Thread: A Little Payback At 9PM Tonight

The Supreme Court refused to hear a motion to stay the execution of John A. Muhammad, one of the D.C. snipers. Pity that they can only put him to death once. I hope that one of the states that has jurisdiction will charge the other guy with one or more of the many murders and execute him too. These people shouldn't be enjoying breathing the air they deprived so many of.

I think the death penalty is barbaric and medieval. We should not do such things. We should lock him up and put the cost burden on the taxpayers to care for his mental illness and well being. We are better people than that. We should do like the House did with healthcare and do what is best for the common good. Capitol punishment is not good for the common good and the courts should know that. It's terrible that we do not have more compassion for the rights of animals.

In all seriousness, I think he should have been hung outside in front of the courthouse immediately after the trial. His partner should have been hanging right beside him there too.

In the event folks aren't following the story:
Virginia set to execute 'Beltway sniper' - CNN.com

While I do agree that the death penalty is barbaric. I also see that it is necessary to deal with those most against living within societies rules.

I understand the arguments about deterrent and non-deterrent, but if you took the punishment out from behind closed walls and removed the dignity from it the deterrent factor would ratchet up.

I watched a report on Discovery some years ago about how death penalties are handled throughout the world. I think it was China that moves you to solitary and puts a bullet in your head and sends your family the bill for the stay in solitary and the bullet. Better still you have no idea when the bullet will come.

Good riddance.

I read about a method of execution in an 18th century Indonesian country where the condemned was delivered to the family of his victim with his hands bound behind his back and a sack tied over his head, the sack half filled with crushed hot peppers. The family would then beat the criminal about the head with sticks causing the man to inhale the pepper which would cause him to gasp for air, causing the aspiration of yet more pepper and of course, eventually his airways would swell and shut down and he'd die a very painful death. While it would be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" by today's standards, I bet that was an effective deterrent.

I remember living through that nightmare. That son of a bitch shot a child on his way to school as well as about ten others. The grip of fear that he had over us was surreal.He took away all of our freedom and sense of ourselves for a month. Everyone lived in their home afraid of leaving it. What a nightmare. I'm glad he's dead. The scumbag can sleep in hell.

To be honest, I wish we treated the murdering scumbags in the UK like this. I know all the bleeding heart liberals want to "understand" the guy, and say he had a tough life, PTSD etc etc etc...

But I dont really care. They fact is that he's a murdering criminal and he deserves what he's getting. I see no reason to offer him any compassion when he didnt extend any to his victims.

I don't know from the track record if there is an effective deterrent. You have crimes of passion where reason yields to instinct as well as calculated and dispassionate murders for a profit motive and many variations between those examples. In this case it was the profit motive.

While it is bizarre and wouldn't be believable if it had been a screenplay this guy intended to terrorize the population .... and did... with the motive of getting a ransom of a million or more IIRC.

Barbaric or not if ever a creep deserved to get his this guy is a poster child for the retributive value of the death penalty. I will truly have a sense of satisfaction at 9:01 tonight.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

The Supreme Court refused to hear a motion to stay the execution of John A. Muhammad, one of the D.C. snipers. Pity that they can only put him to death once. I hope that one of the states that has jurisdiction will charge the other guy with one or more of the many murders and execute him too. These people shouldn't be enjoying breathing the air they deprived so many of.

Payback is right Jimmy. The way I see it is he took indiscriminate shots at all of us here in DC. That equates (in my head) to a shot at my mother, girlfriend, bestfriend, uncle, my child (if I had one). The victims' family didn't deserve to live with the pain of a loss. Tonight is payback from all of us. Drinks are on me.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I don't know from the track record if there is an effective deterrent.

+1. When people commit these sorts of crimes, there is no deterrent in the world that will have an impact. You could dream up the most gruesome, cruel, painful and humiliating punishments, but it won't make one jot of difference. These things will keep happening.

In fact, when capital punishment in the England was in its heyday, the practice of being hanged, drawn and quartered was about as gruesome as you could get. But people kept committing high treason anyway. So I guess the threat of hanging followed by painful evisceration didn't really make an impact as far as a deterrent goes. Not for Guy Fawkes, anyway. (Timely topic, as we've just had Bonfire Night here in the UK!) Would this put you off? (from Hanged, drawn and quartered - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

• Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. This is one possible meaning of drawn.
• Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead (hanged).
• Disembowelled and emasculated and the genitalia and entrails burned before the condemned's eyes (this is another meaning of drawn—see the reference to the Oxford English Dictionary below)[3][4]
• The body beheaded, then divided into four parts (quartered).

So the argument for and against the death penalty lies outside the issue of deterrent, I reckon.