Man found to be innocent after 17 1/2 years in prison.

[promethius9594]

I wouldn't say I am prepared to kill. I mean the world has their fair share of psychos, but have the decency to shoot them in the knee cap if they don't have a gun.

i wouldnt say that every conflict or psycho out there warrants a liscense to kill. HOWEVER, if the intent to seriously maim or kill is apparent, i would have no problem killing them to defend my life. for one reason, it makes simple sense: bad guy attacks you, you maim him, he gets out of hospital, goes to police record, gets your name and address and comes to kill you for forever ruining his (insert location of debilitating shot here). the rest of your life you are going to have to look over your shoulder for that vengeful criminal.

as to whether or not the psycho has a gun, that is irrelevant. in a life/death combat situation, you use every advantage you have without giving warning of that advantage (which would be why i said a criminal wouldnt know i had a gun until i had planted one between his eyes). its easy to say you wouldnt kill him, but what about a PCP freak, even without a gun, he's still going to just keep coming at you.

Originally posted by wellard: quote: Originally posted by Davros: It would also be helpful if the mistakes only happen in cases that don't carry a capital penalty .

LOL, but don’t forget what a deterrent to murder the death penalty has been, just look at how few people are killed in the USA , outside of the murders committed to the innocents in prison of course (thats just collatral damage) An outstanding success errr figure [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img] [/QUOTE]
This would be an most interesting observation if:
A. The Death Penalty were actually instituted int he USA, the truth of the matter is, it is hardly used at all (given as a percentage of capital crimes)
B. It takes decades between crime and punishment.

So your implied fallacy of the death penalty is just an uneducated look at the subject and not based on any real world facts.

It is a FACT that when properly applied the application of HARSH penalties do in fact lower the crime rate. There are a GREAT many countrys around the wolrd that use very HARSH penalties that have (comparativley low) crime rates. Once many many months ago I also posted on this forum an exacting list and set of statistics as to why there are inconsistancies between nations on crime and punishment....inaccurate reporting, and purposely skewed numbers used to promote various government back programs in europe and even Australia...but I am not going to try and dig them up again and instead just wish to state....You are wrong in your implications.

The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Europe and other places has yet to make a single one of them crime free.


[ 07-03-2004, 09:05 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Djinn Raffo]

Originally posted by MagiK: The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Europe and other places has yet to make a single one of them crime free. [/QB]

Was it supposed to? I thought the abolition of the death penalty was about getting rid of state sanctioned killing not reducing crime? The institution of the death penalty is supposed to reduce crime, not the other way around.

The institution of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, the United States, China, has yet to make a single one of them crime free.

Only two facts remain.

1. No person put to death for comitting a capital crime ever comitted a crime at a later date.

2. No person put to death wrongly has ever come back.

the rest is hot air....(Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and they all stink) And yet here is mine....

Edit: My opinion is that to pay for the comfortable preservation of repeat offenders in the US prison system is a sick twisted morally bankrupt way of spending a societies resources...resources that should be diverted to things like houseing the homeless, feeding the hungry and making the environment better....for productive useful members of society.



[ 07-03-2004, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Djinn Raffo]

If you want all that then maybe you should be for rethinking the War on Drugs.. as i've repeatededly heard that drug offenders make up some absurd percentage of the US prison population.

I am not sure what you mean D.R. Im not aware of any studies that say that the US any more or less drug users than any other country in particular.

However [img]smile.gif[/img] Not being a heartless SOB, I say lets make it a 3 strike...no 5 strike system...you get convicted of 5 felonies and your out...instant and immediate death sentence with no chance of appeal. [img]smile.gif[/img] THat way no one can be claimed to have been innocent when they have been put to death and the Tax Payers aren't being bled dry by scum who cannot manage to live without raping, murdering or in some other major way threatening society.

As for drug offenses most of those are misdemenors and not felonies. The felony rap is reserved for dealers and especially bad types.

[Lauren]

Originally posted by MagiK: Im pretty sure Lauren that they do...they try their best, but the limiting factors of time, budget and being human means that there WILL be mistakes made. We just have to hope that they aren't made too often.

Sometimes it would be nice if they didn't find out the truth until 15 or so years after the accused have been convicted.
Therefore most of their life wasn't wasted in jail due to one little mistake in the court.