Executions – Is The Bullet Better Than The Needle?

[Hush]

Executions – Is The Bullet Better Than The Needle?
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/0 ... he-needle/

Plenty of comments on this one.

A bullet to the brain stem should be quick and painless.

[poikilotrm]

The problem isn't how, it is that it is done. Cops lie far too often, and forensic labs falsify reports far too often, for us to trust them enough to kill someone.

[bakerjw]

I read another article about this the other day and was quite sickened by the comments. The ones at the end of this article are along the same lines.

I view the death penalty as being acceptable only when there is overwhelming evidence of guilt and to me it has to be overwhelming. The reason for this is that, to me, the executions of 100,000 criminals is not worth the price of the execution of one innocent and innocent people have gone to their death more than once. To read some of the comments and see the vengeful nature of people is saddening. If we take a life without compassion, then really we're no better than those that we execute.

[doubloon]

The problem isn't how, ...

Agreed.

It doesn't matter how as long as it gets the job done and it doesn't talk all day, unless it's going to be telecast with commercial breaks.

[TROOPER]

Well, two things here. First, capital punishment is only a viable option in some crimes. It has to be murder plus one other felony. Rape alone won't do it... murder alone won't do it. The most common instance of capital crime is armed robbery where someone gets killed in the process.

Then the other thing is that people complain about how long a convict stays on death row... except that this will always be a long process, because death sentences always get free appeals up to the Supreme Court. Anybody that gets tried and executed has actually been tried multiple times by different courts, each reviewing the evidence in the original. This is also why it is critical for a defense attorney to raise every conceivable question and point possible since the next "trial" won't be in person, but rather a review of the first trial.

The deck is heavily stacked against the prosecutor.

That said, there's been a sickening number of people who have been wrongfully executed.

If I had my 'druthers', then Colorado is on the right track. By relieving pressure on prison population, LEO, and the judicial system through non-issue marijuana-related convictions, I'd hope that one of the latent advantages are that more time and effort can be spent on correctly prosecuting actual crimes, instead of "Not guilty" when it should've been the opposite, or "guilty" when no such crime occurred.

[PTK]

Trooper, I logged in for the first time in months to applaud your assessment of a potential ancillary benefit of legalization of a substance in common use in CO and WA. I'll be interested to see how that works out.

[poikilotrm]

The deck is heavily stacked against the prosecutor..

You think malum se is some arcane terminology. Your understanding jurisprudential reality is tenuous at best. The deck is stacked HEAVILY in the prosecution's favor. See if you can figure out why.

[TROOPER]

The deck is heavily stacked against the prosecutor..

You think malum se is some arcane terminology. Your understanding jurisprudential reality is tenuous at best. The deck is stacked HEAVILY in the prosecution's favor. See if you can figure out why.

Whenever I click on your name to reveal your post, I always regret it.

Police are people, and people sometimes lie. That's reality. If you could prevent that from coloring most of your posts here, that would be swell.

Thanks for insulting my knowledge on a subject. No, I never said that malum in se is arcane. I never implied it was arcane. The opposite, in fact, as I made points in favor of marijuana legalization -- the very definition of law that is not malum in se, but rather malum prohibitum. You've also disregarded this quote:

That said, there's been a sickening number of people who have been wrongfully executed.

Before even trying to spit out a laundry list of benefits afforded to a defendant, there is a much simpler test that anyone can engage in. Are there more people found "not guilty" when they did it versus people found "guilty" when they're innocent?

In my field almost everyone is used to be "the smartest person in the room", and they argue and bicker over the pettiest s--t and say exactly the kinds of things you say... "Your knowledge of X is tenuous at best", and then do the same tired stunt you just did; try to force the other person to prove YOU correct.

Just because you're smart doesn't mean someone else can't be smart too. Stop being threatened by other intelligent and knowledgeable people.

[doubloon]

It's really sad when mine is the only on topic post in a thread and everybody else has derailed the thread into discussions about fixing the judicial system or the war on drugs or the fragility of the human psyche.

Get this bitch back on topic!

Bullet or needle?

[poikilotrm]

It's really sad when mine is the only on topic post in a thread and everybody else has derailed the thread into discussions about fixing the judicial system or the war on drugs or the fragility of the human psyche.

Get this bitch back on topic!

Bullet or needle?

For you? Garrotte.

[TROOPER]

It's really sad when mine is the only on topic post in a thread and everybody else has derailed the thread into discussions about fixing the judicial system or the war on drugs or the fragility of the human psyche.

Get this bitch back on topic!

Bullet or needle?

If it's one or the other, I'm good with a bullet. However, autopsies are performed on executed prisoners, and a needle is probably easier for them to work with in light of this.

[ick]

That said, there's been a sickening number of people who have been wrongfully executed.

I don't think I understand what you are saying here. Have there been a large number of executed citizens that turned out to be innocent? I am not talking about western journalists suffering a youtube beheadings, I mean in our legal process in the USA.

[doubloon]

He said "sickening" number not "large" number ... for some executing even one "innocent" can be "sickening" and not worth the risk of a death penalty.

For others allowing one murderer set free isn't worth the risk of not having a death penalty.

It's an imperfect system, some get away and some don't entirely deserve what they get.

It's really a shame that this is the only imperfection in our world that leads to unjust consequences for victims and criminals alike. I wish there were more imperfections in this world where we could concentrate our energy for more fruitful results.

ETA: The NYT says the number in this century is 25 as of 1985 ... http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/14/us/25 ... finds.html

A new study on capital punishment in the United States asserts that in this century 343 people were wrongly convicted of offenses punishable by death and that 25 were actually executed.

[TROOPER]

That said, there's been a sickening number of people who have been wrongfully executed.

I don't think I understand what you are saying here. Have there been a large number of executed citizens that turned out to be innocent? I am not talking about western journalists suffering a youtube beheadings, I mean in our legal process in the USA.

Doubloon posted the numbers, but for whatever reason I incorrectly remembered the number as upper 30s wrongfully executed. What has usually happened in those cases is that exculpatory DNA evidence contradicts "evidence" or testimony at the time of the trial. Part of what makes this frustrating is that so few cases are re-tried, so the actual number of wrongfully executed is likely higher.

My limited understanding is that it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to have someone executed which is actually more expensive than keeping them incarcerated until they die. Because of this, a good case can be made for no death penalty since there isn't an economic benefit as well as the possibility that the person may be innocent of the crime.

"Sickening" is a generic term with no number attached to it.

[eric10mm]

The problem isn't how, it is that it is done. Cops lie far too often, and forensic labs falsify reports far too often, for us to trust them enough to kill someone.

Yeah. OTOH, when there are multiple witnesses to a murder why is the perpetrator still consuming valuable air?

A length of rope is cheap, reuseable and therefore "green".

[doubloon]

...
Doubloon posted the numbers, but for whatever reason I incorrectly remembered the number as upper 30s wrongfully executed. ...

It may be by now, those numbers are from ~30 years ago.

The article also mentions for some of those convicted the "victim" eventually turned up alive. I'm not sure how many executions occurred without a body.

[bakerjw]

That said, there's been a sickening number of people who have been wrongfully executed.

I don't think I understand what you are saying here. Have there been a large number of executed citizens that turned out to be innocent? I am not talking about western journalists suffering a youtube beheadings, I mean in our legal process in the USA.

Read up on Cameron Todd Willingham. Evidence of arson, which was used at his trial, has been shown to be false by experimentation. Rick Perry had a hand in this whole affair.

But if it were me to be the on either side of the bars, I'd opt for the needle.