Capital Punishment, for or against.... Options

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I never realized we had so many smilies that depict forms of punishment!

Ok so another boring already long and drawn out topic with little chance of being resolved on this site.... well its fight club people, pointless debate is what it's about.

Relatively simple topic, albeit a bit brutal. I am interested to know what you all think. As always I'll hold back my thoughts for awhile and see if there are any takers... Odds are I'll forget what I was thinking anyway.

This post has been edited by Acid09: Jan 15 2008, 06:53 PM

Being the bleeding heart that I am, I don't believe in the death sentence at all. While I think that there are some people who for their crimes can never safely be admitted back into the populace, even the worst criminal may come to have some kind of spiritual awakening during his imprisonment that, while not absolving him of his deeds, gives him the chance to have a clearer understanding of the consequences, both materially and spiritually.

That said, the forms of execution today - is the electric chair still used? - or at least, everything since the disbandment of beheading and hanging, seem to have been developed more as a way to distance the executioner from the task. Kind of like pretending that it's humane, when really it's not. The most human way to go is beheading. It never fails, it's fast, and in my opinion if you're going to be an executioner you should face what you are doing directly, understand it viscerally. Injection sometimes fails, paralyzing the heart and lungs so that the victim suffocates in a long and agonizing death. The Gas chamber can cause terrible brain damage, without killing the victim right away. Even when it does work it can take hours to die. The electric chair is just brutal. The reason no one cuts off heads anymore is just because of the mess. They don't want to do it humanely, 'humane' is a codeword for 'clean'.

Now, I do think that there is something that should be done about our prison system, I think a lot of people go to prison who really shouldn't be there, and who are not reformed by it. I think that accidental killings warrant lesser sentences. Pedophiles I think are not really suitable to be released, or other sex-crime offenders of a 'serial' nature - statutory rape is such a gray are in itself that half the time its a ridiculous endeavor of angry parents to 'protect' their supposedly 'innocent' children from boyfriends/girlfriends they don't like, something I've personally observed twice. But serial sex-crime offenders will in most cases continue to commit crimes when they are released, but more carefully. Some murderers i think could be reformed, but I think for that to be more effective, there needs to be better conditions, security, and counseling available in prisons. Right now honestly the conditions there can turn accidental and half-hearted criminals into very hardened and brutal people. These days, many prisons ultimately create worse criminals to release into the world. With better connections.

peace

Being the bleeding heart that I am, I don't believe in the death sentence at all.

Being the sadist that I am, I say life imprisonment! I've done research on NDE & dead talkin' mediums to know, (for the most part) the afterlife is way better than here, so let 'em rot here where it sucks!

As for experimentation, they should just ask if the inmates will want to be paid for it. The only people against freedom of choice are the greedy megalomaniacs, going for personal ego trips rather than the land of plenty that is stupidity. Lots of folks will be dumb enough to get chicken feed in exchange for legal violations of their rights.