[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Donut: quote: Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric: Volley to you, Donut. For every case of wrongful execution you produce, I can match it with another case where a convicted criminal killed again after being released from jail. I understand your viewpoint, but I feel there IS a time and place when the Death Penalty is the only acceptable and fitting punishment. .

I think you could find many more to back up your point. But it's a completely false argument. As long as life means life the convicted 'murderer' cannot kill again. Of course if a mistake has beeen made it can be put right.

Don't forget that the executed man in my case was not a murderer! [/QUOTE]No, Donut, it is not a "false argument". Primarily because "life imprisonment" does NOT always mean "life imprisonment". Charles Manson and his followers that heinously murdered the actress and her husband back in the 60's are granted parole hearings on a regular basis (about every 3 years or so, I believe). I watched the parole hearing for one of the "young girls" that participated in the murder not long ago. She is now a woman in her 50's and an entirely different person (or so she claims). I found it was easy to feel sympathetic towards her plight of being locked away for the rest of her life....but the family of the actress will never forget the brutality of the murder she helped commit and would consider it an absolute travesty if a parole board ever DID "give in" to sympathy and let her go.

And in the rare cases of serial killers (like Ted Bundy), it is entirely logical to expect that they WOULD kill again if they ever got out..no matter how old they were. Because their homicidal tendencies are an uncontrollable desire within them.

I only support the Death Penalty for the worst offenders and I agree with Timber and Attalus that it should only be handed down when there is overwhelming evidence of thier guilt.

The prosecutors in Alabama will be seeking the Death Penalty for Eric Robert Rudolph, because he killed a security guard and permanently disfigured a nurse. He also is accused of 3 more bombings in Atlanta resulting in another death and over a hundred injuries. So it is reasonable to assume that Rudolph would plant more bombs in the future if he had the chance (provided he is found guilty in the current cases, of course).

In another case in Texas a year or so ago, a young nurse hit a homeless man on her way home from a night out on the town with her friends. The man was impaled on the windshield, but wasn't killed. The nurse drove home and left the man on the hood of her car for THREE DAYS as he lay there moaning in pain and begging for help before FINALLY bleeding to death. Is she likely to commit such an act again, if given the chance? Very Doubtful. But the extreme negligence of her actions are inexcusable. Still, I would think a life sentence would be more appropriate for her. Let her sit in a cell for the rest of her life and think about her actions every day.