.

    Votes: 7 31.8%

  • Depends on the crime/evidence

    Votes: 6 27.3%
  • Total voters
    22
  • Poll closed .
It may have been done to death, Davey, but not since I have been here. Its a topic. Conversation. Which is the point of being here, yes?

Mellow...I'd like to be the one that pulls the switch on the hangmans rope on that guy. No bullets. Too fast. I want him to suffer like that kid did. And yes..I would stand there and watch while calling him a dog as he gasps his last. Which is an insult to dogs, by the way.
 

Texas is the state that commits the atrocity of the death penalty more than any other. When they started DNA testing, they found many people on death row in that state whose DNA proved them innocent! If this happened to even ONE person, it would be a sufficient argument against the death penalty.

Abolishing this penalty doesn't mean letting hardened criminals go free. A life sentence without parole is a worse punishment, IMO. The state should be above acting out "revenge."
 
Kaya said:
It may have been done to death, Davey, but not since I have been here. Its a topic. Conversation. Which is the point of being here, yes?

Mellow...I'd like to be the one that pulls the switch on the hangmans rope on that guy. No bullets. Too fast. I want him to suffer like that kid did. And yes..I would stand there and watch while calling him a dog as he gasps his last. Which is an insult to dogs, by the way.
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Agree, crimes like that one deserve the ultimate punishment.
 

kcvet said:
back in the old days when Britians prisons were overflowing they took them to an island called Australia. and we have have plenty. some surrounded by sharks. just a thought
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Only the ones they didn't hang. Most were lesser criminals - cut purses, thieves, whores and forgers for the most part. In those days Britain and the fledgling colony of New South Wales were both in the habit of hanging men and sometimes women too but that was 200 years ago. Since then we've evolved.

The last man hanged in Australia was Ronald Ryan in 1953 and in Britain it was two men, Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen who were executed on the same day at the same time in 1964, but in separate gaols. That's 61 and 50 years respectively. So no innocent people have been executed for at least half a century in these two countries.

The last execution in Canada was the double hanging of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin on December 11, 1962. The death penalty for murder was abolished in New Zealand in 1961 and the last hanging on 18 Feb 1957 at Auckland was botched resulting in strangulation rather than a broken neck.

Most English speaking nations have abandoned the death penalty quite some time ago. Even South Africa abolished the death penalty in 1995 and Fiji in 2002. The USA is one of the very few countries in the Anglosphere that still allows it.
 
Davey, not only was the execution botched, the trial and verdict may have been too. This was a 68 year old farmer, accused of poisoning his wife.

The last execution in New Zealand: Walter Bolton, 18 February 1957

Walter Bolton was the last person to be executed in New Zealand when he was convicted of poisoning his wife Beatrice. He was hanged for her murder at Mount Eden prison. The death penalty for murder was abolished in New Zealand in 1961, and there were claims that this was due partly to the circumstances surrounding Bolton's case.

Bolton's execution raised the usual questions about the death penalty. Some people believed that capital punishment was legalised murder and that it was morally wrong to take another human's life in this way. Others opposed capital punishment on religious grounds or on the grounds that mistakes were made.

Traces of arsenic had been found in small doses in Beatrice's tea. The quantity consumed over the best part of a year was enough to kill her. Water on the Bolton's farm was tested and found to contain arsenic, and traces of arsenic were also found in Walter and one of his daughters. The defence argued that sheep dip had inadvertently got into the farm's water supply.

The prosecution's case was strengthened by evidence that Bolton had admitted to having had an affair with his wife's sister, Florence. The idea that Beatrice's death was a result of accidental poisoning lost credibility.

After deliberating for two hours and ten minutes, the jury returned a guilty verdict. When the judge asked Bolton why there was any reason he shouldn't pronounce the death sentence, Walter Bolton replied, 'I plead not guilty, sir.'

A newspaper story later claimed that Bolton's execution had gone horribly wrong. This highlighted another concern of opponents of the death penalty – that executions were cruel and inhumane. Rather than having his neck broken the instant the trapdoor opened, Bolton, allegedly, slowly strangled to death. There is, of course, no turning back after an execution if it is subsequently proven that a person was innocent of the crime – and there are some who still claim that Bolton was an innocent man. What if an innocent man had been so cruelly killed on behalf of the people of New Zealand?
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Two hours and ten minutes was all it took to proclaim him guilty. Was he condemned for poisoning his wife, or because he was shagging her sister? Too late now to go back over the evidence. Too late five minutes after he was hanged.
 
I've always been for the dealth penalty which is still alive and well in Texas where I have lived most of my life. The only thing that gives me pause is this. In the state of Texas a conviction in a court of law carries with that conviction a star for a District Attorney. A District Attorney is one of the first steps up the political ladder in Texas. A dealth conviction earns a DA a gold star. Several gold stars and the DA is automattically assured a shot at Governor or Senator or Railroad Commissioner or some other high office that earns political points. It's easy to forget that innocent men might get convicted in the pursuit of a career. It's like scoring touchdowns, only the score or the career counts. In such a climate, the innocent can lose out. I'm for the death penalty but DNA should be used to the fullest in all death case convictions.
 
The man that killed my oldest son will be getting out of prison in 2018. That is if they don't let him out earlier for good behaviour, or because of over crouding. He plead out, for twenty-five years. I still don't understand that. There were more than twenty witnesses. He shot my son in the neck, then he beat and broke all the bones in my son's face, then he stood up and kicked in the back of his SCULL. My son had no idea of who he was. He said he had been having an affair with my son wife, and he feared for his own life, if my son found out. This state of Texas let him plead out, and I still don't know why. All I can do is try to make the prisoner serve every day HE agreed to.
 
Ina said:
The man that killed my oldest son will be getting out of prison in 2018. That is if they don't let him out earlier for good behaviour, or because of over crouding. He plead out, for twenty-five years. I still don't understand that. There were more than twenty witnesses. He shot my son in the neck, then he beat and broke all the bones in my son's face, then he stood up and kicked in the back of his SCULL. My son had no idea of who he was. He said he had been having an affair with my son wife, and he feared for his own life, if my son found out. This state of Texas let him plead out, and I still don't know why. All I can do is try to make the prisoner serve every day HE agreed to.
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Even with this knowledge, and if it had ever gone to trial, and if anyone even asked me, I would have said give him life in prison. As horrific as his deeds were, he was motivated by fear. He was not a threat to the general population.
Now if he was someone who killed for profit or even a religion, and posed a continual threat to society, then the Death Penalty
should be used.
But I think the prisoners should be forced to work, and pay for his upkeep, and money should be sent to the dependents of the victim.
 
Wow Ina.

For me...if that were my kid that had his face beat in and skull shattered...I would be looking to see the guy get the same treatment..even if it meant I would get the death penalty.
 
Yes Kaya, That's what I mean. There are different types of murder, and those two girls were just caught in the early stages their insanity. You know only a very naive person would ever let them out, and back into society.
 
The world is full of naive people. They might get out. Look what happened with the two that killed that Bulger kid in Britain. They were let loose. Nobody knows where they are, or their new names they were given. Hell, the guy next door could be one of them. You know..the guy that waves to 2 year old kids.
 

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