Thread: Shall the criminally insane be put down like a dog with rabies?

I tend to disagree with any form of death penalty because there is not yet an instant and painless way of doing it. Research done during the French revoultion (I don't know how scientific) found that the brain remains conscious for a few seconds after it is removed from the rest of the body. For this reason both beheading and hanging are not instant and painless. Then there is electrocution. By all accounts it is an incredibally painful and horrible way to die. Then with firing squads, the victim often takes up to 15 minutes to die as the heart pumps blood out of the body. Even if the shot destroys the heart the victim will still take a number of minutes to die. Shooting in the head is not viable as the intact head is used as part of the identification (have to make sure they shot the right person).
And there has recently been some legal action in the US as to weather or not leathal injection is a cruel and unusal punishment.
Then there is also the argument that if they are criminally insane they suffer from a mental illness and therefor are less culpable.

Lethal injection is painless. I don't know what is wrong with the painful way of execution anyway. I want them to have as much pain as they inflicted on their victims. The problem is that it takes too long from sentencing to execution. One appeal within two weeks then . Drunk is no excuse. Drugs is no excuse. Insane is no excuse. Serve the penalty either in prison or institution for criminally insane. If death is sentenced so be it. Let it be done.

bj

Originally Posted by 2Sharp

Lethal injection is painless. I don't know what is wrong with the painful way of execution anyway. I want them to have as much pain as they inflicted on their victims. The problem is that it takes too long from sentencing to execution. One appeal within two weeks then Drunk is no excuse. Drugs is no excuse. Insane is no excuse. Serve the penalty either in prison or institution for criminally insane. If death is sentenced so be it. Let it be done.

bj

And what about the people who got convicted only because they were black / muslim?
DNA testing has exonerated many people who got convicted for the wrong reasons.

Innocents (or at least innocent of the crime for which they were convicted) can get convicted too.
Imo it's a bit shortsighted to just say 'well, as long as it isn't me...'

Let me clarify myself. I am speaking of men like Hitler, Manson, That guy who beheaded and cannibalized his victim in Canada, these are the types I am referring to.

depends. criminally insane on it's own? no. criminally insane and convicted of a violent felony? hell yes.

i don't care how screwed up someone is, as long as they play by the rules i've got nothing against 'em. if they cross that line, however, i don't care in the slightest what's going on in their head, they've broken the law and they've got to be punished.

Originally Posted by 2Sharp

Lethal injection is painless. I don't know what is wrong with the painful way of execution anyway. I want them to have as much pain as they inflicted on their victims. The problem is that it takes too long from sentencing to execution. One appeal within two weeks then . Drunk is no excuse. Drugs is no excuse. Insane is no excuse. Serve the penalty either in prison or institution for criminally insane. If death is sentenced so be it. Let it be done.

bj

Makes you proud doesn't it And here was me thinking society had evolved past such primitive thoughts!

Steven

Originally Posted by nerobot

Makes you proud doesn't it And here was me thinking society had evolved past such privative thoughts!

Steven

i'll assume you mean primative. what's bad about primative? if such executions benefit society as a whole, are they not beneficial, and even part of the driving force BEHIND societal evolution?

Originally Posted by jockeys

i'll assume you mean primative. what's bad about primative? if such executions benefit society as a whole, are they not beneficial, and even part of the driving force BEHIND societal evolution?

Yes, I did, cheers.

I fail to see how such executions would benefit society. I'm interested to know what benefit you think it would give.

Why stop at executing these people? Why not destroy someones car if they happen to hit yours on the road? Why not execute someone who defends there home with a gun?

Steven

Originally Posted by nerobot

Yes, I did, cheers.

I fail to see how such executions would benefit society. I'm interested to know what benefit you think it would give.

Why stop at executing these people? Why not destroy someones car if they happen to hit yours on the road? Why not execute someone who defends there home with a gun?

Steven

opinions are mixed. personally, I think they are beneficial becuase they provide a post-facto example (and thus deterrent) of what happens when the social contract is broken. they let people believe in justice. with the revolving doors some prisons seems to have, it sends a mixed message to would-be criminals.

1. if someone hits me with a car on the road, it is not necessarily a criminal matter, but rather a civil one. also, such things are usually accidental. if intent can be proved, criminal charges can and have been brought against the driver. off the top of my head, i do not know if anyone has been executed in my state for aggravated assault that used a car. it wouldn't surprise me, but i don't have that information.
2. defending your home with a gun is LEGAL where i live. why would you execute someone for not breaking the law?
3. there are some crimes that can invoke the death penalty, and some that can't. that list is law, made by elected lawmakers, so it's a more or less democratically decided list, made state by state. my state has a pretty generous list of stuff you can get executed for, and people that don't like it can move to other states.

It would be hard for me to justify executing the truly criminally insane - that means they did not have the ability to tell right from wrong. Bundy, BTK, were messed up in the head, but they knew what they were doing was wrong. If someone is hallucinating, and acts in "self-defense" and kills an innocent, can you really blame them? I do think they should be locked up for good though. I don't trust the system to manage them on the outside.

Jordan